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of their country, since acts of this kind are not contrary to the laws of war, and the measures taken for their prevention are measures directly hostile to the country to which the officials still owe their allegiance.

H XLIV. A belligerent is forbidden to force the inhabitants of territory occupied by it to furnish information about the army of the other belligerent, or about its means of defence.

Compelling the nationals of the enemy to serve as guides. -Prior to the adoption of this article, the right to compel a national of the hostile belligerent to serve as guide was a much debated one in juristic circles, but it was one that governments seemed loath to forego. The guide was in an exceedingly difficult position, but it was generally held that if he acted under compulsion he was not guilty of treason to his own country. This article forbids compelling inhabitants to act as guides when to do so would be most dangerous to the inhabitant's country and consequently most revolting to his sense of patriotism. By a liberal construction it may be held to forbid every compulsion to act as guide for any ignorance of the country on the part of one belligerent may be considered a "means of defense" to the hostile belligerent. The spirit of the article may also be held to forbid requiring of local officials the names of the inhabitants of occupied territory capable of service in the army with a view to their punishment if they leave the occupied territory to enlist in their country's service. H XLV. It is forbidden to compel the inhabitants of occupied territory to swear allegiance to the hostile Power.

No oath of allegiance to the occupant is to be required. As we have seen, this does not prevent the requirement of an oath of fidelity from those who continue in office.

H XLVI. Family honour and rights, the lives of persons, and private property, as well as religious convictions and prac tice must be respected.

Private property cannot be confiscated.

Family life should be interfered with as little as possible. -Family honor and rights are not considered to be violated by requiring the quartering or feeding of troops; nor by the search for requisitioned articles, where forced military execution has become necessary; nor by the use of a house for military operations, where such use is neces

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sary. But such incidents are among the most annoying of war on account of their interference with family life. Accordingly they are to be avoided, if possible, and where they cannot be avoided are to be rendered as little irksome as possible.

Churches not necessarily free from right of requisition. -Liberty of public worship does not mean that churches or other ecclesiastical establishments are necessarily exempt from the right of requisition. Gen. Voigts-Rhetz at the Brussels Conference, declared that quartering troops in churches, and the taking of what may be necessary for the subsistence of the army from ecclesiastical establishments, could neither in winter or in case of scarcity of provisions, be given up.14

H XLVII. Pillage is formally forbidden.

Absence of proprietors not to be considered abandonment of property.-Pillage has generally been forbidden except where towns have been taken by assault, ever since the practice of contributions went into effect. Dwellings from which the inhabitants are absent cannot be considered as abandoned, so that there is no greater right against the property found in them than against that found in other dwellings. The owners, however, are liable to suffer more heavily than others, since, by reason of their absence, the requisition must be executed militarily, and their presence is wanting to restrain unlawful acts on the part of the soldiery.

14 Protocol 18 of the Committee.

CHAPTER IX.

MILITARY OCCUPATION-RIGHTS AND DUTIES AS TO PROPERTY.

H XLVIII. If, in the territory occupied, the occupant collects the taxes, dues and tolls imposed for the benefit of the State, he shall do so, as far as is possible, in accordance with the rules of assessment and incidence in force, and shall in consequence be bound to defray the expenses of the administration of the occupied territory to the same extent as the legitimate Government was so bound.

The occupant has no right to local and provincial taxes. -The limitation that only those taxes may be collected by the occupant which are for the benefit of the State was suggested by Count Lamza, the Italian delegate, in order to exempt local and provincial taxes from the power of the occupant. This exemption is based on the assumption that military affairs are entirely the concern of the central government, and that accordingly only those taxes which would have gone to the central government can be collected by the occupant. In federal governments like the United States, where the States make large military expenditures, it is probable that the State taxes would be assimilated to taxes due the central government rather than to local and provincial taxes.

Rules of incidence and collection of taxes in force, to be followed, if possible.-The rule that the existing tax laws shall be followed as far as possible in the assessment and collection of taxes is an instance of the more general rule that the laws in force in the country shall be respected unless the occupant is absolutely prevented from doing so. It is the duty which he is under to provide for the administration of the territory that entitles him to the taxes. Otherwise he would be entitled only to the surplus after the administration had been provided for.

This generally prevented by withdrawal of tax officials. As has heretofore been pointed out, however, the desertion of their posts by the tax officials is likely to render the ex

1 Protocol 10 of the Committee.

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isting laws unenforceable and in that case resort will be had to contributions, which can be only a rough equivalent to the taxes.

Practice in the Franco-German War.-Such was the course of events in the Franco-German War. At first the Germans attempted to collect the taxes according to the French Law, but this proved to be impossible even in the case of the indirect tax, which they sometimes approximated by taking as a basis the indirect taxes for the two preceding years, sometimes by exacting from 100 percent to 200 percent of the direct tax, and in other cases by exacting a lump sum of from twenty-five to fifty francs per head."

Methods of enforcing collection.-In few cases, if any, were the taxes levied directly on individuals. The mayor of the chief city of a department, arrondissement, or canton, was required to reapportion the tax among the communes and inhabitants. An ordinance of the Governor-General of Rheims of February 5, is typical of the means used to secure the prompt payment of the tax. Dilatory communes were threatened with a fine of 5 percent of the amount due for each day of delay, and told that at the end of eight days troops would be quartered on them, which they would be required to lodge and nourish without pay, besides paying six francs daily to each officer and two francs to each soldier, till the amount due had been entirely discharged. Prominent citizens had already been taken as hostages for the payment of these debts, and six days later the Governor-General issued another ordinance warning the inhabitants that, if the taxes were not paid in eight days, the hostages would be sent to Germany and further measures taken against the dilatory communes.

Importance of contributions imposed in lieu of taxes.— The importance of these contributions imposed in lieu of taxes is shown by the fact that comparative estimates of those imposed during the Franco-German War, placed them at from 49 to 62 millions of francs, as against from 30 to 39 millions of francs exacted as war contributions and fines. Credit given by the French Government for payment of taxes to German authorities.-After peace was established,

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the French Government declared that communes which had been compelled to turn over money in their treasuries to the German authorities should be reimbursed, and that individuals who could show proper evidence of having been compelled to pay taxes to the Germans should be allowed to deduct the amount paid from the contributions for 18701871, a reduction being allowed of the amount of the direct tax, to the extent actually paid, and of double the amount of the direct tax on account of what the Germans had exacted as the equivalent of the indirect tax. Everything beyond these amounts was to be considered as war contributions and ruled by different principles."

H XLIX. If, in addition to the taxes mentioned in the above Article, the occupant levies other money contributions in the occupied territory, this shall only be for the needs of the army or of the administration of the territory in question.

War contributions.-Contributions levied in lieu of taxes may not be adequate for the needs of administration, and in such a case war contributions proper may be imposed to make up what is lacking. The principal occasion for war contributions, however, will always be, the needs of the army. How these are to be met without imposing too great a burden on the inhabitants was the subject of earnest debate at Brussels and The Hague.

Limitation of War contributions in original Russian Project at Brussels.-The original Russian Project at Brussels was in line with the general principle eventually laid down in Article XLIII that the laws in force in the occupied territory shall be respected by the occupant. It provided that the army of occupation should have the same rights in levying war contributions as the army of the country whose territory was occupied, would have had. It was objected that there might be no laws providing for contributions and requisitions in the country whose territory was occupied; or that the country might be one liable to invasion and have laws that would render the right of the occupant, to contributions nugatory; and finally, that this rule left out of consideration the needs of the army on which the right was chiefly based.

Proposition to confine them to what the occupying army would have a right to in its own country-On the other Bray, pp. 302–303.

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