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Show THE LAWS OF WAR It may bo uaoful to give tho text of some of the provisions of tho Huguo Convention of 1907 with tho exceptions or reservations of tho principal belligerent Powers which slgnod them. Articlo 23 of tho Convention on tho Laws and Customs of War on Land forbids; (g) To destroy or seUo tho enemy's proporty, unloss such do atructlou or seizure bo imperatively dt nandod by tho necessities of war." Articlo 25: "Tho attack or bombardment, bombard-ment, by any means, whatovcr, of towns, villages, habitations, or buildings which aro not defended Is forbidden." (This was hold to covor projectiles from air vossols, naval or military). Articlo 28: "Tho place giving up to plllngo of a town or placo, oven when taken by nsflault, Is forbidden." Article 44: "Any compulsion on tho population of occuplod territory to furnish information about tho "irniy . of tho other belligerent, or about his means of defense, Is forbidden." i (Germany, Austria Hungary and Hue-1 sla made reservations concerning this nrtlclo). Article 45: "Any compulsion on tho population of occuplod territory to tako the oath to the hostile Power Is forbidden." Articlo 40: "Prlvato property ran not bo confiscated." Article 47: "Pillage Is formally prohibited." pro-hibited." Articlo CO: "No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwlso, can bo inflicted in-flicted on tho population on accounc of tho acts of Individuals for which It cannot bo regarded as connectlvely responsible." Article G3: "An army or occupation occupa-tion can only take possession of cush, funds, and realizable securities which are strictly tho property of tho state depots of arms, means of transport stores and supplies, and, generally, all movable property of the stato which may be used for operations of war." (Austria Hungary mado a general gen-eral reservation to tho Convention though sho signed it). Articlo 1 of tho Convention on Automatic Au-tomatic Submarine Contact Mines: "It Is forbidden (1) to lay unanchor-od unanchor-od nutomatlc contact mines, unless thoy bo so constructed as to becomo harmless ono hour at most after thoso who laid them havo lost control con-trol over them; (2) to lay nnchored automatic contact mlnos which do not becomo harmless as soon as thoy havo broken loose from tholr moorings; moor-ings; (3) to use torpedoes which do not becomo harmless when thoy havo missed tholr mark." Articlo 2: "It is forbidden to lay automatic mines of tho coasts and ports of tho enemy with tho boIo oh. ject of Intercepting commercial navigation." nav-igation." (Germany and Franco mado reservation of this article). Articlo 7 stipulates that the Convention Con-vention Is only operative if all tho belligerents aro parties to It. Hub sla Is not. Grcnt Britain, ou the other oth-er hand, only signed on tho under; standing that tho falluro to prohibit a particular act would not bo hold to debar us (Grcnt Britain) from oon testing its logltiinncy. Wo wanted tho Convention to go much further than Itdld.- This Declaration was mado by tho First IJaguo Conference and remains in forco; "Tho Contracting Parties agree to abstain from tho use of bullets Which expand or flatton oasl'' lu tho human body, ouch as bullets with a hard envelope which does not, cntlroly cqver tho coro, or la plorcod with Incisions." Alt tho states represented rep-resented at tho first conforonco signed it, except tho Unltod States. It has not been signed by thoso states which I wero represented only at tho Second I Conference. Thus all tho principal I belligerents aro .parties of tho Dp, I deration. Tho Arbitrator. M |