CO537-(1262-1649) — Page 247

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restrictions. Further information is given in the enclosed Terms and Conditions of supply of National Archives' leaflet. Please note that this copy is supplied subject to the National Archives' terms and conditions and that your use of it may be subject to copyright

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question were contrary to law.

The rules governing belligerent occupation were codified

in Section III of the Hague Regulations concerning the laws and customs

of land warfare and are embodied in Articles 42-56 of said Regulations.

They are the result of progress achieved across several centuries and incorporate the theory that an occupant, in contrast with a "sovereign"

acquires only a temporary and precarious power and that private property

Said body of laws has survived all

is exempt from confiscation.

historical changes.

It has been interpreted, developed and supplemented

by the practice of governments, by the decisions of Courts and by the

opinions of eminent authorities on International Law.

Article 46, Section III, of the Hague Convention of 1907,

states:

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restrictions. Further information is given in the enclosed Terms and Conditions of supply of National Archives' leaflet.

Please note that this copy is supplied subject to the National Archives' terms and conditions and that your use of it may be subject to copyright

"Family honor and rights, the lives of persons,

and private property as well as religious convictions and practice, must be respected."

"Private property can not be confiscated."

Article 53 of the same section states:

"An army of occupation can only take possession

of cash, funds and realizable securities which are

strictly the property of the State".

The 1907 Convention, in so far as the cited provisions are

concerned, are a reproduction of the Hague Convention of July 29, 1899,

of which the United States and Japan were signatories. The 1907 Con-

vention was ratified by the United States on November 27, 1909, and by

the Japanese Empire on December 13, 1911. Its terms, then are obligat-

ory on both parties.

Complying with regulations of said Convention, the United

States, on October 1, 1940, through its War Department, included in its

"Rules of Land Warfare" (FM 27-10), the following: "Private property must be respected," (Rule 323) and "Private property cannot be confis-

cated" (Rule 326).

The Philippine Commonwealth has adopted these provisions as

a part of the fundamental law of the land, as shown by Section 3 of

Article II of its Constitution.