60. Impositions in kind, when they are not paid for in cash, and contributions of war, are authenticated by receipts. Measures should be taken to assure the regularity and bona fide character of these receipts.

III. Prisoners of War

The confinement of prisoners of war is not in the nature of a penalty for crime; neither is it an act of vengeance. It is a temporary detention only, entirely without penal character. In the following provisions, therefore, regard has been had to the consideration due them as prisoners, and to the necessity of their secure detention.

61. Prisoners of war are the prisoners of the captor's government, and not of the individuals or corps who captured them.

62. They are subject to the laws and regulations in force in the army of the enemy.

63. They must be treated with humanity.

64. All articles in their personal possession, arms excepted, remain their private property.

65. Every prisoner of war is obliged to disclose, when duly interrogated upon the subject, his true name and grade. Should he fail to do so, he may be deprived of all, or a part, of the privileges accorded to prisoners of his rank and station.

66. Prisoners of war may be confined in towns, fortresses, camps, or other places, with an obligation not to go beyond certain specific limits; but they may only be imprisoned as an indispensable measure of security. 67. Every act of insubordination on the part of a prisoner of war authorizes the resort to suitable measures of severity on the part of the government in whose hands he is.

68. Prisoners of war attempting to escape may, after having been summoned to halt or surrender, be fired upon. If an escaped prisoner be recaptured before being able to rejoin his own army or to quit the territory of his captor, he is only liable to disciplinary penalties; or he may be subjected to a more rigorous confinement. If, after having successfully effected his escape, he is again made a prisoner, he incurs no penalty for his previous escape. If, however, the prisoner so recaptured, or retaken, has given his parole not to attempt to escape, he may be deprived of his rights as a prisoner of war.

69. The government having prisoners of war in its hands is obliged to support them. If there be no agreement between the belligerents upon this point, prisoners of war are placed, in all matters regarding food and clothing, upon the peace footing of the troops of the State which holds them in captivity.

70. Prisoners can not be compelled to take any part whatsoever in operations of war. Neither can they be compelled to give information concerning their army or country.

71. They may be employed upon public works that have no direct connection with the captor's military operations; provided, however, that such labor is not detrimental to health, nor humiliating to their military rank, if they belong to the army, or to their official or social position, if they are civilians, not connected with any branch of the military service. 72. In the event of their being authorized to engage in private industries, their pay for such services may be collected by the authority in charge of them. The sums so received may be employed in bettering their condition, or may be paid to them, at their release, subject to deduction, if that course be deemed expedient, of the expense of their maintenance.

IV. Termination of Captivity

The right of detaining individuals in captivity exists only during the continuance of hostilities. Hence:

73. The captivity of prisoners of war ceases, as a matter of right, at the conclusion of peace; but their liberation is then regulated by agreement between the belligerents.

74. Captivity also ceases, in so far as sick and wounded prisoners are concerned, so soon as they are found to be unfit for military service. It is the duty of the captor, under such circumstances, to send them back to their country.

75. During the continuance of hostilities, prisoners of war may be released in accordance with cartels of exchange, agreed upon by the bellig

erents.

76. Without formal exchange, prisoners may be liberated on parole, provided they are not forbidden by their own governments to give paroles. In such a case they are obliged, as a matter of military honor, to perform with scrupulous exactness the engagements which they have freely undertaken, and which should be clearly specified. On its part, their own government should not demand or accept from them any service contrary to, or inconsistent with, their plighted word.

77. A prisoner of war can not be constrained to accept a release on parole. For a similar reason, the enemy's government is not obliged to accede to the demand of a prisoner of war to be released on parole.

78. Every prisoner of war liberated on parole who is recaptured in arms against the government to which he has given such parole may be deprived of his rights and privileges as a prisoner of war, unless since his liberation he has been included in an unconditional exchange of prisoners.

V. Troops Interned in Neutral Territory

399

It is universally admitted that a neutral state can not, without compromising its neutrality, lend aid to either belligerent, or permit them to make use of its territory. On the other hand, considerations of humanity dictate that asylum should not be refused to individuals who take refuge in neutral territory to escape death or captivity. From these principles the following provisions are deduced. They are calculated to reconcile, to some extent, the opposing interests involved.

79. It is the duty of a neutral state within whose territory commands or individuals have taken refuge to intern them at points as far removed as possible from the theater of war. It should pursue a similar course towards those who make use of its territory for warlike operations or to render military aid to either belligerent.

80. Interned troops may be guarded in camps or fortified places. The neutral state decides whether officers are to be released on parole by taking an engagement not to quit neutral territory without authority.

81. In the event of there being no agreement with the belligerents concerning the maintenance of interned troops, the neutral state shall supply them with food and clothing and the immediate aid demanded by humanity. It also takes such steps as it deems necessary to care for the arms and other public property brought into its territory by the interned troops. When peace has been concluded, or sooner if possible, the expenses occasioned by the internment are reimbursed to the neutral state by the belligerent state to whom the interned troops belong.

82. The provisions of the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864 (articles 10-18, 35-40, 59, and 74 above given), are applicable to the sanitary staff, as well as to the sick and wounded, who take refuge in, or are conveyed to, neutral territory.

83. Evacuations of sick and wounded not prisoners of war may pass through neutral territory, provided the personnel and material accompanying them are exclusively sanitary. It is the duty of the neutral state through whose territory the evacuation is made to take such measures of safety and necessary control as it may deem necessary to the rigorous performance of its neutral duty.

PART THIRD

PENAL SANCTION

If any of the foregoing rules be violated, the offending parties should be punished, after a judicial hearing, by the belligerent in whose hands they are.

84. Offenders against the laws of war are liable to the punishments specified in the penal, or criminal, law.

This mode of repression, however, is only applicable when the person of the offender can be secured. In the contrary case, the criminal law is powerless, and, if the injured party deem the misdeed so serious in character as to make it necessary to recall the enemy to a respect for law, no other resource remains than a resort to reprisals. Reprisals are an exception to the general rule of equity, that an innocent person ought not to suffer for the guilty. They are also at variance with the rule that each belligerent should conform to the rules of war, without reciprocity on the part of the enemy. This necessary rigor, however, is modified to some extent by the following restrictions: 85. Reprisals are formally prohibited in all cases in which the injury complained of has been repaired.

86. In all cases of serious importance in which reprisals appear to be absolutely necessary, they shall not exceed, in kind or degree, nor in their mode of application, the exact violation of the law of war committed by the enemy. They can only be resorted to with the express authority of the general in chief. They must conform, in all cases, to the laws of humanity and morality.

CONVENTION REGARDING HOSPITAL SHIPS, SIGNED AT THE HAGUE, DECEMBER 21, 1904

His Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia; His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, etc., etc., and Apostolical King of Hungary; His Majesty the King of the Belgians; His Majesty the Emperor of China; His Majesty the Emperor of Corea; His Majesty the King of Denmark; His Majesty the King of Spain; the President of the United States of America; the President of the United Mexican States; the President of the French Republic; His Majesty the King of the Hellenes; His Majesty the King of Italy; His Majesty the Emperor of Japan; His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxemburg, Duke of Nassau; His Highness the Prince of Montenegro; Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands; the President of the Peruvian Republic; His Imperial Majesty the Shah of Persia; His Majesty the King of Portugal and of the Algarves, etc.; His Majesty the King of Roumania; His Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias; His Majesty the King of Servia; His Majesty the King of Siam, and the Swiss Federal Council,

Taking into consideration that the convention concluded at The Hague on July 29, 1899, for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, has sanctioned the principle of the intervention of the Red Cross in naval wars by provisions in favor of hospital ships;

Desirous of concluding a convention to the end of facilitating by additional provisions the mission of such ships;

Have appointed as their plenipotentiaries, to wit:

[Names]

Who, after communication of their full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed on the following provisions:

ARTICLE I

Hospital ships, concerning which the conditions set forth in articles 1, 2, and 3 of the convention concluded at The Hague on July 29, 1899, for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, are fulfilled, shall be exempted, in time of war, from all dues and taxes imposed on vessels for the benefit of the state, in the ports of the contracting parties.

ARTICLE 2

The provision of the foregoing article does not prevent the application, by means of visitation or other formalities of fiscal or other laws in force at said ports.

ARTICLE 3

The rule laid down in article is binding only on the contracting powers in case of war between two or more of them.

The said rule shall cease to be binding from the time when a noncontracting power shall join one of the belligerents in a war between contracting powers.

ARTICLE 4

The present convention which, bearing the date of this day, may be signed until the first of October, 1905, by the powers expressing their desire to do so, shall be ratified as soon as possible. The ratifications shall be deposited at The Hague.

A procès-verbal of the deposit of the ratifications shall be drawn up and a copy thereof, duly certified, shall be delivered through the diplomatic channel to all the contracting powers.

ARTICLE 5

The nonsignatory powers are permitted to adhere to the present convention after October 1, 1905.

They shall, to that end, make their adhesion known to the contracting powers by means of a written notification addressed to the Government of the Netherlands and communicated by the latter to the other contracting powers.