1. The Sovereign, together with those members of his family who were capable of bearing arms, the chief of the enemy’s State, generally speaking, and the Ministers who conduct its policy even though they are not among the individuals belonging to the active army.[52]
2. All persons belonging to the armed forces.
3. All Diplomatists and Civil Servants attached to the army.
4. All civilians staying with the army, with the approval of its Commanders, such as transport, sutlers, contractors, newspaper correspondents, and the like.
5. All persons actively concerned with the war such as Higher Officials, Diplomatists, Couriers, and the like, as also all those persons whose freedom can be a danger to the army of the other State, for example, Journalists of hostile opinions, prominent and influential leaders of Parties, Clergy who excite the people, and such like.[53]
6. The mass of the population of a province or a district if they rise in defense of their country.
The points of view regarding the treatment of prisoners of war may be summarized in the following rules:
Prisoners of war are subject to the laws of the State which has captured them.
The treatment of Prisoners of War.
The relation of the prisoners of war to their own former superiors ceases during their captivity; a captured officer’s servant steps into the position of a private servant. Captured officers are never the superiors of soldiers of the State which has captured them; on the contrary, they are under the orders of such of the latter as are entrusted with their custody.
The prisoners of war have, in the places in which they are quartered, to submit to such restrictions of their liberty as are necessary for their safe keeping. They have strictly to comply with the obligation imposed upon them, not to move beyond a certain indicated boundary.
Their confinement.
These measures for their safe keeping are not to be exceeded; in particular, penal confinement, fetters, and unnecessary restrictions of freedom are only to be resorted to if particular reasons exist to justify or necessitate them.
The concentration camps in which prisoners of war are quartered must be as healthy, clean, and decent as possible; they should not be prisons or convict establishments.
It is true that the French captives were transported by the Russians to Siberia as malefactors in the years 1812 and 1813. This was a measure which was not illegitimate according to the older practise of war, but it is no longer in accordance with the legal conscience of to-day. Similarly the methods which were adopted during the Civil War in North America in a prison in the Southern States, against prisoners of war of the Union Forces, whereby the men were kept without air and nourishment and thus badly treated, were also against the practise of the law of war.