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Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

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Extract

March 29, 1919

The Preliminary Peace Conference at the plenary session on the 25th January, 1919 (Minute No. 2), decided to create, for the purpose of inquiring into the responsibilties relating to the war, a commission composed of fifteen members, two to be named by each of the Great Powers (United States of America, British Empire, France, Italy and Japan) and five elected from among the Powers with special interests.

The Commission was charged to inquire into and report upon the following points:

  1. 1. The responsibility of the authors of the war.

  2. 2. The facts as to breaches of the laws and customs of war committed by the forces of the German Empire and their Allies, on land, on sea, and in the air during the present war.

  3. 3. The degree of responsibility for these offences attaching, to particular members of the enemy forces, including members of the General Staffs, and other individuals, however highly placed.

  4. 4. The constitution and procedure of a tribunal appropriate for the trial of these offences.

  5. 5. Any other matters cognate or ancillary to the above which may arise in the course of the enquiry, and which the Commission finds it useful and relevant to take into consideration.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 14 , Issue 1-2 , January 1920 , pp. 95 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1920

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Footnotes

*

Official English text, reprinted from Pamphlet No. 32, Division of International Law, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D. C, in which the report and all appendices are published in full, with an introductory note by James Brown Scott, Technical Delegate of the United States to the Peace Conference and one of the American members of the Commission.

References

1 Yellow Book, M. Cambon to M. Pichon, 22nd November, 1913.

2 Message to his people.

3 Serbian Blue Book, page 30.

4 Yellow Book, No. 15, M. Cambon to M. Bienvenu Martin, 21st July, 1914.

5 Lichnowsky Memoir.

6 Dr. Muehlon’s Memoir.

7 Report of the 18th July, 1914.

8 Lichnowsky Memoir.

9 Austro-Hungarian Red Book, No. 16.

10 Blue Book, No. 26.

11 Yellow Book, No. 36; Blue Book, Nos. 12, 46, 55, 65, 94, 118.

12 Yellow Book, No. 46.

13 Blue Book, No. 41.

14 Russian Orange Book, No. 4; Yellow Book, No. 43.

15 Yellow Book, No. 70.

16 Yellow Book, No. 72; Blue Book, No. 49.

17 Blue Book, No. 43.

18 Yellow Book, No. 54.

19 Ibid., Nos. 68 and 73.

20 Ibid., No. 97; Blue Book, No. 84.

21 Blue Book, No. 111.

22 Yellow Book, 97, 98 and 109.

23 Second Report of Count Lerchenfeld, Bavarian Plenipotentiary at Berlin, published on the instructions of Kurt Eisner.

24 Yellow Book, No. 15.

25 Ibid., No. 60.

26 Ibid., No. 100.

27 Ibid., No. 58.

28 Blue Book, No. 133; Red Book, No. 55.

29 Lichnowsky Memoir, p. 1.

30 White Book, Anlage 32; Yellow Book, Annex II bis, No. 2.

31 Telegram from Nicholas II to William II ; Yellow Book, No. 6, Annex V.

32 Statement of the Municipality of Nuremburg, dated the 3rd April, 1916.

33 Patrols of various strengths crossed the French frontier at fifteen points, one on the 30th July at Xures, eight on the 2nd August, and the others on the 3rd August, before war was declared. The French troops lost one killed and several wounded. The enemy left on French territory four killed, one of whom was an officer, and seven prisoners. At Suarce, on the 2nd August, the enemy carried off nine inhabitants, twenty-five horses, and thirteen carriages. Four incursions by German dirigibles took place between the 25th July and the 1st August. Finally, German aeroplanes flew over Lunéville on the 3rd August, before the declaration of war, and dropped six bombs. (Yellow Book, Nos. 106, 136, 139, etc.)

34 Yellow Book, No. 124.

35 Morgenthau, H., Secrets of the Bosphorus, London, 1918, pp. 39, 40 Google Scholar.

36 German White Book, 1913, 1917, Nos. 19 and 20.

37 Memorandum I of the Serbian Delegation, Chapter II, para. c.

38 Treaty between Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary, dated the 24th August, 1915 (furnished by the Serbian Delegation).

39 Memorandum I of the Serbian Delegation, Chapter II, para. c.

40 Ibid.

41 Basri, L’Orient dilalkenisé, Chapter II (Paris, 1919).

42 Grey Book I; No. 8.

43 Ibid., No. 9.

44 Ibid., No. 10.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid., No. 11.

47 Grey Book I, No. 11.

48 Blue Book, No. 125.

49 Grey Book I, No. 15.

50 Ibid., No. 19.

51 Blue Book, No. 122.

52 Grey Book I, No. 19.

53 Grey Book I, No. 20.

54 Ibid., No. 20.

55 ibid., No. 22.

56 Ibid., No. 24.

57 Ibid., No. 30.

58 Grey Book I, No. 42.

59 Blue Book, No. 160.

60 Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstags, Dienstag, 4 August, 1914. See also E. Mühler. Des Weltkriegen und das Völkerreeht, Berlin, G. Reimer, 1915, pp. 24 et seq.

61 Grey Book I, No. 77.

62 Ibid., II, NO. 104.

63 Yellow Book, No. 131.

64 Telegram to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 2nd August, 1914.

* Not printed herein for lack of space.—Ed.

65 See the declaration of Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, who, speaking at the Hague Conference of 1907 with regard to submarine mines, used the, following expressions: “Military operations are not governed solely by stipulations of international law. There are other factors. Conscience, good sense, and the sense of duty imposed by the principles of humanity will be the surest guides for the conduct of sailors, and will constitute the most effective guarantee against abuses. The officers of the German Navy, I loudly proclaim it, will always fulfil in the strictest fashion the duties which emanate from the unwritten law of humanity and civilization.”

66 Herr v. Wiesner an Ministerium des Aeussern in Wien.

Sarajevo, 13. Juli 1914, 1.10 p.m.

Mitwissenschaft serbischer Regierung, Leitung an Attentat oder deasen Vorbereitung und Beistellung der Waffen, durch nichts erwiesen oder auch nur zu vermuten. Es bestehen vielmehr Anhaltspunkte, dies als ausgeschlossen anzusehen.

67 Graf Szoegeny an Minister des Aeussern in Wien.

(285.)

Berlin, 25. Juli 1914.

Hier wird allgemein vorausgesetzt, dass auf eventuelle abweisende Antwort Serbiens sofort unsere Kriegserklärung verbunden mit kriegerischen Operationen erfolgen werde.

Man sieht hier in jeder Verzögerung des Beginnes der kriegerischen Operationen grosse Gefahr betreffs Einmischung andreer Mächte.

Man rät uns dringendst sofort vorzugehen und Welt vor ein fait accompli zu stellen.

68 Graf Szoegeny an Ministerium des Aeussern in Wien.

(307, Streng vertraulich.)

Berlin, 27. Juli 1914.

Staatssekretar erklärte mir in streng vertraulicher Form sehr entschieden, dass in der nächsten Zeit eventuelle Vermittlungsvorschläge Englands durch die deutsche Regierung zur Kenntnis Euer Exc. gebracht würden.

Die deutsche Regierung versichere auf das Bündigste, dass sie sich in, keener Weise mit den Vorschlägen identifioire, sogar entschieden gegen derer Berücksichtigung sei, und dieselben nur, um der englischen Bitte Rechnung zu tragen, weitergebe.

69 British Parliamentary Papers, Miscellaneous, No. 10 (1915), “Collected Documents relating to the Outbreak of the European War,” p. 78.