The Prince is nob, however, content to break the Hague
Convention, which forbids the taking of hostages, but pro- ceeds tie threaten with death any person who, having obtained knowledge of a designed attack of any kind, fails to lay his knowledge at the service of the German, military authorities. " Whoever is guilty of negligence in this. respect, or gives any assistance to attacks, must expect to pay 'the death penalty." The German soldiery could not, of course, be expected to refrain from punishing an insurrectionary move- ment, but notice the use of the word "negligence." It is one which would enable a panic-stricken or vindictive officer to commit every sort of judicial murder. If a plot took place, and some prominent citizen were accused of aiding and abetting and he denied knowledge of the plot, he might then be sent to his death because in not informing himself of what was going on he was judged to be guilty of "negligence." Perhaps, however, the hostage clause is really the worst. It puts the lives of the prominent citizens who have the mis- fortune to be seized absolutely at the mercy of some lunatic or semi-lunatic, anarchist, or other desperate man who may fire at a German soldier out of what is really private revenge.
Previous page
