TATISTICS AND ILLUSTRATIVE CITATIONS EXAMPLE OF PROCLAMATION AND ORDER ESTABLISHING MILITARY GOVERNMENT General Pershing's Proclamation to the People of Germany PROCLAMATION To All Inhabitants: The Army of the United States of America, operating with the allied military authority, takes possession of and occupies The described territory and its inhabitants are under the military rule and authority of the American Army. This rule is strict, and implicit obedience to it is exacted of all. None the less, no law-abiding person need have any fear. The American Army has not come to make war on the civilian population. All persons, who with honest submission act peaceably and obey the rules laid down by the military authorities, will be protected in their persons, their homes, their religion and their property. All others will be brought within the rule with firmness, promptness and vigor. The American Army will govern in strict accordance with international law and the rules and customs of war sanctioned by the civilized world. The inhabitants, on their part, must absolutely abstain, in word and deed, from every act of hostility or impediment, of any kind, toward the American forces. It is your duty now to devote yourselves to the orderly and obedient conduct of your private lives and affairs, the reestablishment of normal conditions in your schools, churches, hospitals and charitable institutions and the resumption of your local civil life. You will not be obstructed; but, on the contrary, you will be encouraged and protected in those pursuits. So far as your attitude and conduct make it possible, your local courts, governing bodies and institutions will be continued in operation under the supervision of the American authorities, and except where they affect the rights and security of the American Army, your present laws and regulations will remain undisturbed and in force. Every violation of the laws of war, every act or offer of hostility or violence and every disobedience of rules laid down by the military authority will be punished with the utmost vigor. JOHN J. PERSHING, Commander-in-Chief, American Expeditionary Forces. Organization of Civil Affairs in Germany ADVANCE GENERAL HEADQUARTERS AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES Officer in Charge of Civil Affairs in Occupied Territory ORDERS TREVES, GERMANY, December 13, 1918. 1. Army, corps and division commanders will detail, from their commands, suitable officers to be designated as in charge of the civil affairs on their respective staffs. 2. The division commander will be responsible for the administration of civil affairs in his district. He will detail a suitable officer, preferably the commanding officer, to be in charge of each town or canton occupied. Army and corps commanders will take similar action in the case of territory occupied by the army and corps troops. 3. Cantons not garrisoned will be inspected and regulated by officers detailed by the commanding general of the division. controlling the area in which such cantons are located, or in the case of army or corps troops by the army or corps commander. 4. The office of the officer in charge of civil affairs will be the only office of record in civil affairs administration. All reports, documents and papers of any kind relating to civil affairs in the occupied territory will be forwarded to this office for action or file. ORGANIZATION 5. The office of the officer in charge of civil affairs will be organized with the following departments: (a) Public Works and Utilities.-This department will include supervision of railroads, street railways, telephones, electric lighting plants, etc. The officer in charge will consult and coöperate with the Inter-Allied Commission on Railroads. (b) Fiscal Affairs.-This department will be charged with the supervision of all treasuries, banks, financial institutions and all matters of taxation. (c) Sanitation and Public Health.-This department will have charge of the sanitation and health in the districts, so far as the inhabitants are concerned. (d) Schools and Charitable Institutions.-This department will exercise a general supervision over all schools and charitable institutions in the occupied districts. (e) Legal Department.-This department will exercise general supervision over all military commissions and provost courts and will be charged with the custody of all court records. It will exercise general supervision over all local courts in the territory occupied. (f) Other departments will be added when the necessity arises. 6. Officers in charge of the above departments are advisory to the officer in charge of civil affairs. In giving instructions to officers, they will be careful that they are given through the proper channels. COURTS 7. Army, corps and division commanders are authorized to convene military commissions for the trial of inhabitants offending against the laws of war or the military government. 8. No death sentence will be carried into execution unless approved by the commander-in-chief. 9. Division commanders will appoint, for the districts occupied by their divisions, a superior provost court to consist of one officer, preferably a field officer. Army and corps commanders will appoint a superior provost court for the districts occupied by the army and corps troops. The maximum punishment which this court may impose is imprisonment for six months and a fine of five thousand marks, or both. 10. Commanding officers of each city, town or canton will appoint an inferior provost court for the trial of minor offenses against laws of war or military government by inhabitants. The maximum punishment which this court may impose is imprisonment for three months and a fine of one thousand marks, or both. 11. Officers appointing provost courts shall have power to approve, disapprove or mitigate the sentences of such courts. 12. Each provost court will keep a simple record showing the name of the offender, the offense, the plea, the finding, the sentence and the action of the convening authority in each case. 13. Weekly reports, to be made each Saturday, will be forwarded, through channels, to the office of the officer in charge of civil affairs, showing all cases tried and the information given in Par. 12. 14. A form for these reports is attached hereto. 15. No member of the American or allied forces will be tried by any military commission or provost court. 16. All money collected as fines by provost courts will be turned in weekly to the Department of Fiscal Affairs. REQUISITIONS 17. Billets for officers and men, fuel, forage and straw will be requisitioned. 18. Food will not be requisitioned except in case of an immediate emergency. All such cases to be reported at once to the division, corps or army commander. 19. Requisitions will only be demanded on authority of the commanding officer in the locality occupied. 20. Requisitions will not be paid in cash, but a receipt will be given for all supplies and billets furnished. This receipt will be signed by a supply officer and approved by the commanding officer. It will show clearly the number of billets occupied, and the length of time and the quantity and condition of all supplies furnished. 21. Requisitions should generally be made upon municipalities, but may be made upon individuals when necessary. 22. All inhabitants should file receipts with their burgomeister. 23. Supply officers will forward through channels to the office of the officer in charge of civil affairs one copy of all receipts given. 24. Time will be changed from German to International time at midnight, December 14-15. At that time all clocks will be set back one hour. Military authorities will see that the local German authorities in all occupied cities, towns, or cantons are notified. 25. The official rate of exchange is one hundred (100) francs equal one hundred and forty-two marks and eighty-five pfennigs (142.85) or one mark equals seventy (70) centimes. Officers and men should change their francs at banks, as short changing will be eliminated; the banks stand the loss, if any, and general prices will not be raised. By Command of General Pershing: Official: ROBERT C. DAVIS, JAMES W. MCANDREW, Adjutant General. |