Sir,—The Somaliland debate was sufficient evidence that The Hague Convention "respecting the laws and customs of war on land" is far more talked about than read. Colonel Cobbe had, it appears, complained of the defective stopping power, as against the foes whom he was encountering, of the Lee-Metford bullet. It is the old story that wounds inflicted by this bullet cannot be relied on to check the onrush of a hardy and fanatical savage, though they may ultimately result in his death. Whereupon arises, on the one hand, the demand for a more effective projectile, and, on the other hand, the cry that the proposed substitute is condemned by "the universal consent of Christendom"; or, in particular, "by the Convention of The Hague," which, as was correctly stated by Mr. Lee, prohibits only the use of arms which cause superfluous injury.
You print to-day two letters enforcing the view of the inefficiency against savages of the ordinary service bullet. Perhaps you will find space for a few words upon the question whether the employment for this purpose of a severer form of projectile, such as the Dum Dum bullet, would be a contravention of the "laws of war."
The law of the subject, as embodied in general international [095]national agreements, is to be found in four paragraphs; to which, be it observed, nothing is added by the unwritten, or customary, law of nations. Of these paragraphs, which I shall set out textually, three affirm general principles, while the fourth contains a specific prohibition. The general provisions are as follows:—
"The progress of civilisation should have the effect of alleviating as much as possible the calamities of war. The only legitimate object which States should set before themselves during war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy. For this purpose it is sufficient to disable the greatest possible number of men. This object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which would uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men or render their death inevitable. The employment of such arms would, therefore, be contrary to the laws of humanity." (St. Petersburg Declaration, 1868. Preamble.)
"The right of belligerents to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited." (Hague Règlement, Art. 22.)
"Besides the prohibitions provided by special conventions [the Declaration of St. Petersburg alone answers to this description] it is in particular prohibited (e) to employ arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause superfluous injury." (Ib. Art. 23.)
The only special prohibition is that contained in the Declaration of St. Petersburg, by which the contracting parties—
"Engage mutually to renounce, in case of war among themselves, the employment by their military or naval forces of any projectile of a weight below 400 grammes which is either explosive or charged with fulminating or inflammable substances."
No one, so far as I am aware, has any wish to employ a bullet weighing less than 14 oz. which is either explosive or charged as above. So far, therefore, as the generally accepted laws of warfare are concerned, the only question as to the employment of Dum Dum or other expanding bullets is whether they "uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men, or render their death inevitable"; in other words, whether they are "of a nature to cause superfluous injury." It is, however, probable that people who glibly talk of such bullets being "prohibited by The Hague Convention" [096]are hazily reminiscent, not of the Règlement appended to that convention, but of a certain "Declaration," signed by the delegates of many of the Powers represented at The Hague in 1899, to the effect that—