ARTICLE 56. The property of the municipalities. that of religions, charitable, and educational institutiona, and those of arts and science, even when State property, shall be treated as private property. All seizure, destruction, or intentional damage done to such institutions, to historical monuments, works of art or science, is prohibited, and should be made the subject of civil and criminal proceedings. Dnty of SECTION IV. ON THE DETENTION OF BELLIGERENTS AND THE CARE OF THE WOUNDED, IN NEUTRAL COUNTRIES ARTICLE 57. A neutral State which receives in neutrals as to its territory troops belonging to the belligerent armies shall detain them, if possible, at some distance from the theatre of war. belligerent troops. Their detention. Supplies. Passage of wounded or neutral It can keep them in camps, and even confine them in fortresses or localities assigned for this purpose. It shall decide whether officers may be left at liberty, on giving their parole that they will not leave the neutral territory without authorization. ARTICLE 58. Failing a special Convention, the neutral State shall supply the detained with food, clothing, and relief required by humanity. At the conclusion of peace, the expenses caused by the detention shall be repaid. ARTICLE 59. A neutral State may authorize the sick belliger. passage, through its territory, of wounded or sick ents through belonging to the belligerent armies, on condition that the trains bringing them shall carry neither combatants nor war material. In such a case, the neutral State is bound to adopt such measures of safety and control as may be necessary for the territory. purpose. Wounded and sick brought under these conditions Chapter IV into neutral territory by one of the belligerents, and belonging to the hostile party, must be guarded by the neutral State so as to insure their not taking part again in the military operations. The same duty shall devolve on the neutral State with regard to wounded or sick of the other army who may be committed to its care. ARTICLE 60. The Geneva Convention applies to Application of sick and wounded detained in neutral territory. Geneva Convention. the treaties. Upon the general value of the two treaties set forth The value of in this chapter, the judgment of two of the most eminent international lawyers of the Conference, may be quoted. Zorn's Professor Zorn1 declares the treaty on the exten- Professor sion of the Geneva rules to naval warfare to be " a opinion. work which can and will receive the grateful approbation of all civilized States," and he considers the treaty on the laws of war to deserve equal commendation. "This work alone," he continues, "would suffice to give the lie to the ignorant and frivolous critics who endeavor to characterize the labors of The Hague with the words 'threshing out Russian straw.' Professor de Martens of Russia, in an article in the Professor de North American Review, for November, 1899, says: -opinion. "The treaty on the laws and customs of war will certainly be as notable as the treaty on arbitration. By reason of this treaty the peaceful and unarmed inhabitants of the territory of belligerents will have 1 Deutsche Rundschau, January, 1900, p. 136. Martens' M Chapter IV Martens' opinion. the right to demand that their lives, their religious Professor de convictions, and their private property shall be respected. Through it prisoners of war will be treated, not as enemies, but as disarmed and honorable adversaries, worthy of respect. Through it social institutions, beneficiary establishments, religious, scientific, and otherwise, which find themselves on disputed territory, shall have the right to demand and to exact of the enemy respect for the inviolability of their property and their interests. 66 Finally, the Red Cross treaty for times of naval warfare, signed by the Conference at The Hague, is the happy solution of the question which the Powers of Europe have been studying for thirty years. Since 1868 the Additional Articles' to the Treaty of Geneva have existed, whereby the beneficent influence of the treaty of Geneva on wounded and sick soldiers was also extended to sea combats. For thirty-one years diplomatic negotiations have been carried on on this question; all the Red Cross conferences which have taken place in the last twenty years have proclaimed the necessity of recognizing the Red Cross treaty for the sick and wounded in naval warfare. But nothing effectual was accomplished up to the Conference at The Hague. It was this Conference that caused the final adoption by (twenty-six) Powers of the principle whereby the wounded in times of naval warfare shall have the same right to have their person, their life, their health, and their property respected as the wounded in case of warfare on land." and signifi estimated. argument Although of secondary importance when compared Chapter IV to the chief work of the Conference, it is certainly a mistake for so-called "friends of Peace" to disparage the value and significance of these treaties. Their value The humanizing of war, while not as inspiring an cance should object as the peaceful adjustment of international not be underdifferences, is a step in the same direction; for it tends, on a comparatively small scale, but still most effectively, to alleviate suffering and to save human lives. The argument that war should be made as Fallacious terrible as possible, in order to prevent it, logically regarding leads to savagery, no quarter, and the raising of the war. black flag. It is quite as illogical as the exploded theory of criminal law, according to which severity of punishment, torture, and corruption of blood were regarded as ordinary deterrent agencies, with the result of a frightful increase of the most heinous crimes, since the punishment for them was hardly more severe than for minor offences. The Conference has kept as closely as possible to the golden mean between the sentimentality which would impair the efficiency of National Power at a supreme crisis, and the demands of unbridled military license. Its work in this direction may confidently await the verdict of history. Diplomatic character of the Third Committee. CHAPTER V THE WORK OF THE THIRD COMMITTEE: GOOD OF- THE deliberations of the First and Second Comthe work of mittees were largely, if not wholly, of a technical, military, or naval character, and the results obtained could, perhaps, have been accomplished by a meeting of experts, corresponding to the famous assemblies of Geneva and Brussels or to the Postal and Marine Conferences of a later date. The task allotted to the Third Committee, on the other hand, was essentially diplomatic in its nature, touching the sovereignty of States most directly, and comprising Analogy with possibilities of great and serious danger. The analConventions. Ogy between this endeavor and the work of Ameri Constitutional The President can Constitutional Conventions-notably the great Convention of 1787-is not as remote as it may perhaps appear at first sight. A general code or Magna Charta, guaranteeing rights and imposing duties, even in the most indefinite manner, after all resembles a constitution rather than a treaty, and constructiveness is quite as essential to its preparation as the spirit of compromise. The presidency of this Committee was conferred Presidents. upon M. Leon Bourgeois, the former French Prime and honorary |