Moving configuration files from their original location is something dangerous, and shold be examined case by case.
But usually you can use a trick: place a stub xml configuration file in the place where it is expected to be, that contains only the include
of the real file, located out of the WEB-INF (or inside it but in another location):
<struts>
<include file="..\struts.xml"/>
</struts>
As described here: http://struts.apache.org/2.x/docs/struts-1-solutions.html
For properties it's harder... be careful