a conquered country is proclaimed as a military theory. Its
leading axiom is that

"a war conducted with energy cannot be directed merely against the
combatants of the enemy State and the positions they occupy, _but
it will and must in like manner seek to destroy the total
intellectual and material resources of the latter_. Humanitarian
claims, such as the protection of men and their goods, can only be
taken into consideration in so far as the nature and object of the
war permit. Consequently the argument of war permits every
belligerent State _to have recourse to all means which enable it to
obtain the object of the war_."

Miss Cavell's fate only differs from that of hundreds of Belgium women
and children in that she had the pretense of a trial and presumably had
trespassed against military law, while other victims of the rape of
Belgium were ruthlessly killed in order to effect a speedy subjugation
of the territory. The question of the guilt or innocence of each
individual was a matter of no importance. Hostages were taken and not
for the alleged wrongs of others.

Did not General von Buelow on August 22nd announce to the inhabitants of
Liege that

"_it is with my consent that the General in command has burned down
the place [Andenne] and shot about 100 inhabitants._"

It was the same chivalrous and humane General who posted a proclamation
at Namur on August 25th as follows:

"Before 4 o'clock all Belgian and French soldiers are to be
delivered up as prisoners of war. Citizens who do not obey this
will be condemned to hard labor for life in Germany. At 4 o'clock a
rigorous inspection of all houses will be made. _Every soldier
found will be shot._ * * * _The streets will be held by German
guards, who will hold ten hostages for each street. These hostages
will be shot if there is any trouble in that street._ * * * A crime
against the German Army will compromise the existence of the whole
town of Namur _and every one in it_."

Did not Field Marshal von der Goltz issue a proclamation in Brussels, on
October 5th, stating that, if any individual disturbed the telegraphic
or railway communications, all the inhabitants would be "_punished
without pity, the innocent suffering with the guilty_"?

Individual guilt being thus a matter of minor importance, Dr. Zimmermann
had no occasion on the accepted theory of Prussian