A GARDEN DIARY 141 



risk of capture, and the, not after all, very un- 

 comfortable, entertainment of a prisoner of war. 

 Here, then, stands our military position ; and now 

 comes the question of what in such a case, are 

 the rights and duties of the ordinary, peaceable 

 but rifle-shooting civilian ? 



First let me clear the ground for myself 

 a little. In the course of certain profound re- 

 searches upon the whole art and practice of war 

 as laid down in the Debacle, La Guerre et la 

 Paix, and other recondite manuals, I have learnt 

 that in the case of invasion the barrier between 

 civilians and professional soldiers is even stricter 

 and more menacing than at other times. The 

 soldier, let his capacity or incapacity be what it 

 may, is entitled in case of capture to honourable 

 treatment. He may be nearly starved to death, 

 if provisions run short, as the French soldier- 

 prisoners were after Sedan. He may be shot 

 out of hand, if he endeavours to escape, but with 

 these trifling exceptions he is a person having 

 definite rights and a definite status ; a person the 

 cold-blooded slaughter of whom would stamp the 

 perpetrator of such a deed as a brute, no gentle- 

 man, and a man generally to be avoided, even by 

 his own side. Turning now to the position of 

 a civilian during invasion, I learn, by studying 

 the same authorities, that he is an individual 

 without rights of any kind should he attempt 

 no matter upon what provocation to touch a 



