Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/germanwarpractic00munriala GERMAN WAR PRACTICES PART I TREATMENT OF CIVILIANS Edited by DANA C. MUNRO Princeton University GEORGE C. SELLERY and AUGUST C. KREY University of Wisconsin University of Minnesota [Illustration] Issued by The Committee on Public Information The Secretary of State The Secretary of War The Secretary of the Navy George Creel November 15, 1917 EXECUTIVE ORDER. I hereby create a Committee on Public Information, to be composed of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and a civilian who shall be charged with the executive direction of the Committee. As civilian Chairman of the Committee I appoint Mr. George Creel. The Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Navy are authorized each to detail an officer or officers to the work of the Committee. WOODROW WILSON. April 14, 1917. INTRODUCTION. [Sidenote: Germany pledged to Hague regulations.] For many years leaders in every civilized nation have been trying to make warfare less brutal. The great landmarks in this movement are the Geneva and Hague Conventions. The former made rules as to the care of the sick and wounded and established the Red Cross. At the first meeting at Geneva, in 1864, it was agreed, and until the present war it has been taken for granted, that the wounded, and the doctors and nurses who cared for them, would be safe from all attacks by the enemy. The Hague Conventions, drawn up in 1899 and 1907, made additional rules to soften the usages of war and especially to protect noncombatants and conquered lands. Germany took a prominent part in these meetings and with the other nations solemnly pledged her faith to keep all the rules except one article in the Hague Regulations. This was article 44, which forbade the conqueror to force any of the conquered to give information. All the other rules and regulations she accepted in the most binding manner. [Sidenote: German policy of frightfulness.] But Germany's military leaders had no intention of keeping these solemn promises. They had been trained along different lines. Their leading generals for many years had been urging a policy of frightfulness. In the middle of the nineteenth century von Clausewitz was looked upon as the greatest military authority, and the methods which he advocated were used by the Prussian army in its successful wars of 1866-1871. Consequently, because these wars had been successful, the wisdom of von Clausewitz's methods seemed to the Prussian army to be fully proven. Now, the essence of von Clausewitz's teachings was that successful war involves the ruthless application of force. In the opening chapter of his master work, _Vom Kriege_ (_On War_), he says: