Excerpt from The German White Book on the War in Belgium: A Commentary<br><br>The Convention of 1899 is rather more favourable to the civilian population in so far as it does not, like that of 1907, require that they should carry weapons openly if they are to be regarded as combatants.<br><br>German Government distinguishes between fight ing by the inhabitants in territory already occupied by the troops (as in Aerschot, Andenne and Louvain), in which the unorganised population taking part in hostilities can never, according to the laws of nations, claim to be treated as combatants - that is as soldiers - and the forcible resistance of the population to the invading troops in territory hitherto unoccupied as in the frontier places and in Dinant and its neighbourhood, where the unorganised population, provided that they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war, must, according to the Convention, be regarded as combatants, if on the approach of the enemy they take up arms spontaneously to resist the invading troops, without having had time to organise themselves.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.