Conference in 1899 unanimously formulated the wish that Switzerland should shortly take steps for the assembly of another international congress for the purpose of revising the Geneva Convention. And the Swiss Bundesrath invited a Congress to meet again at Geneva in September, 1903, but this Congress has been postponed. The original Convention is, therefore, still the basis of the present treatment of wounded. It consists of ten articles, and not only provides rules for the treatment of wounded, but, in the interest of a proper treatment of the wounded, supplies also rules regarding ambulances, military hospitals, the army medical staff, chaplains, orderlies, ambulance men, inhabitants assisting the wounded, and, lastly, an emblem of distinction. Article 21 of the Hague Regulations expressly confirms the Geneva Convention, and the few important States that have not yet become parties to the Geneva Convention will, therefore, become parties in future ipso facto by acceding to the Hague Regulations, since article 21 thereof enacts categorically that belligerents are bound by the Geneva Convention or any future modification thereof. and the § 119. According to article 6 of the Geneva Con- The vention 2 the collection of the wounded and their Wounded tending must take place without distinction of Sick. parties. Evacuation of hospitals, together with the persons under whose directions the evacuation takes 1 Thus Mexico, although she did not expressly accede to the Geneva Convention before 1905, indirectly became a party to it in 1899 through becoming a party to the Hague Regulations. 2 The Geneva Convention has in its separate stipulations been severely criticised by humanita rians as well as military men, and Ambu lances and place, shall be protected by an absolute neutrality. With consent of both parties, and when circumstances permit it, commanders-in-chief have the power to deliver immediately to the outposts of the enemy soldiers who have been wounded in an engagement. Those wounded enemy soldiers who are not thus delivered back and who, after their wounds are healed, are recognised as unfit for further military service, must be sent back to their country at once. According to article 5 of the unratified additional articles of 1868 even those wounded who are not unfit for further service, superior officers excepted, are to be sent back to their country on parole. § 120. Ambulances and military hospitals, as long Military as any sick or wounded are therein, are considered Hospitals. neutral and must be protected and respected by Army Medical Staff, and the like. the belligerents, but their neutrality ceases in case an ambulance or hospital should be held by a military force (Geneva Convention, article 1). Whereas the equipment of military hospitals may be appropriated by an enemy for the purpose of tending the wounded generally, the equipment of ambulances is as immune from seizure as the ambulances themselves (Geneva Convention, article 4). According to article 3 of the unratified additional articles of 1868 field hospitals and other temporary establishments which follow the troops on the field of battle to give temporary help to the sick and wounded are to enjoy the same privileges as ambulances. § 121. All persons employed in hospitals and ambulances, whether doctors, chaplains, or ambulance men, or members of the staff for superintendence and administration, enjoy perfect neutrality whilst so employed and so long as there remain any wounded to bring in or to succour (Geneva Convention, article 2). After occupation of the territory by the enemy, all these persons may either continue to fulfil their duties in the hospital or ambulance they belong to, or withdraw in perfect freedom for the purpose of rejoining the forces to which they belong. If they choose the latter, they must be delivered up by the occupant to the outposts of the enemy (Geneva Convention, article 3), and they can carry away all their private property and, further, their ambulances together with equipment (article 3). According to article I of the unratified additional articles of 1868, such persons shall be obliged to continue to fulfil their duties when necessary, even after occupation of a territory, and, when they make a demand to withdraw, the commander of the occupying forces shall fix the moment of their departure, which, except in case of military necessity, cannot under any circumstances be delayed. habitants Wounded. § 122. Inhabitants who bring help to the wounded Inmust be respected and remain free. If they receive nursing and nurse wounded in their houses, the houses shall the thereby enjoy special protection, and the inhabitants shall be exempted from the quartering of troops as well as from a part of the contributions of war that may be imposed (Geneva Convention, article 5). Article 4 of the unratified additional articles of 1868 contains an interpretation of this rule, explaining that, as regards the quartering of troops and contributions of war, account will only be taken in an equitable degree of the charitable zeal exhibited by inhabi tants. tive § 123. Hospitals, ambulances, and evacuations Distincmust fly, together with their national flags, a white Emblem. flag with a red cross, and the persons who are 1 See below, §§ 147 and 148. Treat ment of Dead Bodies. neutralised on account of their services to hospitals and the like are allowed to wear white arm badges with a red cross (Geneva Convention, article 7). Although the Geneva Convention stipulates expressly the red cross as its distinctive emblem, the parties do not object to non-Christian States who object to the cross on religious grounds adopting another emblem. Thus Turkey has substituted a red half-moon, and Persia a red sun for the cross.1 § 124. According to a customary rule of the Law of Nations belligerents have the right to demand from each other that dead bodies of their soldiers shall not be disgracefully treated, especially not mutilated, and shall as far as possible be collected and buried 2 by the victor on the battlefield. Pieces of equipment found upon such bodies are public enemy property and may, therefore, be appropriated as booty 3 by the victor. But money, jewellery, and other valuables found upon them, which are apparently private property, are not booty, and must, according to article 14 of the Hague Regulations, be handed over to the Bureau of Information 4 relative to the prisoners of war, which has to transmit them to those interested. 1 See below, § 207. 2 See Grotius, II. c. 19, §§ 1 and 3. Regarding a valuable suggestion of Ullmann's concerning sani. tary measures for the purpose of avoiding epidemics, see above, IV CAPTIVITY Grotius, III. c. 14-Bynkershoek, Quaest. jur. publ. I. c. 3-Vattel, III. §§ 148-154-Hall, §§ 131-134-Lawrence, § 187-Maine, pp. 160-167-Manning, pp. 210-222-Phillimore, III. § 95Twiss, II. § 177-Halleck, II. pp. 19-30-Taylor, §§ 519-524— Wharton, III. §§ 348-348D-Wheaton, § 344-Bluntschli, §§ 593626-Heffter, §§ 127-129-Lueder in Holtzendorff, IV. pp. 423445-Ullmann, § 150-Bonfils, Nos. 1119-1140-Despagnet, Nos. 545-550-Pradier-Fodéré, VII. Nos. 2796-2842-Rivier, II. pp. 273-279-Calvo, IV. §§ 2133-2157-Fiore, III. Nos. 1355-1362Martens, II. § 113-Longuet, §§ 77-83-Mérignhac, pp. 87-113Pillet, pp. 145-164-Kriegsgebrauch, pp. 11-18-Holland, War, Nos. 28-44-Eichelmann, " Über die Kriegsgefangenschaft" (1878) -Romberg, "Des belligérants et des prisonniers de guerre" (1894) -Triepel, "Die neuesten Fortschritte auf dem Gebiet des Kriegsrechts" (1894), pp. 41-55-Holls, "The Peace Conference at the Hague" (1900), pp. 145-151-Cros, "Condition et traitement des prisonniers de guerre” (1900). ment of regarding § 125. During antiquity, prisoners of war could be Developkilled, and they were very often at once actually Interna butchered or offered as sacrifices to the gods. If they tional Law were spared, they were regularly made slaves and only Captivity. exceptionally liberated. But belligerents also exchanged their prisoners or liberated them for ransom. During the first part of the Middle Ages prisoners of war could likewise be killed or made slaves. Under the influence of Christendom, however, their fate became by-and-by mitigated. Although they were often most cruelly treated, they were, during the second part of the Middle Ages, usually no longer killed and, with the disappearance of slavery in Europe, no longer enslaved. At the time when modern International Law gradually came into existence, killing and enslaving of prisoners of war had disappeared, but they were often treated like criminals and as an object of personal revenge. VOL. II. K |
