ART. 45. The bearer of a flag of truce forfeits his right of inviolability, if it be proved in a positive and irrefutable manner that he has taken advantage of his privileged position to incite to, or commit an act of treachery.

CHAPTER II. Of Capitulations

ART. 46. The conditions of capitulations shall be settled by the contracting parties.

These conditions should not be contrary to military honor.

When once settled by a convention they should be scrupulously observed by both sides.

CHAPTER III. Of Armistices

ART. 47. An armistice suspends warlike operations by a mutual agreement between the belligerents. Should the duration thereof not be fixed, the belligerents may resume operations at any moment, provided, however, that proper warning be given to the enemy, in accordance with the conditions of the armistice.

ART. 48. An armistice may be general or local. The former suspends all warlike operations between the belligerents; the latter only those between certain portions of the belligerent armies, and within a fixed radius.

ART. 49. An armistice should be notified officially and without delay to the competent authorities, and to the troops. Hostilities are suspended immediately after the notification.

ART. 50. It rests with the contracting parties to define in the clauses of the armistice the relations which shall exist between the populations.

ART. 51. The violation of the armistice by either of the parties gives to the other the right of terminating it.

ART. 52. The violation of the clauses of an armistice by private individuals, on their own personal initiative, only affords the right of demanding the punishment of the guilty persons, and, if there is occasion for it, an indemnity for losses sustained.

CHAPTER IV. Of Belligerents interned, and of Wounded treated, in Neutral Territory

ART. 53. The neutral State receiving in its territory troops belonging to the belligerent armies, will intern them, so far as it may be possible, away from the theater of war. They may be kept in camps, or even confined in fortresses, or in places appropriated to this purpose.

It will decide whether the officers may be released on giving their parole not to quit the neutral territory without authority.

ART. 54. In default of a special agreement, the neutral State which receives the belligerent troops will furnish the interned with provisions, clothing, and such aid as humanity demands.

The expenses incurred by the internment will be made good at the conclusion of peace.

ART. 55. The neutral State may authorize the transport across its territory of the wounded and sick belonging to the belligerent armies, provided that the trains which convey them do not carry either the personnel or matériel of war.

In this case the neutral State is bound to take the measures necessary for the safety and control of the operation. ART. 56. The Convention of Geneva is applicable to the sick and wounded interned on neutral territory.

APPENDIX IV

AMELIORATION OF THE CONDITION OF THE WOUNDED IN WAR

CONVENTION FOR THE AMELIORATION OF THE CONDITION OF THE WOUNDED IN ARMIES IN THE FIELD BETWEEN SWITZERLAND, BADEN, BELGIUM, DENMARK, SPAIN, FRANCE, HESSE, ITALY, NETHERLANDS, PORTUGAL, PRUSSIA, WÜRTEMBURG, AND ACCEDED TO BY SWEDEN AND NORWAY, GREECE, GREAT BRITAIN, MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN, TURKEY, BAVARIA, AUSTRIA, RUSSIA, ROUMANIA, PERSIA, SALVADOR, MONTENEGRO, SERVIA, BOLIVIA, CHILI, ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, PERU, AND JAPAN.

Concluded August 22, 1864; ratifications exchanged at Geneva, June 22, 1865; acceded to by the United States, March 1, 1882; accession of United States accepted by Switzerland, on behalf of the Powers, June 9, 1882; proclaimed as to the original convention, but with reserve as to the additional articles, July 26, 1882.

After reciting the desire of the different governments "to soften, as much as depends on them, the evils of warfare, to suppress its useless hardships and improve the fate of wounded soldiers on the field of battle," the Convention names the negotiators,

Who, after having exchanged their powers and found them in good and due form, agree to the following articles:

ARTICLE 1. Ambulances and military hospitals shall be acknowledged to be neuter, and as such, shall be protected and respected by belligerents so long as any sick or wounded may be therein.

Such neutrality shall cease if the ambulances or hospitals should be held by a military force.

ART. 2. Persons employed in hospitals and ambulances, comprising the staff for superintendence, medical service, administration, transport of wounded, as well as chaplains, shall participate in the benefit of neutrality, whilst so employed, and so long as there remain any wounded to bring in or to succor.

ART. 3. The persons designated in the preceding article may, even after occupation by the enemy, continue to fulfill their duties in the hospital or ambulance which they serve, or may withdraw in order to rejoin the corps to which they belong.

Under such circumstances, when these persons shall cease from their functions, they shall be delivered by the occupying army to the outposts of the enemy.

ART. 4. As the equipment of military hospitals remains subject to the laws of war, persons attached to such hospitals cannot, in withdrawing, carry away any articles but such as are their private property.

Under the same circumstances an ambulance shall, on the contrary, retain its equipment.

ART. 5. Inhabitants of the country who may bring help to the wounded, shall be respected and shall remain free. The generals of the belligerent Powers shall make it their care to inform the inhabitants of the appeal addressed to their humanity, and of the neutrality which will be the consequence of it.

Any wounded man entertained and taken care of in a house shall be considered as a protection thereto. Any inhabitant who shall have entertained wounded men in his house shall be exempted from the quartering of troops, as well as from a part of the contributions of war which may be imposed.

ART. 6. Wounded or sick soldiers shall be entertained and taken care of, to whatever nation they may belong.

Commanders in chief shall have the power to deliver immediately to the outposts of the enemy soldiers who have

been wounded in an engagement, when circumstances permit this to be done, and with the consent of both parties.

Those who are recognized, after their wounds are healed, as incapable of serving, shall be sent back to their country. The others may also be sent back, on condition of not again bearing arms during the continuance of the war.

Evacuations, together with the persons under whose directions they take place, shall be protected by an absolute neutrality.

ART. 7. A distinctive and uniform flag shall be adopted for hospitals, ambulances, and evacuations. It must, on every occasion, be accompanied by the national flag. An arm badge (brassard) shall also be allowed for individuals neutralized, but the delivery thereof shall be left to military authority.

The flag and the arm badge shall bear a red cross on a white ground.

ART. 8. The details of execution of the present convention shall be regulated by the commanders in chief of belligerent armies, according to the instructions of their respective governments, and in conformity with the general principles laid down in this convention.

ART. 9. The high contracting Powers have agreed to communicate the present convention to those Governments which have not found it convenient to send plenipotentiaries to the International Conference at Geneva, with an invitation to accede thereto; the protocol is for that purpose left open.

ART. 10. The present convention shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Berne in four months, or sooner if possible.

[Additional articles, extending to naval forces the advantages of the above convention, were concluded Oct. 20, 1868, by most of the powers of Europe, and later acceded to by the United States; but they have never been ratified. See U. S. Treaties, p. 1153.]1

1 See Holls, "Hague Peace Conference," 121 et seq.