File No. 860c.01/9
[Enclosure—Translation]
Declaration issued by the Allied Governments,
November 18, 1916
By a proclamation published on November 6, 1916, at Warsaw and at
Lublin, the German Emperor and the Austrian Emperor, King of
Hungary, announced that they had agreed to the creation “in the
Polish regions” occupied by their troops of an autonomous state
under the form of an hereditary and a constitutional monarchy and to
the organization, instruction, and direction of an army belonging to
that state.
It is a universally admitted principle of the modern right of nations
that, by reason of its precarious and de
facto character of possession, a military occupation
resulting from the operations of war may not imply a transfer of
sovereignty over the territory occupied and consequently does not
involve any right of disposing of this territory to the profit of
any one.
In disposing without right of the territory occupied by their troops,
the German Emperor, and the Austrian Emperor, King of Hungary, have
not only committed an action which is null and void, but have once
more shown contempt for one of the fundamental principles upon which
the constitution and the existence of civilized states repose.
In pretending, moreover, to organize, instruct, and direct an army
levied in the “Polish regions” occupied by their troops, the German
Emperor and the Austrian Emperor, King of Hungary, have once more
violated the engagements which they have taken and by which, in
conformity with the most elementary principles of morality and
justice, “it is forbidden to a belligerent to force the nationals of
the opposing side to take part in the operations of war directed
against their country” (Article 23 of the regulations annexed to
Convention IV of The Hague, 1907, ratified by the German Emperor and
the Austrian Emperor, King of Hungary, on November 29, 1909).
The Allied powers in holding up to the reprobation of the neutral
states these new violations of right, morality, and justice, protest
against the consequences which the enemy governments expect to
derive from such action, and reserve to themselves the right of
opposing them by all means in their power.
Paris
, November 18,
1916.
