International Law and the World War. By J. W. Garner.
(Longmans. 2 vols. £3 12s. net.)—Professor Garner, of Illinois, in this painstaking work has reviewed the conduct of the belliger- ents in the late war from the standpoint of international law as it was understood in 1913. Eta discusses each question in detail with care and precision, and then passes judgment. Inasmuch as Germany deliberately flouted all laws, human or divine, it was extremely difficult for the Allies to observe the rules, but, as Professor Garner shows, very little fault can be found with Allied practice. The book is thus mainly a record—dispassionate and therefore all the more impressive—of Germany's crimes. We may draw attention to the chapter on the torpedoing of hospital ships, in defiance of the Hague Convention and indeed of the German Prize Code itself. The author reminds us that the Germans used a hospital ship for scouting, and then com- plained bitterly when our Navy seized the ship, which had no patients on board, and brought her into port to await the decision of the Prize Court. The question was not directly raised in the trial at Munich of a submarine commander .who,
acting under orders, torpedoed an hospital ship full of sick and wounded men. Professor Garner discusses the problem of war criminals, and points out that the beet way of deterring com- manders from giving illegal and inhuman orders—like General Stenger, who directed his men to take no prisoners—would be to hold them personally responsible. The Allies attempted to apply this salutary principle, but seem to have wearied of their task. Professor Garner concludes by saying that as a system international law was " no more destroyed by the recent war than outbreaks of crime in a community destroy the criminal law." But the remark implies the existence of a court to enforce international law, with penalties for offenders, and such a court has yet to be set up.
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