Ships having responded to this appeal, as well as those who have spontaneously taken on board sick, wounded or shipwrecked men, shall have the advantage of a special protection and of certain immunities. In no case shall they be liable to capture on account of such transport; but subject to any promise made to them they are liable to capture for any violation of neutrality they may have committed.
[vii.] x. The religious, medical or hospital staff of any captured ship is inviolable, and its members cannot be made prisoners of war. On leaving the ship they take with them the objects and surgical instruments which are their own private property.
This staff shall continue to discharge its duties while necessary, and can afterwards leave when the commander-in-chief considers it possible.
The belligerents must guarantee to the staff that has fallen into their hands [the enjoyment of their salaries intact] the same allowances and pay as those of persons of the same rank in their own navy.
[viii.] xi. Sailors and soldiers, and other persons officially attached to navies or armies, who are taken on board when sick or wounded, to whatever nation they belong, shall be [protected] respected and looked after by the captors.
xii. Every vessel of war of a belligerent party may claim the return of the wounded, sick or shipwrecked who are on board military hospital-ships, hospital-ships of aid societies or of private individuals, merchant ships, yachts or other craft, whatever be the nationality of these vessels.
xiii. If the wounded, sick or shipwrecked are received on board a neutral ship of war, it shall be provided, as far as possible, that they may take no further part in war operations.
xiv. The shipwrecked, wounded or sick of one of the belligerents who fall into the hands of the other, are prisoners of war. The captor must decide, according to circumstances, if it is best to keep them or send them to a port of his own country, to a neutral port, or even to a hostile port. In the last case, prisoners thus repatriated cannot serve as long as the war lasts.
xv. The shipwrecked, wounded or sick who are landed at a neutral port with the consent of the local authorities, must, failing a contrary arrangement between the neutral State and the belligerents, be guarded by the neutral State, so that they may not be again able to take part in the military operations.
The expenses of hospital treatment and internment shall be borne by the State to which the shipwrecked, wounded or sick belong.