Falkayn is a prisoner but:
"During long conversations and occasional guided tours of the planet, Falkayn spotted interesting commercial opportunities, once the region had been pacified." (VII, p. 311)
He is both a military and a commercial spy. If he is discovered to be a spy, then he might be shot "'...according to the articles of war.'" (p. 313) However, Jutta, having identified him, agrees to keep quiet when she realizes that the game is up.
And here is a minor coincidence. I have referred to John Sanders. One of Sanders' novels, Without Trumpet Or Drum, began with an elaborate quotation from Oliver Cromwell's Articles of War to the effect that "Whosoever shall come from the enemy without trumpet or drum in a camp or a citadel after the customs of war...shall be hanged up as a spy." (Quoting from memory. I have not been able to find these Articles anywhere to quote them accurately.) The coincidence is that Falkayn quotes from a poet called Sanders at the end of this story but does anyone know which poet Sanders?
The Trouble Twisters works well as a tripartite narrative even though it had to be split up in The Technic Civilization Saga.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Perhaps a historian at Lancaster University could find Cromwell's "Articles of War" for you? Or find out where those Articles could be tracked down? I'm also reminded of what I saw more than once in Stirling/Drake's THE GENERAL books, where heralds who gob back and forth between opposing armies were treated by civilized soldiers with respect if they came under a white flag of truce to the sound of trumpets. Reminiscent of Cromwell's "drum and trumpet."
I think the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius' work on the laws and customs of war marked the beginning of a formal codification of these laws, leading in time to the Geneva Conventions.
And we see something similar in the Technic stories, after the Empire arose. The Covenant of Alfzar, which the civilized interstellar powers agreed to and ratified, were based on the laws and customs of war and diplomacy as had been worked out and codified in the Geneva and Vienna Conventions.
Ad astra! Sean
Cromwell's rules date from a period when uniforms were just coming in and weren't, to coin a phrase, "uniform".
A military uniform is sort of like a union card, but large and conspicuous.
The current rules are that to be recognized as a lawful combatant, you have to wear a uniform or "other distinguishing mark" (like a conspicuous armband) and "carry weapons openly".
That is, you can hide physically (as in an ambush) but you can't pretend to be a civilian -- you have to be instantly recognizable if someone -does- see you.
And you have to be acting as the acknowledged agent of a State, or of an organization with certain state-like characteristics: a chain of command, for instance.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And some early uniforms could be very bright and colorful. Such as the uniforms of the Papal Swiss Guards or the red coats formerly worn by UK troops in battles. Precisely so they would be conspicuous and recognizable.
Ditto what you said about soldiers needing to be acting as agents of an acknowledged state, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
Conspicuous uniforms were perfectly practical in the musket-and-bayonet era; tactics didn't involve small-scale attempts at concealment. You were going to be blasting away at each other at 100 yards anyway, standing upright -- muskets were nearly impossible to load lying down anyway, and difficult even when kneeling.
But even then, specialists -- light infantry, riflemen -- wore green or gray uniforms. Nobody else liked them much, either!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I saw all of that in your THE GENERAL books. Civil Government uniforms were dark blue, which I understood as a step in the direction of uniforms becoming less conspicuous while remaining recognizable. Colonial troops, by contrast, wore red djellabas as uniforms.
Brigaderos troops still used clumsy muzzleloaders while Civil Government soldiers used far more practical one shot breechloaders.
And I do remember reading of how Napleonic era armies had specialists of the sorts you listed. But not that they were disliked by their own fellow soldiers!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment