FOURTH MEETING JUNE 20, 1899 Mr. Staal presiding. The meeting opens at 4 o'clock. The minutes of the meeting of May 23 are adopted. The President states that the first business on the agenda is the examination of the report of the Second Commission upon a series of provisions having [19] for object an adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention, and the vote on the articies proposed to the Conference by the Commission. Count de Macedo declares that he does not wish to go so far as to ask the postponement of the first part of the business on the agenda, but he remarks that the vote on the ten articles presented cannot be final inasmuch as they have been referred by the Second Commission to the subcommission. Mr. Martens states that the Commission has finally adopted the ten articles submitted to it. What has been referred to the committee of examination of the first subcommission are the additional proposals presented by Captain MAHAN. Count de Macedo replies that in his opinion, it might happen that the resolutions taken would again modify the text of the articles adopted and that, in this case, the Conference would have to recommence its examination. He adds that, whatever may be the decision reached, he believes it incumbent upon him to renew the declaration he has made in the meeting of the Second Commission, which is couched in these terms: Count DE MACEDO, first delegate of Portugal, declares, requesting the Second Commission to record this declaration and consider it as a general reservation to the ten articles just read and discussed, that the instructions of his Government being naturally limited to the question of adhesion to the general principles contained in the MOURAVIEFF circular and to the acceptance under an equally general form of the application of these principles, his favorable, though silent, vote on the doctrine of the aforesaid articles has no final character even within the limits that his powers permit him to vote (that is ad referendum); and that this character cannot be obtained until he receives, from the Government of His Most Faithful Majesty, instructions given with a full knowledge of the text just voted upon. The President records the declaration of the Count DE MACEDO. The PRESIDENT: I am certainly assured of unanimous adhesion in congratulating the Second Commission on having been the first to bring us a tangible result of common good-will. As Mr. RENAULT SO well expresses it in his remarkable report, we have before us "a project which will reconcile the interests involved, and will satisfy the hope, expressed for so long a time, that maritime warfare should no longer be deprived of the humanitarian and charitable element which the Geneva Convention has added to war on land." I must ask you to address our thanks especially to Mr. ASSER who has so competently presided over the deliberations of the subcommission. Mr. RENAULT, who has been kind enough to take charge of the report and who has also given us the lasting and systematic commentary on the text, is entitled to our full gratitude. Mr. Asser considers that it will suffice to read the text of the articles voted in the Commission in order that the Conference be enabled to reach a decision regarding them. Referring to the observation made by the Count DE MACEDO, Mr. ASSER explains that, although the Commission voted that the three additional articles presented by Captain MAHAN be referred to the drafting committee, it intended to maintain in full the text of the ten articles submitted to the approval of the Conference. It is possible, though not probable, that this reference will involve certain modifications in the text of these articles. In this case the new text would be submitted to the Conference in a subsequent meeting. But it would be regrettable if the plenary assembly were to separate to-day without ratifying the proposals of the Second Commission. Mr. ASSER then reads the ten articles as the Second Commission has adopted them: ARTICLE 1 Military hospital ships, that is to say, ships constructed or assigned by States specially and solely with a view to assist the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, the names of which have been communicated to the belligerent Powers at the commencement or during the course of hostilities, and in any case before they are employed, shall be respected and cannot be captured while hostilities last. These ships, moreover, are not on the same footing as men-of-war as regards their stay in a neutral port. ARTICLE 2 Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized relief societies, shall likewise be respected and exempt from capture, if the belligerent Power to which they belong has given them an official commission and has notified their names to the hostile Power at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. These ships shall be provided with a certificate from the competent authorities, declaring that they had been under their control while fitting out and on final departure. ARTICLE 3 Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized societies of neutral countries, shall be respected and exempt [20] from capture, if the neutral Power to which they belong has given them an official commission and has notified their names to the belligerent Powers at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. ARTICLE 4 The ships mentioned in Articles 1, 2, and 3 shall afford relief and assistance to the wounded, sick and shipwrecked of the belligerents without distinction of nationality. The Governments undertake not to use these ships for any military purpose. These ships must in nowise hamper the movements of the combatants. During and after an engagement they will act at their own risk and peril. The belligerents will have the right to control and search them; they can refuse to help them, order them off, make them take a certain course, and put a commissioner on board; they can even detain them, if important circumstances require it. As far as possible the belligerents shall enter in the log of the hospital ships the orders which they give them. ARTICLE 5 Military hospital ships shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of green about a metre and a half in breadth. The ships mentioned in Articles 2 and 3 shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of red about a metre and a half in breadth. The boats of the ships above-mentioned, as also small craft which may be used for hospital work, shall be distinguished by similar painting. All hospital ships shall make themselves known by hoisting, with their national flag, the white flag with a red cross provided by the Geneva Convention. ARTICLE 6 Neutral merchantmen, yachts, or vessels, having, or taking on board, sick, wounded, or shipwrecked of the belligerents, cannot be captured for so doing, but they are liable to capture for any violation of neutrality they may have committed. ARTICLE 7 The religious, medical, and hospital staff of any captured ship is inviolable, and its members cannot be made prisoners of war. On leaving the ship they take with them the objects and surgical instruments which are their own private property. This staff shall continue to discharge its duties while necessary, and can afterwards leave when the commander in chief considers it possible. The belligerents must guarantee to the said staff when it has fallen into their hands the enjoyment of their salaries intact. ARTICLE 8 Sailors and soldiers on board when sick or wounded, to whatever nation they belong, shall be protected and tended by the captors. ARTICLE 9 The shipwrecked, wounded or sick of one of the belligerents who fall into the power of the other, are prisoners of war. The captor must decide, according to circumstances, whether to keep them, send them to a port of his own country, to a neutral port, or even to the enemy port. In this last case, prisoners thus repatriated cannot serve again while the war lasts. ARTICLE 10 The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick, who are landed at a neutral port, with the consent of the local authorities, must, unless an arrangement is made to the contrary between the neutral State and the belligerent States, be guarded by the neutral State so as to prevent their again taking part in the operations of the war. The expenses of tending them in hospital and interning them shall be borne by the State to which the shipwrecked, sick or wounded belong. Count de Grelle Rogier asks if it would not be preferable to say in Article 10, paragraph 2: "the expenses of tending them in hospital and, the case arising, of interning them shall be borne, etc., etc." Mr. Renault, reporter, opposes this amendment and requests the Conference to maintain Article 10. The President consults the Conference on the adoption of the ten articles proposed. These articles are adopted. The delegate of Japan, Mr. Motono, makes the following declaration : In the meeting of May 30, 1899, of the first subcommission of the Second Commission, I had the honor, in the name of the delegation of Japan, to call the attention of the subcommission to a deficiency which seemed to us to exist both in the provisions of the Geneva Convention of 1864 and in the additional articles of 1868. The wounded and the sick of the army on land as well as the hospitals, ambulances and evacuations are protected by the Geneva Convention. [21] The additional articles of 1868 had in view the protection in a certain measure of the hospital ships, their staff, and also the wounded, sick and shipwrecked aboard these ships; but the general purport of these provisions would seem to apply only to the victims of maritime warfare. The Imperial Government of Japan considers it necessary, in the interest of humanity, to extend to hospital ships, charged with the transport by sea of the wounded and sick of the army on land, the protection accorded by the Geneva Convention to military hospitals, ambulances and evacuations. It is with this end in view that I have had the honor, in accordance with the instructions of our Government, of expressing, in the meeting of May 30 of the first subcommission of the Second Commission, the desire to see an adequate provision inserted in the present project. The first subcommission of the Second Commission decided in the same meeting to take our desire into account, and Mr. RENAULT in his remarkable report presented to you on the work of the Second Commission, has inserted the general purport of the innovation introduced into the present project in these terms: In the provisions submitted to the Conference by the Commission, we have spoken of wounded, sick, and shipwrecked, not of victims of maritime warfare. The latter expression, although generally accurate, would not always be so, and therefore should not appear. The rules set forth are to be applied from the moment that there are wounded and sick on board seagoing vessels, it being immaterial where the wound was given or the sickness contracted, whether on land or at sea. Consequently, if a vessel's duty is to carry by sea the wounded or sick of land forces, this vessel and these sick and wounded come under the provisions of our project. On the other hand, it is clear that if sick or wounded soldiers are disembarked and placed in an ambulance or a hospital, the Geneva Convention then applies to them in all respects. As this observation seems to us to respond fully to the remarks made in the subcommission on this point, we think it unnecessary to insert any provision dealing especially with it. These observations in the report of the Second Commission give full satisfaction to the desire expressed by the Imperial Government of Japan. In consequence, and to avoid all misunderstanding in the future as to the interpretation of the two texts of the present project relating to the above mentioned point, I have the honor to ask you, in the name of the delegation of Japan, that the above-cited passage of the report be inserted in the protocol of the Peace Conference. The President records the declaration of Mr. MOTONO and states that its examination will be referred to the committee charged with the drafting of the Final Act. Mr. Delyanni makes the following declaration: I have to-day taken part in the examination of the report and the articles concerning the adaptation of the principles of the Geneva Convention to maritime warfare, but I cannot sign the general act of the Conference which is to be drawn up, before submitting the text to my Government and receiving authorization to sign it. The Ottoman delegation makes the following declaration: The Ottoman delegates declare that they cannot affix their signatures to the general act of the Conference, implying approval of the articles voted upon relating to the adaptation of the principles of the Geneva Convention to maritime warfare, before submitting it to their Government, and receiving instructions therefrom. The President records these declarations. The PRESIDENT states that the second part of the business on the agenda is the appointment of the committee charged with giving the conventional form to the decisions of the Conference, that is to say, drawing up the necessary documents in accordance with the established formulas. He proposes to constitute the committee of his Excellency Count NIGRA, Messrs. ASSER, DESCAMPS, MARTENS, RENAULT, Baron VON STENGEL, and adds Mr. RAFFALOVICH to represent therein the secretariat general. This selection is ratified by the Conference. [22] Annex to the Minutes, Fourth Meeting, June 20 1 REPORT TO THE CONFERENCE 1 The Second Commission has adopted, on the report of a drafting committee,2 a series of provisions having for its aim the adaptation of the principles of the Convention of Geneva to maritime warfare. It now submits these provisions to [The Articles (1-10) quoted in this report were approved by the Conference without change. Pt. i, ante, p. 28. Several variations in their wording in the report are seen, by a reference to the proceedings of the Second Commission and the first subcommission thereof (pt. iii, post, pp. 387-90, 459 et seq.), to be typographical or clerical errors; and the proper corrections therein have been presumed in this translation.] 2 This committee consisted of Vice Admiral FISHER, Captain SCHEINE, Captain SIEGEL, and Professor RENAULT as reporter. Lieutenant Colonel CHARLES À COURT and Lieutenant OVTCHINNIKOw also participated in the work of this committee as associate members. |