第40章 THE MODERN LAWS OF WAR.(4)

When Meaux surrendered to the same kingit was stipulated that six of thebravest defenders should be delivered up to justicefour of whom were beheadedat Parisand its commander at once hanged on a tree outside the walls ofthe cityNo doubt this severity was due in a great degree to the hard measurewhich in those days was always dealt out to a force which had resisted anattack when there was no chance of successAnd this is one ground on whichthe savage practices which accompanied storms and sieges were explained;but it is always to be recollected that in these French and English warsthere was another cause of extreme truculenceIn the minds of those whowaged them they were wars of successionand questions therefore of the faithand submission due to a sovereign mixed themselves up with the ordinary considerationsof the fieldOn reading the accounts of them carefullythe special severitiesof our Edward III and our Henry V may be seen to be constantly explainedby the successful king's belief that he was dealing with traitors who hadsurrendered themselvesand in fact it appears to have been the convictionthat the population attacked owed legally fealty to the General of the armyattacking themwhich led specially to the cruelties of these warsjustas a conviction of the lawfulness of the severest punishment for heresy andinfidelity led to the savageness of the wars of religionThere is no doubtthat at present the Manuals state the practice correctlythat quarter oughtnever to be refused to men who surrenderunless they have been guilty ofsome such violation of the customs of war as would of itself expose themto the penalty of deathand when so guilty they should whenever practicablebe taken prisoners and put upon their trial before they are executedforit is seldom justifiable for a combatant to take the law into his own handsagainst an unresisting enemyThe point was one which was largely discussedat the Conference of Brusselsand it was proposed by some of the delegatesthat even spies should be no longer executed when takenbut should alwaysbe treated as prisoners of war.

We come now to portions of these Manuals of warlike customs which arepleasanter reading'The wounded must not only be sparedbut humanity commandsthat if they fall into the hands of their opponents the care taken of themshould be second only to the care taken of the wounded belonging to the captors.

Surgeons and others in attendance on the woundedthough forming part ofthe armed forcesare exempted from the liability of being attacked unlessthey divest themselves of their non-combatant character by actually usingarmsin which case they may be treated as part of the combatant bodyThesame amenity and under the same conditions should be extended to camp followers,and other persons in attendance on the army but not bearing arms,'The first and last parts of this paragraph give the results of the GenevaConventionthe furthest point which has at present been reached by humanedoctrine in the actual conduct of warThis Convention was signed on August221864It states that it was drawn up for the amelioration of the conditionof the wounded of armies in the fieldI will read you a few of its principalprovisions: