(b) To endeavor to take the life of an enemy in a traitorous manner,—e.g. by employing assassins, or by simulating surrender.
(c) To attack the enemy while concealing the distinctive marks of an armed force.
(d) To make improper use of the national flag, of signs of military ranks, or of the uniform of the enemy, of a flag of truce, or of the protective marks prescribed by the Convention of Geneva. (See Arts. 17 and 40.)
It being obligatory to abstain from useless severities (Art. 4),
9. It is forbidden:—
(a) To use arms, projectiles, or substances calculated to inflict superfluous suffering, or to aggravate wounds, particularly projectiles which, being explosible, or charged with fulminating or inflammable substances, weigh less than four hundred grams. (Declaration of St. Petersburg.)[497]
(b) To mutilate or kill an enemy who has surrendered at discretion, or is disabled, and to declare that quarter will not be given, even if the force making such declaration does not claim quarter for itself.
(c) Of wounded, sick, and the hospital staff
The wounded, the sick, and the hospital staff are exempted from unnecessary severities, which might otherwise touch them, by the following rules (Arts. 10 to 18), drawn from the Convention of Geneva.
10. Wounded and sick soldiers must be brought in and cared for, to whatever nation they belong.