OP"
4<ay____pr
Your
"Taste Tells"
Eyes!! Consult li Ott
Johnston's
Opticians
SAUSAGES
and
Piccadilly Arcade, Perth
FRANKFURTS
NO. 3,037.
Elliott&
Tel. B7988 PERTH, THURSDAY, Al7OUST 20, 1942.
PRICE THREEPENCE
SIXTY-NINTH YEAR.
Does it pay in the long r
to Break the Rules of 'W Oare today? FRIGHTFULNESS DOES NOT BREAK A NATION THAT CAN TAKE IT How Germany Violates International Law By "IAN HAY" (Major -General John Hay Beith).
try. Our airmen always try, despite much vociferous advice from certain quarters to the contrary. But what of our enemy? To date he has killed approximately 50,000 British civilians in indiscriminate air raids, We are all in the front linemen, women, children, and babies. And we are fully prepared to accept the situation: share the soldier's perils and emulate his fortitude. We come now to the third category, the neutrals. In theory, a war between two or more countries should make no difference whatever to the liberty and security of their neighbours. These are mere spectators, and so long as they keep out of the ring, no harm should come to them. Warring troops may not pass through their territory nor planes fly over it. At sea, though, neutral shipping must beware of mines. There is an agreed rule on this subject. You may protect any part of your coast or block any part of your enemy's ports by laying a minefield; but you must proclaim its presence and exact location
What are the rules of warfare to -day? To what extent are they being observDoes it pay in the long run to ed? First let us look back break them? to a war two centuries ago.
-
At the Battle of Fontenoy, fought between the British and French, the British Guards, drawn up in readiness for the struggle to begin, found themselves facing the French Guards alOur offimost at point-blank range. cers, we are told saluted the FrenA by taking off their hats, and the sal -ate was politely returned. Lord Charles Hay, the British commander, then cried: "Gentlemen of the French Guards, fire!" to which the French commander, not to be outdone in courtesy, replied in a loud voice: "Gentlemen, we never fire first; fire yourselves!" After that both sides let fly at one another and the grim business of the day began. The answer to the first question posed in paragraph one is that theft exists an extensive and definite cede o; rules upon the subject, standardised and approved by representatives of the civilised nations assembled in peaceful council at Geneva, The Hague, and elsewhere. Previous to that, the rules of war had very largely invented themselves as Christianity ,and humanity might direct. Some of these took a strange form. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-at Fontenoy (1745), for instance-our infantry were accustomed to fire their muskets from the hip; that is to say, a man never took deliberate aim at a particular opponent; that would have made him feel like a So he murderer and not a soldier. loosed off "into the brown," Next to what extent are these rules
to the world. The mines themselves must be anchored, and must be furnished in case of a breakaway with a device which will automatically cause them to sink to the bottom, No such device is employed by the Germans to -day.
Two Ways to Make War, There are just two ways of making war. One is to let your armed forces fight it out between them, at the same time sparing non-combatants on either side as much suffering and hardship as The other way is may be possible, -well, you may remember the Ger-
being observed to -day? So far as the actual combatants are concerned there is only one guiding principle for either side, and always has been, and that is to seek out the armed forces of your enemy and destroy them. There is some slight difference of opinion, however, between Hitler and ourselves as to what methods of destruction are legitimate and what are not. The rule that you may not sink a merchant or passenger steamer without warning has been disregarded by Hitler
from the start-from the moment in fact, when he torpedoed a shipload of evacuees, largely children, in the "Athenia" upon the first day of the war. The Bomber's Problem. When we come to the non-combatants, we are confronted with a new and practically insoluble problem. The latest and most terrible engine of destruction in warfare is the bombing airplane. It is too valuable an instru-
THE SHOP FOR BETTER SERVICE. Any goods sent to country not satisfactory we pay freight. Our motto is: "We have it we will get it, or it cannot be had." ;
ment to be discarded altogether, so its use by mutual agreement is permitted so long as it confines itself to military objectives.
But how can a bomber -commander, however scrupulous, contrive to single out these objectives and these alone? In attacking railway centres or munition plants, both legitimate targets, how can he avoid killing non-combatants? The first and most obvious rejoinder must be that he can at least
man slogan of the last war-"Schrecklichkeit!"-frightfulness. That was also the slogan of Attila the Hun when he invaded Europe fifteen centuries ago, And here is Attila again, unchanged except that he now has the refinements of modern scientific research at his disposal. He calls it total war, and under that comprehensive label has invaded peaceful countries without warning or provocation; has massacred, enslaved, and tortured their inhabitants; has destroyed life at sea indiscriminately: and has rained destruction from the sky upon the homes of millions whose only crime is that they are not Boches. Well, the motive of frightfulness is Destroy a understandable enough. nation's courage and fortitude by every (Continued on Back Cover.)
-
DRAPER
E.LUISINI
215 William St.,
Registered at the G.P.O., Perth, for transmission by post as a newspaper.
Perth