On the record
The progress of civilisation should have the effect of alleviating as much as possible the calamities of war.
Said by
Thomas Erskine Holland
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Holland advocates for the humanitarian principles that should guide the conduct of war.
Share
More from Thomas Erskine Holland
This being so, it is necessary to recognise also that increased humanity in the mode of making war has in reality followed upon the gradual softening of manners.
This is what makes it possible to proclaim an international law of war, approved by the legal conscience of all civilised peoples; and when a principle is thus generally accepted, it exerts an authority over minds and manners which curbs…
What neutral States would ever take up arms for the sole reason that, two Powers being at war, the 'laws of war' had been violated by one or both of the belligerents?
The general recognition of these principles, and of those also which relate to prisoners, would mark a distinct step of progress towards the goal pursued with so honourable a persistency by the Institut de Droit International.
Other voices in this conversation
