The Secretary of State, to whom was addressed a resolution of the Senate, dated the seventeenth of May, 1881, requesting him “to furnish to the Senate copies (translations) of Articles of Convention signed at Geneva, Switzerland, August 22, 1864, touching the treatment of those wounded in war, together with the forms of ratification employed by the several governments, parties thereto,” has the honor to lay before the President the papers called for by the resolution.
In view of the reference made, in the annual message of the President, to the Geneva convention, the Secretary of State deems it unnecessary now to enlarge upon the advisability of the adhesion of the United States to an international compact at once so humane in its character and so universal in its application as to commend itself to the adoption of nearly all the civilized powers.
James G. Blaine.
Department of State,
Washington, December 10, 1881.
THE “ADDITIONAL ARTICLES” CONCERNING THE RED CROSS FOR THE NAVY.
The governments of North Germany, Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and Würtemberg, desiring to extend to armies on the sea the advantages of the convention concluded at Geneva the twenty-second of August, 1864, for the amelioration of the condition of wounded soldiers in armies in the field, and to further particularize some of the stipulations of the said convention, proposed and signed the following additional articles:
Additional Articles to the Convention of Geneva of the twenty-second August, 1864, signed at Geneva the twentieth of October, 1868.
Article I. The persons designated in Article II. of the convention shall, after the occupation by the enemy, continue to fulfill their duties, according to their wants, to the sick and wounded in the ambulance or the hospital which they serve. When they request to withdraw, the commander of the occupying troops shall fix the time of departure, which he shall only be allowed to delay for a short time in case of military necessity.
Art. II. Arrangements will have to be made by the belligerent powers to ensure to the neutralized person, fallen into the hands of the army of the enemy, the entire enjoyment of his salary.