bers cannot be made prisoners of war. On leaving Chapter IV the ship they shall take with them the effects and surgical instruments which are their own private property. The staff shall continue to discharge its duties while necessary, and may afterward leave the ship when the commander-in-chief considers it possible. The belligerents shall guarantee the payment of their full salaries to the staffs which shall fall into their hands. be cared for ARTICLE 8. Soldiers and sailors who are taken on All sick and board when sick or wounded shall be protected and wounded to looked after by the captors, without regard to the alike. nation to which they belong. ARTICLE 9. The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick of Status of the one of the belligerents who fall into the hands of the captured. other, shall be prisoners of war. The captor shall decide, according to circumstances, whether it is best to detain them or send them to a port of his own country, to a neutral port, or even to a hostile port. In the last case, prisoners thus returned to their own country shall not serve again during the continuance of the war. It is, of course, understood that if the shipwrecked, wounded, or sick who are returned to their own country are so returned in consequence of an exchange, they are no longer regarded as prisoners of war under parole, but regain their own liberty of action. wounded, or [ARTICLE 10. The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick Disposition of who shall be landed at a neutral port, with the con-shipwrecked, sent of the local authorities, must, in the absence of a sick, landed contrary arrangement between the neutral State and at a neutral the belligerents, be guarded by the neutral State so port. Chapter IV Discussion of Article 10. that they cannot again take part in the military operations. The expense of entertainment and detention shall be borne by the State to which the wounded, shipwrecked, or sick shall belong.] The provisions of this article led to lively discussions. It was finally adopted by a bare majority, as follows: Ayes: Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, and Turkey, (10). Noes: United States of America, Belgium, China, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Siam, Sweden and Norway, and Switzerland, (9). According to Professor Zorn (Deutsche Rundschau, January, 1900, p. 136): "It is still questionable whether the true solution has been found." According to Article 10 a neutral State certainly would have the right to receive wounded and shipwrecked without violating its duties as a neutral, provided only that both belligerents were treated alike, but Professor Zorn calls attention to the possibility of a war between Russia and France on the one side and Germany on the other, with the Baltic Sea as the scene of the naval operations. Denmark being a neutral State and receiving shipwrecked and wounded, might by that very act confer upon Russia and France an advantage which might conceivably be of determining importance. Germany, in signing the treaty, reserved special liberty of action under this Article, and the same course was taken by the United States, Great Britain, and Turkey. In view of these facts, the Netherlands Govern- Chapter IV ment, on January 29, 1900, addressed an identical note to all the Signatory Powers, stating that the Convention had been signed with this reservation by these four Powers, and going on to say: "Under the circumstances, and also by reason of the desirability that there should be a uniformity established in the respective obligations resulting from this Convention for the Contracting Powers-a uniformity which would be endangered by the reservations of four of them, the Government of Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands deems that there should be a means of excluding the ratification of the said Article 10, which of itself, otherwise, is only of secondary interest. It is to be hoped that if this proposal is accepted, and I am happy to be able to inform you that the Imperial Russian Government agrees with us in our views on this, the subject of the exclusion of the above-mentioned Article - the ratification can be made with no further difficulty of internal form in the different countries, and it could be effected with little delay, which would be highly desirable."1 Article 10. On April 30, 1900, the Minister of the Netherlands Exclusion of in Washington informed the State Department that "the proposition of the Government of the Netherlands, which formed the subject of M. de Beaufort's communication of January 29, suggesting the exclusion of the ratification of Article 10 of the Convention, has received the assent of all the States which up to 1 Note by M. de Beaufort to Minister Newel. Mss. State Depart ment. K Chapter IV Binding clause. Ratification. the present time had made known their views, these Powers being in the majority, and the adoption of the proposition by the other interested States being probable, it is important that, with a view of expediting the filing of these acts of ratification, a uniform method for emphasizing this exclusion should be established now. The Cabinet of St. Petersburg suggests for the purpose a combination which consists in inserting in the act of Ratification a copy of the Convention in which the text of Article 10 would be replaced by the word "EXCLU" (excluded), while still preserving the proper numbering of the Articles. Copies prepared in conformity with the method above indicated will be placed at the disposal of these Governments who wish them." 1 On May 1, 1900, the United States Government made known its acquiescence in this proposition of the Russian and Netherlands Governments, and the Convention with the word "EXCLU" inserted in the place of Article 10 was duly ratified, and as ratified duly proclaimed by the United States on August 3, 1900. ARTICLE 11. The rules contained in the above articles shall be binding only upon the Contracting Powers in case of war between two or more of them. Such rules shall cease to be binding from the time. when in a war between Contracting Powers one of the belligerents is joined by a non-adhering Power. ARTICLE 12. The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as follows. 1 Baron de Gevers to Secretary Hay. Mss. State Department. The ratifications shall be deposited at The Hague. Chapter IV On the receipt of each ratification a procès verbal shall be drawn up, a copy of which, duly certified, shall be sent through the diplomatic channel to all the Contracting Powers. ARTICLE 13. The non-signatory Powers who have Adherence. accepted the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, shall be allowed to adhere to the present Convention. For this purpose they shall make their adhesion known to the Contracting Powers by means of a written communication addressed to the Netherlands Government, and by it communicated to all the other Contracting Powers. ARTICLE 14. In the event of one of the High Con- Denunciation. tracting Powers denouncing the present Convention, such denunciation shall not take effect until a year after the notification made in writing to the Netherlands Government, and forthwith communicated by it to the other Contracting Powers. This notification shall only affect the notifying Power. The treaty embodying these Articles has since been. ratified by all the Powers represented at the Peace Conference. articles At a meeting of the full Committee, on June 20, Additional Captain Mahan, on behalf of the United States of proposed by America, proposed the adoption of the following three additional Articles: 1. In the case of neutral vessels of any kind, hospital ships, or others, being on the scene of a naval engagement, which may as an act of humanity save men in peril from drowning from the results of the engagement, such neutral vessels shall not be Captain |