against the German army. Throughout the war the Germans shot every such irregular soldier that fell into their hands. This brutal conduct aroused the indignation of many peoples in many lands, and now, by an article of the Hague regulations for the conduct of warfare on land, such irregulars are entitled to be treated on the same footing as regular forces when they are under a responsible commander, wear a distinctive badge, carry arms openly, and conform with the laws of war. Further, even the requirements of a responsible commander and a distinctive badge are dispensed with, where the population rises spontaneously to resist an invader, and in this case unauthorized bodies of men, armed and obeying the laws of war, are entitled, if captured, to be treated as prisoners of war.

Here then is an exception to the general rule that a fighter must be a member of the authorized armed forces in order to make good his claim to be treated as a prisoner. A similar exception has existed from time immemorial at sea. And indeed the difficulty felt by the Hague Conference in granting to irregulars on land the right to be treated as prisoners does not exist in the case of a merchant seaman. He and his ship are on the open sea, and in full view; he cannot change his clothes, and lose his identity amid a crowd of civilians; he cannot take his enemy unawares. From the moment when he is attacked, he is permitted to defend himself, and his attacker is at no disadvantage.

Every German submarine in the war area may be assumed by a British merchant captain to be engaged in carrying out the orders of the German "Higher Command." The presence of such a submarine in the neighborhood of a British merchant ship is an offer to strike coupled with the capacity to fulfill the threat. It is, in other words, an offensive act, for visit is, as Dr. Wehberg says, the first act of capture. Under these circumstances the captain of a merchant ship may defend his ship, and is not a franc-tireur if he does so; when captured, he must be treated as a prisoner of war. Captain Fryatt defended his ship; he was not captured; at a later date he fell into the enemy's hands, and has been shot because he dared to exercise his undoubted

legal right. We say "undoubted," because no doubt arose until the apostles of German militarism and of the "freedom of the seas" were perfecting their final plans.

But what need is there to pay the German Government the compliment of supposing that it has acted under any mistaken view of law? Consistently with itself, it has but complied with its own military needs. It has now become a habit in Germany to reckon as a franc-tireur any class of persons who are particularly obnoxious to the advancement of German militarism. For instance, the Rheinisch Westfälische Zeitung of August 1, 1916, published an article calling upon the German Government to treat American volunteers fighting with Allied troops against Germany as francs-tireurs and, when captured, to shoot or, preferably, to hang them.

On the 30th of July the Telegraaf learned that Captain Fryatt had been shot towards the evening of the Thursday before, on an enclosed part of the harbor grounds at Bruges, and that an Alderman of the town had attended as witness. The news of his death was officially confirmed by a telegram from the American Ambassador. No further details are known; nor probably will they ever be known. The German Government had learnt enough wisdom from its execution of Edith Cavell to know that such things are better done in secret, though they had not learned sufficient humanity, nor won enough sense of justice nor common sense, to feel that such things cannot be done at all, without outrage to the feelings of the civilized world.

The Germans well knew that this latest judicial murder would arouse the indignation of the whole world; but they were resolved, if possible, to discourage imitation of Captain Fryatt's gallantry at all costs. "Doubtless there will be among England's sympathizers all the world over a storm of indignation against German barbarism similar to that roused by the case of Miss Cavell. That must not disturb us," wrote the German Kölnische Volkszeitung of July 29, 1916.

The Volkszeitung was not disappointed. A shudder of loathing and detestation, of horror and incredulity ran

through every neutral country, the British Empire, and the countries of our Allies. The universal verdict was that the barbarities of the world's past, even of the German past, were outdone. The voice of the New York Herald was raised in protest against a "CROWNING GERMAN ATROCITY." The New York Times saw in the shooting of Captain Fryatt "a deliberate murder-a trifle to the Government that has so many thousands to answer for."

In Holland, the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant of July 29th condemned the outrage, and said: "At the time that the Captain of the Brussels made his unsuccessful attempt, the submarine war was being carried on in the most brutal manner in contempt of all rules of humanity. The mere sighting of a German submarine meant death for hundreds who are now called 'francs-tireurs' in the German communiqué. To claim for oneself the right to kill hundreds of civilians out of hand, but to brand as a franc-tireur the civilian who does not willingly submit to execution, amounts, in our opinion, to measuring justice with a different scale, according to whether it is to be applied to oneself or to another. This is, in our view, arbitrariness and injustice. And that touches us even in the midst of all the horrors of the war. It shocks the neutrals, and arouses fresh bitterness and hatred in the enemy."

A Swiss paper, the Journal de Genève, denounces the German crime and says: "It is monstrous to maintain that armed forces have a right to murder civilians but that civilians are guilty of a crime in defending themselves."

The Italian forces having, as depicted in the previous pages, repulsed the huge Austrian assault from the Alps, were now ready to resume their own aggressive campaign. General Cadorna had been long preparing a main attack to sweep across the northeastern frontiers of Italy and drive the Austrians from their strong positions among the mountains bordering on the Isonzo River. Here for over a year the Italian armies had been held in check by lesser Austrian forces secure in their almost impregnable defenses.

Cadorna's great attack was launched on August 6th, and was carried forward by the eager Italian soldiers with such dash and energy that in three days they swept aside the Austrian defenses and captured Gorizia, the chief city of the Isonzo valley. The success was brilliant and spectacular.

Unfortunately, however, Gorizia was but a single forward step. Beyond it towered one mountain range after another. Trieste, the great Austro-Italian city which was Cadorna's ultimate goal was only some score of miles beyond his outposts. But almost every foot of the way would require a costly battle against great natural disadvantages. So the Italians fought on all summer without ever getting much beyond Gorizia. They compelled the Austrians to transfer many troops from the Russian front to hold back the Italian advance; but that was all.

Thus the Isonzo battle, like the even greater struggles of Verdun and the Somme, was indecisive, a vast hecatomb of human victims, another long stride toward the utter exhaustion of humanity.

IN

BY GENERAL CADORNA

Official Report of December 26, 1916

N the spring we sustained in the Trentino the powerful, long-prepared Austrian offensive, which the enemy with insolent effrontery styled a punitive expedition against our country. But after the first successes, which were due to the preponderance of material means collected, above all in artillery, the proposed invasion was quickly stopped and

the enemy was counter-attacked and forced to retire in haste into the mountains, leaving on the Alpine slopes the flower of his army and paying bitterly the price for his fallacious enterprise not only here but also on the plains of Galicia.

Our army did not rest after its wonderful effort. While maintaining a vigorous pressure on the Trentino front, in order to gain better positions and to deceive the enemy as to our intentions, a rapid retransfer of strong forces to the Julian front was made. In the first days of August began that irresistible offensive which, in two days only, caused the fall of the very strong fortress of Gorizia and of the formidable system of defenses on the Carso to the west of the Vallone. Doberdò, San Michele, Sabotino-names recalling sanguinary struggles and slaughter-ceased to be for the Austro-Hungarian Army the symbols of a resistance vaunted insuperable, and became the emblems of brilliant Italian victories. The enemy's boastful assertions of having inexorably arrested our invasion on the front selected and desired by himself were refuted at one stroke.

From that day our advance on the Carso was developed constantly and irresistibly. It was interrupted by pauses indispensable for the preparation of the mechanical means of destruction without which the bravest attacks would lead only to the vain sacrifice of precious human lives.

Our constant and full success on the Julian front is witnessed by 42,000 prisoners, 60 guns, 200 machine guns, and the rich booty taken between the beginning of August and December.

Also on the rest of the front our indefatigable troops roused the admiration of all who saw them for their extraordinary efforts to overcome not only the forces of the enemy but also the difficulties of nature. Our soldiers are supported by the unanimous approval of the nation, by faith in themselves and in the justice of their cause. They face willingly their hard and perilous life, under the guidance of their beloved sovereign, who from the first day of the war with a rare constancy has shared their fortunes. Our army is waiting in perfect readiness to renew the effort