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R.C. Articles 31 to 39 are the formal Articles about ratification, entering into force of the Convention, etc. Articles.

No questions arise on these

PART IV OTHER QUESTIONS

383.

P.W. Article 3 requires prisoners of war to be treated with respect for their persons and honour and that women shall be treated with all consideration due to their sex. The 1947 Geneva Conference of Government Experts recommended the addition of the words "and in no case should their treatment be less favourable than that accorded to male prisoners of war" (see also paragraphs 92, 234, 296, 298 and 354 above); and my Committee recommend approval of this recommendation. (C. R. G. C.M(48)8, Item 57)

384. P.W. Article 5 is closely linked with documentation (see especially paragraph 419 below). The 1947 Geneva Conference of Government Experts recommended amendments designed to secure:-

(a) that the prisoner of war gives information essential for

his identity to be established by his own Government;

(b) protection against pressure to give additional information.

My Committee recommend approval of these recommendations. (C.R.G.C.M(48)6, Item 47)

385. P.W. Article 7 deals with the transfer of prisoners of war from one place to another: the 1947 Geneva Conference of Government Experts recommended this Article be strengthened by requiring that:-

(a) evacuation should be carried out in humane conditions;

(b) that the conditions of movement should be the same as

those for troops of the Detaining Power on the move;

(o) sufficient food, water, clothing and shelter should be

provided for each prisoner of war,

(C. R. G. C./M(48)3,

My Committee recommend approval of these recommendations. Item.20). (See also paragraphs 72 to 83 and 266 to 269 above).

386. P.W. Article 13. Hygiene of Camps. The 1947 Geneva Conference of Government Experts recommended that the Detaining Power should be required to provide soap (as well as water) and for laundering as well as bodily leanliness. My Committee recommend approval of these recommendations. |(C.R.G.C./M(47)4, Item 32)

387. P.W. Article 14. Medical and Hospital Treatment. This Article in the 1929 Prisoners of War Convention provides for:-

388.

and for

(a) camp infirmaries and isolation establishments;

admission to a suitable military or civil institution in serious cases;

(b) the expense of treatment to be borne by the Detaining Power: including "temporal remedial apparatus";

(c) the issue to a prisoner of war, on demand, of an official

statement of nature and duration of an illness, and of the treatment;

(d) agreements to retain doctors and medical orderlies in

prisoners of war camps (see also Article 12, Red Cross Convention).

The Page 286 of 4&ference of Government xpePage28fa488 provisions additional to those referred to in paragraph 387, as follows:-

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(c) the Detaining Power to forward through its Prisoner of War

Information Bureau to the Power in whose service the deceased prisoner of war was at the time of capture, Page 28dfi981 certificates of deatiparea sertiff488 list

of dead, showing, so far as known, the date and cause of death in each oase; and in any case of doubt about the identity of the deceased prisoner of war, all available particulars, and in particular any indication which might assist the adverse belligerent in identifying the deceased prisoner of war should also be forwarded through the Prisoner of War Information Bureau. (For identity disos see paragraphs 420 and 421 below: for personal effects see paragraph 426 below). (C. R. G. C./M(48)8, Item 53(a))

F

411. My Committee recommend that in the Red Cross Convention there should be an Article following the same lines as recommended in paragraph 410 above with the necessary changes in wording to apply to dead collected, discovered or buried by a belligerent; and introduced by provisions discussed in paragraphs 412 and 413 below.

412. Article 3 (see paragraph 356 above) of the 1929 Red Cross Convention requires that

"After each engagement the occupant of the field of

battle shall take measures to search for the wounded and dead....

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The 1947 Geneva Conference of Government Experts recommended that, in view of the nature of modern land war, the

"after each engagement" should be replaced by "at all tand particularly after an engagement", and that the whole passage should read:-

"At all times and particularly after an engagement, each

belligerent shall, without delay, take the necessary measures to search for the wounded and dead.

7

#

413. My Committee consider that an obligation to "take the necessary measures to search" "at all times" would be difficult of fulfilment; they therefore recommend that the word "necessary" should be replaced by "reasonable". They further recommend that, provided that this amendment be accepted, if the words "at all times" are pressed, the United Kingdom delegation to a future International Conference should accept them; but that if the word "necessary" is maintained, the delegation should resist the inclusion of the words "after each engagement". They recommend that the United Kingdom delegation to a future International Conference should propose the following wording:-

.

"Belligerents shall take all reasonable measures to

search for the dead and wounded and to protect them against pillage and maltreatment."

(C.R. G. C./M(48)8, Item 53(a) and (o))

414. Burials. The 1947 Geneva Conference of Government Experts

recommended:

(a) that prisoners of war who die in captivity should be

honourably buried, if possible according to the rights of their religion;

(b) deceased prisoners of war should be interred in

individual graves except in gases of necessity where the use of collective graves might be essential (e.g. a number of deaths arising from one explosion);

(c) that bodies should not be oremated except for

imperative reasons of hygiene or for religious motives and that in cases of cremation "the circumstances Page 289es" should be stated in agta287488

death certificate of the cremated person and that similar provisions should apply to dead bodies

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of the prosecuting counsel in the Chief War Criminals Trials at Nuremberg,

Mr. A.S. Weston, O. B.E., formerly Head of the

Infomation Bureau and of Casualtiesa.

oPage

War Office,

151

soners

granen,

and these gentlemen have also freely given me the benefit of their advice whenever I have asked for it.

*

460. At the meeting when they discussed the use of the Red Cross flag and emblem, my Committee also had the help of Mr. F.D.H. Pritchard, Legal Adviser to the Joint Committee of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and the British Red Cross Society, which, in this connection might be described as the "continuation committee" of the War Organisation of the Order and the Society. I have also consulted

Major-General Sir John Kennedy, G.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., Sir Ernest Burdon, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., LL.D.,

Vice-Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively of the War Organisation, on those matters which particularly affect the work of the Red Cross on behalf of prisoners of war, and also on the use of the Red Cross emblem; and, on certain relief supply questions, Miss Aileen Johnson, formerly Assistant Principal, F.4(P. W.), War Office and subsequently Chief Executive of the British Red Cross Mission in Washington during the Second World War, also gave me valuable assistance.

461. I cannot close this Report without reference to the heavy, loss: the Committee suffered last autumn when Sir Harold Satow, K.C.M.G., O.B.E., had a serious breakdown, leading to his final retirement from the Foreign Office. Sir Harold's great knowledge of prisoner of war questions, his ripe judgment and homely humour were largely responsible for the position which the United Kingdom delegation established at the 1947 Geneva Conference of Government Experts. These qualities were again in evidence at the earlier meetings of my Committee, and we have sorely missed his counsel on numerous occasions since. Those of us who were privileged to work with Sir Harold Satow during the Second World War and to serve under his leadership at Geneva in April 1947, are conscious of how great is the debt prisoners of war from the British Commonwealth owe to him. It is good to know that he is again in health enjoying life at his home in the country.

•

462. Finally I would record my appreciation and gratitude to all those who have served on my Committee, and on its Sub-Committees and Working Parties (see paragraph 5 above) for their patience, persistence and Co-operation.

(agd). W.H. GARDNER.

War Office, 2nd June, 1948.

Chairman.