4 bound under all circumstances to maintain them, and, failing a special agreement between the belligerents, to provide quarters,1 food,2 and clothing 3 for them on the same footing as for its own troops. Officer prisoners must receive the same pay as officers of corresponding rank in the country where they are detained, the amount to be repaid by their Government after the conclusion of peace. All prisoners of war must enjoy every latitude in the exercise of their religion, including attendance at their own church service, provided only that they comply with the regulations for order issued by the military authorities. If a prisoner wants to make a will, it must be received by the authorities or drawn up on the same conditions as for soldiers of the national army. And the same rules are valid regarding death certificates and the burial of prisoners of war, and due regard must be paid to their grade and rank. Letters, money orders, valuables, and postal parcels destined for, or despatched by, prisoners of war must enjoy free postage, and gifts and relief in kind for them must be admitted free from all customs and other duties as well as payments for carriage by Government railways 5 (Article 16). 1 For details as to the quarters provided for officer prisoners of war during the World War, see Garner, i. § 336; and as to the quarters for other prisoners of war, see Garner, i. SS 337-341. 2 For details as to the food supplied to prisoners by the various belligerents during the World War, see Garner, i. §§ 343-347, who concludes, with regard to prisoners of war in Germany, that had it not been for the enormous quantities of food that were sent from England and France . . . it is not improbable that many prisoners would have died of starvation.' For details as to clothing supplied to prisoners by the various belligerents during the World War, see Garner, i. § 342, who concludes, with regard to prisoners in Germany, that "The reports of the representatives of the American Embassy substantiate in a number of instances the charges made against the Germans in respect to the insufficient supply of clothing.' During the World War the British Government was prepared to carry out this stipulation of Article 17 of the Hague Regulations, but the German Government refused. See The Times History and Encyclopaedia of the War, vi. p. 263. See also Garner, i. § 335. 5 For the manner in which the various belligerents in the World War carried out these provisions, see Garner, i. §§ 348-349. to be of War. § 127. Every individual who is deprived of his Who may liberty, not for a crime, but for military reasons, has claim a claim to be treated as a prisoner of war. Article 13 Prisoners of the Hague Regulations expressly enacts that noncombatant 1 members of armed forces, such as newspaper correspondents, reporters, sutlers, and contractors, who are captured and detained, may claim to be treated as prisoners of war, provided that they can produce a certificate from the military authorities of the army which they were accompanying. The Hague Regulations do not contain anything regarding the treatment of private enemy individuals, and enemy officials, whom a belligerent thinks it necessary 2 to make prisoners of war; but it is evident that they may claim all the privileges of such prisoners. They are not convicts, but are taken into captivity for military reasons, and are therefore prisoners of war. And the same is valid with regard to enemy civilians who at the outbreak of war are on the territory of a belligerent, and, for military reasons, are interned. They are not convicts either, but are deprived of their liberty for military reasons only, and are therefore prisoners of war.3 § 128.. Articles 8 and 9 of the Hague Regulations Dislay down the discipline to be observed in the case of cipline. prisoners of war:-Every prisoner who, if questioned, does not declare his true name and rank is liable to a curtailment of the advantages accorded to prisoners of his class. All prisoners are subject to the laws, regulations, and orders in force in the army of the belligerent that keeps them in captivity. Any act of insubordination on the part of prisoners may be 1 See above, § 79. 2 See above, §§ 116, 117. See above, § 100, and the author's Introduction to Roxburgh, Release punished in accordance with these laws,1 but apart from these laws, all kinds of severe measures are admissible to prevent a repetition of such acts. Escaped prisoners, who, after having rejoined their national army, are again taken prisoners, are not liable to any punishment for their flight. But if they are recaptured before they succeed in rejoining their army, or before they have quitted the territory occupied by the capturing forces, they are liable to disciplinary punishment.2 § 129. Articles 10 to 12 of the Hague Regulations on Parole. deal with release on parole 3 in the following manner :No belligerent is obliged to assent to a prisoner's request to be released on parole, and no prisoner may be forced to accept such release. But if the laws of his country authorise him to do so, and if he acquiesces, any prisoner may be released on parole. In such a case he is in honour bound scrupulously to fulfil the engagement he has contracted, both as regards his own Government, and the Government that released him. And his own Government is formally bound neither to request, nor to accept, from him any service incompatible with the parole given. Any prisoner released on parole and recaptured bearing arms against the belligerent who released him, or against his allies, forfeits the privilege of being treated as a prisoner of war, and may be tried by court-martial. The Hague Regulations do not lay down the punishment for such a breach of parole; but according to a customary rule of International Law the punishment may be capital. 1 Concerning the question whether after conclusion of peace such prisoners as are undergoing a term of imprisonment for offences against discipline may be detained, see below, § 275. 2 For the disciplinary measures taken against prisoners by the various belligerents during the World War, see Garner, i. 354. • See Knorr, Das Ehrenwort Kriegsgefangener in seiner geschichtlichen Entwickelung (1916). Infor § 130. According to Articles 14 and 16 of the Hague Bureau of Regulations every belligerent, and likewise a neutral mation. State which receives and detains members of the armed forces of the belligerents, must institute on the commencement of war a bureau of information relative to prisoners of war. This bureau is intended to answer all inquiries about prisoners. It must be furnished by all the services concerned with all the necessary information to enable it to make out, and keep up to date, a separate return for each prisoner, and it must, therefore, be kept informed of internments and changes as well as of admissions into hospital, of deaths, releases on parole, exchanges, and escapes. It must state in its return for each prisoner the regimental number, surname and name, age, place of origin, rank, unit, wounds, date and place of capture, of internment, of the wounds received, date of death, and any observations of a special character. This separate return must, after conclusion of peace, be sent to the Government of the other belligerent. The bureau must likewise receive and collect all objects of personal use, valuables, letters, and the like, found on battlefields,1 or left by prisoners who have been released on parole, or exchanged, or who have escaped, or died in hospital or ambulances, and must transmit these articles to those interested. The bureau must enjoy the privilege of free postage.2 Societies. § 131. A new and valuable rule, taken from the Relief Brussels Declaration, was introduced by Article 15 of the Hague Regulations, which makes it a duty for every belligerent to grant facilities to relief societies to serve as intermediaries for charity to prisoners of The condition of the admission of such societies war. 1 See above, § 124. * Such bureaux were set up at the outbreak of the World War; see Garner, i. § 332. As to the bureau VOL. II. N established by Great Britain, see Prisoners of War World War. and their agents is that the former are regularly constituted in accordance with the law of their country. Delegates of such societies may be admitted to the places of internment for the distribution of relief, as also to the halting-places of repatriated prisoners, through a personal permit of the military authorities, provided they give an engagement in writing that they will comply with all regulations by the authorities for order and police. § 131a. These rules of the Hague Convention had, during the as has been said, been laid down in time of peace; and in war the attitude of belligerents towards prisoners is liable to change.1 All the States involved in the World War charged one another with violating the Hague Regulations by the maltreatment of prisoners of war, and at an early stage they arranged for inspection by a neutral representative of the camps on their territory. The reports of the inspectors disclosed conditions at certain times in certain German camps which were very bad, and made it clear that almost everywhere in Germany prisoners were suffering great hardships through insufficient food and clothing. The reports on British and French camps were almost uniformly satisfactory. None the less, Germany disbelieved them, and resorted to reprisals for the alleged maltreatment of German prisoners, while the Allies, in their turn, feared that conditions in the camps in Germany were even worse than appeared from the reports. Whatever may be the value as evidence of some of the charges, undoubtedly the Hague Regulations were grievously violated by Germany in letter and in spirit. During 1916, Great Britain, France, and Germany 1 See an address by Lord Justice Younger in The Times of May 31, 1920. * See details in Garner, i. §§ 333334. |