Note 71 — Chapter II · THE MEANS OF CONDUCTING WAR

[This represents the German War Book in its most disagreeable light, and is casuistry of the worst kind. There are certain things on which International Law is silent because it will not admit the possibility of their existence. As Professor Holland well puts it (The Laws of War on Land, p. 61), in reference to the subject of reprisals the Hague Conference “declined to seem to add to the authority of a practise so repulsive” by legislating on the subject. And so with assassination. It can never be presumed from the Hague or other international agreements that what is not expressly forbidden is thereby approved.]