(2) ANY PERSON OR PERSONS NOT BEING BRITISH SOLDIERS, or not showing by their dress that they are soldiers: (a) SERVING THE ENEMY as spies; (b) MISLEADING THE GERMAN TROOPS when charged to serve as guides; (c) SHOOTING, INJURING, OR ROBBING any person belonging to the German Army, or forming part of its personnel; (d) DESTROYING BRIDGES OR CANALS, damaging telegraphs, telephones, electric light wires, gasometers, or railways, interfering with roads, setting fire to munitions of war, provisions, or quarters established by German troops; (e) TAKING ARMS against the German troops, =WILL BE PUNISHED BY DEATH.= IN EACH CASE the officer presiding at the Council of War will be charged with the trial, and pronounce judgment. Councils of War may not pronounce ANY OTHER CONDEMNATION SAVE THAT OF DEATH. THE JUDGMENT WILL BE IMMEDIATELY EXECUTED. (3) TOWNS OR VILLAGES in the territory in which the contravention takes place will be compelled to pay indemnity equal to one year's revenue. (4) THE INHABITANTS MUST FURNISH necessaries for the German troops daily as follows:-- 1 lb. 10 oz. bread. 13 oz. meat. 3 lb. potatoes. 1 oz. tea. 1-1/2 oz. tobacco or 5 cigars. 1/2 pint wine. 1-1/2 pints beer, or 1 wine-glassful of brandy or whisky. The ration for each horse:-- 13 lb. oats. 3 lb. 6 oz. hay. 3 lb. 6 oz. straw. (ALL PERSONS WHO PREFER to pay an indemnity in money may do so at the rate of 2s. per day per man.) (5) COMMANDERS OF DETACHED corps have the right to requisition all that they consider necessary for the well-being of their men, and will deliver to the inhabitants official receipts for goods so supplied. WE HOPE IN CONSEQUENCE that the inhabitants of Great Britain will make no difficulty in furnishing all that may be considered necessary. (6) AS REGARDS the individual transactions between the troops and the inhabitants, we give notice that one German mark shall be considered the equivalent to one English shilling. =The General Commanding the Ninth German Army Corps, VON KRONHELM.= Beccles, _September the Third, 1910_. [Illustration: THE ENEMY'S FAMOUS PROCLAMATION.] The public, however, little dreamed of the hopeless confusion in the War Office, in the various regimental depôts throughout the country, at headquarters everywhere, and in every barracks in the kingdom. The armed forces of England were passing from a peace to a war footing; but the mobilisation of the various units--namely, its completion in men, horses, and material--was utterly impossible in the face of the extraordinary regulations which, kept a strict secret by the Council of Defence until this moment, revealed a hopeless state of things.