placing of their signatures to
international conventions, freely agreed to.

An infinite number of acts minutely and officially investigated have
established that our troops and our Nation should never count on the
observance of these laws and that the atrocities committed prove to be
not only individual violations dishonoring merely the perpetrator, but
violations premeditated and ordered in cold blood by the commanders
with the moral support of the heads of the enemy nation.

These laws are nevertheless repeated here in order that:

1. The knowledge of how the war should have been conducted may develop
in the heart of each man the sentiment of hate (applicable only to
foes such as we actually have), that in no case should a chief of
platoon tolerate any intercourse between his men and the enemy other
than that of the rifle; this duty is explicit and not to be departed
from except in the case of the wounded and prisoners incapable of
doing harm.

2. That every violator of these laws, taken in the act, shall be the
subject of an immediate report with witnesses, then sent to the
division headquarters to be tried as to the facts of the case.

The laws of war resulted from the Geneva convention, from the
declaration of St. Petersburg (Petrograd), and from the different
Hague conventions. All these diplomatic papers were signed by Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.

The following are the principal articles:

Protect the wounded on the field of battle from pillage and from bad
treatment; respect ambulances and evacuation convoys; respect the
personnel exclusively concerned with the transportation, treatment and
guarding of wounded; do not treat this personnel as prisoners of war
if it falls into the hands of the enemy; but return such personnel, as
well as material, when its retention shall be no longer necessary for
the care of the wounded prisoners.

Refrain from employing any projectile which weighs less than 400 grams
that is either explosive or loaded with incendiary or inflammable
material, from all projectiles having for their sole object the
spreading of asphyxiating or harmful gases, all expanding bullets or
those which will easily flatten out inside the human body, such as
jacketed bullets whose jacket does not entirely cover the core or is
nickel.

Forbid the use of poisons or of poisoned arms, killing or wounding an
enemy who has thrown down his arms and surrendered; declarations that
the