The apophthegm of Frederick the Great.
[66] “One makes use in war of the skin of the lion or the fox indifferently. Cunning often succeeds where force would fail; it is therefore absolutely necessary to make use of both; sometimes force can be countered by force, while on the other hand force has often to yield to cunning.”—Frederick the Great, in his General Principles of War, Art. xi.
[67] Also the pretense of false facts, as, for example, practised by Murat on November 13th, 1805, against Prince Auersperg, in order to get possession of the passage of the Danube at Florisdorf; the like stratagem which a few days later Bagration practised against Murat at Schongraben; the deceptions under cover of their word of honor practised by the French Generals against the Prussian leaders in 1806 at Prenzlau; these are stratagems which an officer in the field would scarcely dare to employ to-day without being branded by the public opinion of Europe.
[68] In the most recent times a change of opinion seems to have taken place. Bluntschli in his time holds (sec. 565) the use of the distinguishing marks of the enemy’s army—uniforms, standards, and flags—with the object of deception, to be a doubtful practise, and thinks that this kind of deception should not extend beyond the preparations for battle. “In battle the opponents should engage one another openly, and should not fall on an enemy from behind in the mask of a friend and brother in arms.” The Manual of the Institute of International Law goes further. It says in 8 (c and d): “Il est interdit d’attaquer l’ennemi en dissimulant les signes distinctifs de la force armée; d’user indûment du pavillon national, des insignes militaires ou de l’uniforme de l’ennemi.” The Declaration of Brussels altered the original proposition, “L’emploi du pavillon national ou des insignes militaires et de l’uniforme de l’ennemi est interdit” into “L’abus du pavillon national.”
[69] Cp. Boguslawski, Der kleine Krieg, 1881, pp. 26, 27.
[70] [The Hague Regulations, Art. 23, to which Germany was a party, declares it is prohibited: “To make improper use of a flag of truce, the national flag, or military ensigns and the enemy’s uniform, as well as the distinctive badges of the Geneva Convention.”—J. H. M.]
[71] [This represents the German War Book in its most disagreeable light, and is casuistry of the worst kind. There are certain things on which International Law is silent because it will not admit the possibility of their existence. As Professor Holland well puts it (The Laws of War on Land, p. 61), in reference to the subject of reprisals the Hague Conference “declined to seem to add to the authority of a practise so repulsive” by legislating on the subject. And so with assassination. It can never be presumed from the Hague or other international agreements that what is not expressly forbidden is thereby approved.]
[72] [Professor] Bluntschli, Völkerrecht, p. 316.
[73] [Professor] Lüder, Handbuch des Völkerrechts, p. 90.
[74] To judge espionage with discrimination according to motives does not seem to be feasible in war. “Whether it be a patriot who devotes himself, or a wretch who sells himself, the danger they run at the hands of the enemy will be the same. One will respect the first and despise the second, but one will shoot both.”—Quelle I, 126. This principle is very ancient. As early as 1780 a North-American court-martial condemned Major André, an Englishman, to death by hanging, and in vain did the English Generals intercede for him, in vain did he plead himself, that he be shot as a soldier.