stoppage of avenues of normal trade-all these give the President the right of specific remonstrance; but in the just fulfillment of his duty he can not limit himself to these formal grounds of complaint. He is bound by the higher obligations of his representative office to protest against the uncivilized and inhumane conduct of the campaign in the island of Cuba. He conceives that he has a right to demand that a war, conducted almost within sight of our shores and grievously affecting American citizens and their interests throughout the length and breadth of the land, shall at least be conducted according to the military codes of civilization. "It is the President's hope that this earnest representation will be received in the same kindly spirit in which it is intended. The history of the recent thirteen years of warfare in Cuba, divided between two protracted periods of strife, has shown the desire of the United States that the contest be conducted and ended in ways alike honorable to both parties and promising a stable settlement. If the friendly attitude of this Government is to bear fruit it can only be when supplemented by Spain's own conduct of the war in a manner responsive to the precepts of ordinary humanity and calculated to invite as well the expectant forbearance of this Government as the confidence of the Cuban people in the beneficence of Spanish control." Mr. Sherman, Sec. of State, to Mr. Dupuy de Lôme, Spanish min., June In another note to Mr. Dupuy de Lôme, of Aug. 24, 1897, Mr. Sherman In yet another note of Nov. 6, 1897, Mr. Sherman, after representing Mr. Dupuy de Lôme, in a note of Nov. 10, 1897, stated that General Blanco, who had succeeded General Weyler as governor-general of Cuba, had adopted measures for the organization of extensive zones of cultivation, for furnishing food and work, and for the formation of provincial protective boards, while a decree had been promulgated which not only permitted agricultural operations, but counseled them and offered civil and military protection therein, thus changing the policy of General Weyler. (For. Rel. 1897, 510.) An arrangement was subsequently made under which charitable contributions from the United States for the relief of the reconcentrados were admitted into Cuba free of duty. (For. Rel. 1897, 511-514.) VII. PRISONERS OF WAR. 1. WHO ARE, AND WHO ARE NOT. § 1127. "49. A prisoner of war is a public enemy armed or attached to the hostile army for active aid, who has fallen into the hands of the captor, either fighting or wounded, on the field or in the hospital, by individual surrender or by capitulation. "All soldiers, of whatever species of arms; all men who belong to the rising en masse of the hostile country; all those who are attached to the army for its efficiency and promote directly the object of the war, except such as are hereinafter provided for; all disabled men or officers on the field or elsewhere, if captured; all enemies who have thrown away their arms and ask for quarter, are prisoners of war, and as such exposed to the inconveniences as well as entitled to the privileges of a prisoner of war. "50. Moreover, citizens who accompany an army for whatever purpose, such as sutlers, editors, or reporters of journals, or contractors, if captured, may be made prisoners of war, and be detained as such. "The monarch and members of the hostile reigning family, male or female, the chief, and chief officers of the hostile government, its diplomatic agents, and all persons who are of particular and singular use and benefit to the hostile army or its government, are, if captured on belligerent ground, and if unprovided with a safe-conduct granted by the captor's government, prisoners of war. "51. If the people of that portion of an invaded country which is not yet occupied by the enemy, or of the whole country, at the approach of a hostile army, rise, under a duly authorized levy, en masse to resist the invader, they are now treated as public enemies, and, if captured, are prisoners of war. 66 53. The enemy's chaplains, officers of the medical staff, apothecaries, hospital nurses, and servants, if they fall into the hands of the American Army, are not prisoners of war, unless the commander has reasons to retain them. In this latter case, or if, at their own desire, H. Doc. 551-vol 7-15 216 WAR. [§ 1127. they are allowed to remain with their captured companions, they are treated as prisoners of war, and may be exchanged if the commander sees fit." Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the “ARTICLE XIII. Individuals who follow an army without directly belonging to it, such as newspaper correspondents and reporters, sutlers, contractors, who fall into the enemy's hands, and whom the latter. think fit to detain, have a right to be treated as prisoners of war, provided they can produce a certificate from the military authorities of the army they were accompanying." Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, The Hague, In May, 1898, two American newspaper men named Thrall and Jones, one a correspondent and the other an artist, were arrested in Havana on a charge of being spies. The Secretary of the Navy sent a dispatch boat to Havana under flag of truce to propose the exchange of Spanish officers for the men. Mr. Adee, Second Assist. Sec. of State, to Sir Julian Pauncefote, British ambass. (unofficial), May 15, 1898, MS. Notes to British Leg. XXIV. 189. "99. A messenger carrying written dispatches or verbal messages from one portion of the army or from a besieged place to another portion of the same army, or its government, if armed, and in the uniform of his army, and if captured while doing so in the territory occupied by the enemy, is treated by the captor as a prisoner of war. If not in uniform nor a soldier, the circumstances connected with his capture must determine the disposition that shall be made of him. “100. A messenger or agent who attempts to steal through the territory occupied by the enemy to further in any manner the interests of the enemy, if captured, is not entitled to the privileges of the prisoner of war, and may be dealt with according to the circumstances of the case." Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the A subject of a foreign power, acting under a commission from the Lee, At. Gen., 1798, 1 Op. 84. The Government of the United States having acknowledged the independence of Texas, and Texas being at war with Mexico, if a citizen of the United States captured when with a Texas army by Mexican forces should be treated in Mexico as a rebel and not as a prisoner of war, on the ground that Mexico had not acknowledged Texas as a belligerent, "after his release has been demanded by this Government, consequences of the most serious character would certainly ensue." Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Thompson, Apr. 5, 1842, 6 Webster's For acknowledgment of liberation of such prisoners, see same to same, See supra, § 481. "By the law and practice of civilized nations, enemies' subjects taken in arms may be made prisoners of war; but every person found in the train of an army is not to be considered as therefore a belligerent or an enemy. In all wars, and in all countries, multitudes of persons follow the march of armies, for the purpose of traffic or from motives of curiosity, or the influence of other causes, who neither expect to be, nor reasonably can be, considered belligerents. Whoever, in the Texan expedition to Santa Fé, was commissioned or enrolled for the military service of Texas, or, being armed, was in the pay of that Government, and engaged in an expedition hostile to Mexico, may be considered as her enemy, and might lawfully, therefore, be detained as prisoner of war. This is not to be doubted; and, by the general practice of modern nations, it is true that the fact of having been found in arms with others admitted to be armed for belligerent purposes raises a presumption of hostile character. In many cases, and especially in regard to European wars in modern times, it might be difficult to repel the force of this presumption. It is still, however, but a presumption; because it is nevertheless true that a man may be found in arms with no hostile intentions. He may have. assumed arms for other purposes, and may assert a pacific character,. with which the fact of his being more or less armed would be entirely consistent. In former and less civilized ages, cases of this sort existed without number in European society. When the peace of communities was less firmly established by efficient laws, and when, therefore, men often traveled armed for their own defence, or when individuals, being armed according to the fashion of the age, yet often journeyed under the protection of military escorts or bodies of soldiers, the possession of arms was no evidence of hostile character, circumstances of the times sufficiently explaining such appearances consistently with pacific intentions. And circumstances of the country may repel the presumption of hostility, as well as circumstances of the times, or the manners of a particular age. "There would be no meaning in that well-settled principle of the law of nations which exempts men of letters and other classes of noncombatants from the liability of being made prisoners of war, if it were an answer to every claim for such exemption to say that the person making it was united with a military force, or journeying under its protection. As to the assertion that it is against the law of Mexico for foreigners to pass into it across the line of Texas, it is with no little surprise that the Mexican secretary of state is found to assign this reason for making Mr. Kendall a prisoner." Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Thompson, Apr. 5, 1842, 6 Webster's "54. A hostage is a person accepted as a pledge for the fulfillment of an agreement concluded between belligerents during the war, or in consequence of a war. Hostages are rare in the present age. "55. If a hostage is accepted, he is treated like a prisoner of war, according to rank and condition, as circumstances may admit." Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the 2. TREATMENT. § 1128. "Prisoners of war are to be considered as unfortunate and not as criminal, and are to be treated accordingly, although the question of detention or liberation is one affecting the interest of the captor alone, and therefore one with which no other government ought to interfere in any way; yet the right to detain by no means implies the right to dispose of the prisoners at the pleasure of the captor. That right involves certain duties, among them that of providing the prisoners with the necessaries of life and abstaining from the infliction of any punishment upon them which they may not have merited by an offense against the laws of the country since they were taken.” Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Ellis, Feb. 26, 1842, MS. Inst. Mex. "The law of war forbids the wounding, killing, impressment into the troops of the country, or the enslaving or otherwise maltreating of prisoners of war, unless they have been guilty of some grave crime; and from the obligation of this law no civilized state can discharge itself." Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Thompson, min. to Mexico, Apr. 5, 1842, Webster's Works, VI. 427, 437. |