to the intellectual tendencies which influence his own nation;
the more educated he is the more will this be the case. . . .
By steeping himself in military history an officer will be able
to guard himself against excessive humanitarian notions;
it will teach him that certain severities are indispensable to
war, nay more, that the only true humanity very often lies
in a ruthless application of them. . . .

Von Hartmann continues:--

Every restriction on acts of war, once military operations
have begun, tends to weaken the coördinated action of the
belligerent. The law of nations must beware of paralyzing mil-
itary action by placing fetters upon it. . . .

The term "civilized war" as employed by Bluntschli
seems hardly intelligible. . . . It leads to an irreducible con-
tradiction. . . .

Distress and damage to the enemy are the conditions
necessary to bend and break his will. The efficacy of these
methods constitutes their undeniable justification, since by
them one can attain with certainty an exactly defined
military aim.

Further Von Hartmann says:--

The combatant has need of passion. . . . All military
effort requires that the combatant who makes this effort
shall be entirely freed from the shackles of a constraining legal-
ity which is in all respects oppressive. . . . Violence and passion
are the two principal levers of every warlike act, and let us
say it without fear, of all warlike greatness.

The great General Staff declares:--

Every means of war without which the object of the war
cannot be obtained is permissible. . . . It follows from these
universally valid principles that wide limits are set to the sub-
jective freedom and arbitrary judgment of the Commanding
Officer.

Germany's principles of war are explained more con-
cretely in an article that was published February 10,

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