_No collective penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible._ This article proclaims the principle that in no case must the innocent suffer with the guilty, nor in their place. We have already seen that our enemies oppose this idea; they maintain that the innocent should suffer with the guilty, and even that if one cannot lay hands on the guilty one may punish the innocent in their place (p. 84). It was by the application of this German principle of collective punishment that Louvain, Dinant, Termonde, and other towns were burned. The placard of 1st October, 1914, clearly displays the German mentality; it states that villages will be punished without mercy, whether guilty or not. NOTICE. On the evening of the 25th September the railway and telegraph lines were destroyed between Lovenjoul and Vestryck. In consequence of which the two localities mentioned were, on the morning of the 30th September, called to account and forced to supply hostages. In future the localities nearest the spot at which such acts have been committed--no matter whether they are guilty of complicity or not--will be punished without pity. To this end hostages have been taken from all localities adjacent to railway lines threatened by such attacks, and at the first attempt to destroy the railway lines, or telegraph or telephone wires, they will immediately be shot. Moreover, all troops charged with the protection of railways have received orders to shoot any person approaching railway lines or telephone or telegraph wires in a suspicious manner. THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL IN BELGIUM, BARON VON DER GOLTZ, _General Field-Marshal_. BRUSSELS, _1st October, 1914_. Fully to appreciate the horrible nature of this placard we must recall the fact that during the siege of Antwerp (which terminated only on the 9th) Belgium patrols were penetrating into the midst of the German troops, venturing thirty-five miles and more from Antwerp, their mission being to harass the enemy's communications and to destroy the railways and the telegraph and telephone line. It was one of these bodies of Belgian cyclists which cut the railway and telegraph line between Louvain and Tirlemont on 25th September, 1914. Von der Goltz was evidently aware that this destruction was a perfectly legitimate military operation, so that his placard was intended simply to embarrass our military authorities by showing them that in defiance of all justice Germany intended to hold the Belgian civilians responsible for the activity of our army. In short, instead of saying "no matter whether these localities are guilty of complicity or not," von der Goltz would have given a greater proof of sincerity had he said, "although I know that these localities are in no way guilty of complicity."