VI ARMISTICES
Grotius, III. c. 21, §§ 1-13, c. 22, § 8—Pufendorf, VIII. c. 7, §§ 3-12—Vattel, III. §§ 233-260—Hall, § 192—Lawrence, § 216—Westlake, p. 82—Phillimore, III. §§ 116-121—Halleck, II. pp. 311-319—Moore, VII. § 1162—Taylor, §§ 513 and 516—Wheaton, §§ 400-404—Bluntschli, §§ 688-699—Heffter, § 142—Lueder in Holtzendorff, IV. pp. 531-544—Ullmann, § 186—Bonfils, Nos. 1248-1258—Despagnet, Nos. 563-566—Pradier-Fodéré, VII. Nos. 2889-2918—Rivier, II. pp. 362-368—Nys, III. pp. 518-520—Calvo, IV. §§ 2433-2449—Fiore, III. Nos. 1484-1494, and Code, Nos. 1750-1763—Martens, II. § 127—Longuet, §§ 145-149—Mérignhac, pp. 230-239—Pillet, pp. 364-370—Zorn. pp. 201-206—Bordwell, p. 291—Meurer, II. §§ 43-44—Spaight, pp. 232-248—Kriegsbrauch, pp. 41-44—Holland, War, Nos. 93-99—Land Warfare, §§ 256-300.
Character and Kinds of Armistices.
§ 231. Armistices or truces, in the wider sense of the term, are all agreements between belligerent forces for a temporary cessation of hostilities. They are in no wise to be compared with peace, and ought not to be called temporary peace, because the condition of war remains between the belligerents themselves, and between the belligerents and neutrals on all points beyond the mere cessation of hostilities. In spite of such cessation the right of visit and search over neutral merchantmen therefore remains intact, as does likewise the right to capture neutral vessels attempting to break a blockade, and the right to seize contraband of war. However, although all armistices are essentially alike in so far as they consist of cessation of hostilities, three different kinds must be distinguished—namely, (1) suspensions of arms, (2) general armistices, and (3) partial armistices.[453] It must be emphasised that the Hague Regulations deal with armistices in articles 36 to 41 very incompletely, so that the gaps need filling up from old customary rules.
[453] Although, as will be seen from the following sections, this distinction is absolutely necessary, it is not made by several publicists. Holland, War, No. 93, even says: "There is no difference of meaning, according to British usage at least, between a 'truce,' an 'armistice,' and a 'suspension of arms.'" Land Warfare, § 256—see in especial note (a)—accepts the distinction as indispensable.
Suspensions of Arms.
§ 232. Suspensions of arms, in contradistinction to armistices in the narrower sense of the term, are such cessations of hostilities as are agreed upon between large or small military or naval forces for a very short time and regarding momentary and local military purposes only. Such purposes may be—collection of the wounded; burial of the dead; negotiation regarding surrender or evacuation of a defended place, or regarding an armistice in the narrower sense of the term; but may also be the creation of a possibility for a commander to ask for and receive instructions from a superior authority,[454] and the like. Suspensions of arms have nothing to do with political purposes, or with the war generally, since they are of momentary and local importance only. They concern exclusively those forces and that spot which are the object of the suspension of arms. The Hague Regulations do not specially mention suspensions of arms, since article 37 speaks of local armistices only, apparently comprising suspensions of arms among local armistices.
[454] An instructive example of a suspension of arms for such purposes is furnished by the Convention between the German forces besieging Belfort and the French forces holding this fortress during the Franco-German War, signed on February 13, 1871; see Martens, N.R.G. XIX. p. 646.
General Armistices.
§ 233. A general armistice is such a cessation of hostilities as, in contradistinction to suspensions of arms with their momentary and local military purposes, is agreed upon between belligerents for the whole of their forces and the whole region of war. General armistices are always conventions of vital political importance affecting the whole of the war. They are as a rule, although not necessarily, concluded for a political purpose. It may be that negotiations of peace have ripened so far that the end of the war is in sight and that, therefore, military operations appear superfluous; or that the forces of either belligerent are exhausted and need rest; or that the belligerents have to face domestic difficulties, the settlement of which is more pressing than the continuation of the war; or any other political purpose. Thus article 2 of the general armistice agreed upon at the end of the Franco-German War on January 28, 1871,[455] expressly declared the purpose of the armistice to be the creation of the possibility for the French Government to convoke a Parliamentary Assembly which could determine whether or not the war was to be continued or what conditions of peace should be accepted.