International law has in modern times spoken with no very certain voice as to the permissible treatment of alien enemies found within the territory of a belligerent at the outbreak of war.
Holland notes the uncertainty in modern international law regarding the treatment of enemy aliens at the start of war.
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There may be members of the Institut who do not give up the hope that some day, thanks to the progress of civilisation, humanity will succeed in substituting an organised international justice for the wars which now-a-days take place…
No, you must attack all the resources of the enemy's Government: its finances, its railways, its stores, and even its prestige.
If in our own day a law recognised by the civilised world forbids, in a general way, the soldier to make booty in warfare on land, we have here a great advance in civilisation, and the jurists have had their share in bringing it about.
We know also that war, which moves nations so deeply, rouses to exceptional activity the good qualities as well as the evil instincts of human nature.
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