Part 6

In considering this condition of things it seemed desirable to so extend the original design of the Red Cross societies operating in other lands as to include not only suffering by war, but by pestilence, famine, fires or floods--in short, any unlooked-for calamity so great as to place it beyond the means of ordinary local charity, and which by public opinion would be pronounced a national calamity; but that this addition should in no way impair the original functions of the society, and that for their own well being they should be held firm by the distinguishing feature of the international constitution, which provides that local societies shall not act except upon orders from the National Association, which is charged with the duty of being so fully informed upon all such subjects, both at home and abroad, as to constitute it the most competent judge of the magnitude and gravity of any catastrophe.

During all these years no societies under the true banner of the Red Cross of Geneva were or could be organized, for the government had not yet ratified the treaty and no department of the government had then intimated that it ever would be ratified. It could not be a responsible or quite an honest movement on my part to proceed to the formation of societies to act under and in conformity to a treaty of special character so long as our government recognized no such treaty and I could get no assurance that it ever would or indeed could recognize it.

But this delay in the formation of societies, however embarrassing, was in no manner able to interfere with the general plan, or the working details for its operations, which had been arranged and decided upon before the presentation of the subject to the government in 1877, and published in pamphlet form in 1878, making it to cover, as it now does, the entire field of national relief for great national woes and calamities in time of peace, no less than in war. The wise provisions, careful preparations and thorough system which had been found so efficient in the permanent societies of the Red Cross in other countries, could not fail, I thought, to constitute both a useful and powerful system of relief in any class of disasters. I therefore ventured so far upon the generous spirit of their original resolutions in the plan of our societies as, mechanically speaking, to attach to this vast motor power the extra and hitherto dead weight of our great national calamities, in order that the same force should apply to all and serve to lighten I hoped, so far as possible, not only the woes of those directly called to suffer, but the burdens on the hearts and hands of those called to sympathize with their sufferings.

The time allowed for the practical test of this experiment has been short. Scarcely three months in which to organize and act, but the brave societies of the Red Cross of western New York, at this moment standing so nobly among their flame-stricken neighbors of Michigan--so generously responding to their calls for help, are quite sufficient I believe to show what the action and results of this combined system will be when recognized and inaugurated.

It may be said that this treaty jeopardizes our traditional policy, which jealously guards against entangling alliances abroad; that as we are exempt by our geographical position from occasions for war this treaty must bring us not benefits but only burdens from other people's calamities and wars--calamities and wars which we do not create and of which we may properly reap the incidental advantages. But this treaty binds none to bear burdens, but only to refrain from cruelties; it binds not to give but to allow others to give wisely and to work humanely if they will, while all shall guarantee to them undisturbed activity in deeds of charity. There is then in the Red Cross no "entangling alliance" that any but a barbarian at war can feel as a restraint. This inculcated wariness of foreign influences, wonderfully freshened by the conduct of foreign rulers and writers during the rebellion and deepened by the crimes and the craft directed primarily at Mexico and ultimately at us, made the people of America in 1864 and 1868 devoutly thankful for the friendly and stormy sea that rolled between them and the European states. And it is not perhaps altogether strange that American statesmen, inspired by such a public opinion, should then have been but little inclined to look with favor upon any new international obligations however specious in appearance or humane in fact. But the award of Geneva surely opened the way for the Red Cross of Geneva. Time and success have made plain the nation's path. The postal treaty since made among all nations and entered into heartily by this has proved salutary to all. It has removed every valid state reason for opposition to the harmless, humane and peaceful provisions of the treaty of the Red Cross.

But in the midst of the rugged facts of war come sentimental objections and objectors. For, deplore it as we may, war _is the great fact_ of all history and its most pitiable feature is not after all so much the great numbers slain, wounded and captured in battle, as their cruel after treatment as wounded and prisoners, no adequate provision being made for their necessities, no humane care even permitted, except at the risk of death or imprisonment as spies, of those moved by wise pity or a simple religious zeal.

Among these hard facts appears a conscientious theorist and asks, Is not war a great sin and wrong? Ought we to provide for it, to make it easy, to lessen its horrors, to mitigate its sufferings? Shall we not in this way encourage rulers and peoples to engage in war for slight and fancied grievances?

We provide for the victims of the great wrong and sin of intemperance. These are for the most part voluntary victims, each in a measure the arbiter of his own fate. The soldier has generally no part, no voice, in creating the war in which he fights. He simply obeys as he must his superiors and the laws of his country. Yes, it is a great wrong and sin, and for that reason I would provide not only for, but against it.

But here comes the speculative theorist! Isn't it encouraging a bad principle; wouldn't it be better to do away with all war? Wouldn't peace societies be better? Oh, yes, my friend, as much better as the millennium would be better than this, but it is not here. Hard facts are here; war is here; war is the outgrowth, indicator and relic of barbarism. Civilization alone will do away with it, and scarcely a quarter of the earth is yet civilized, and that quarter not beyond the possibilities of war. It is a long step yet to permanent peace. We cannot cross a stream until we reach it. The sober truth is, we are called to deal with facts, not theories; we must practice if we would teach. And be assured, my friends, there is not a peace society on the face of the earth to-day, nor ever will be, so potent, so effectual against war as the Red Cross of Geneva.

The sooner the world learns that the halo of glory which surrounds a field of battle and its tortured, thirsting, starving, pain-racked, dying victims exists only in imagination; that it is all sentiment, delusion, falsehood, given for effect; that soldiers do not die painless deaths; that the sum of all human agony finds its equivalent on the battlefield, in the hospital, by the weary wayside and in the prison; that, deck it as you will, it is agony; the sooner and more thoroughly the people of the earth are brought to realize and appreciate these facts, the more slow and considerate they will be about rushing into hasty and needless wars, and the less popular war will become.

Death by the bullet painless! What did this nation do during eighty agonizing and memorable days but to watch the effects of one bullet wound? Was it painless? Painless either to the victim or the nation? Though canopied by a fortitude, patience, faith and courage scarce exceeded in the annals of history, still was it agony. And when in his delirious dreams the dying President murmured, "The great heart of the nation will not let the soldier die," I prayed God to hasten the time when every wounded soldier would be sustained by this sweet assurance; that in the combined sympathies, wisdom, enlightenment and power of the nations, he should indeed feel that the great heart of the people would not let the soldier die.

Friends, was it accident, or was it providence which made it one of the last acts of James A. Garfield in health to pledge himself to urge upon the representatives of his people in Congress assembled, this great national step for the relief and care of wounded men? Living or dying it was his act and his wish, and no member in that honored, considerate and humane body but will feel himself in some manner holden to see it carried out.

ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

The president of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton, in November, 1881, laid before President Arthur the matter of the Treaty of Geneva, and the unfulfilled desire of President Garfield that the United States should give its adhesion to that international compact. To this President Arthur gave a cordial and favorable response, and made good his words by the following paragraph in his first annual message, sent to the forty-seventh Congress:

At its last extra session the Senate called for the text of the Geneva Convention for the relief of the wounded in war. I trust that this action foreshadows such interest in the subject as will result in the adhesion of the United States to that humane and commendable engagement.

This part of the message was immediately taken up in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, consisting of the following named gentlemen, to wit: William Windom, Minnesota; George F. Edmunds, Vermont; John T. Miller, California; Thomas W. Ferry, Michigan; Elbridge G. Lapham, New York; John W. Johnston, Virginia; J.T. Morgan, Alabama; George H. Pendleton, Ohio; Benjamin H. Hill, Georgia.

During the consideration of the subject an invitation was extended to the president of the American Association, its counsel and other associate members to meet the above named Senate Committee at the capitol, for conference, and for an explanation of such points as still remained obscure, to aid their deliberations, and to facilitate investigations.

On the seventeenth of May, 1881, Hon. Omar D. Conger submitted to the United States Senate the following resolution, which was considered by unanimous consent and agreed to:

_Resolved_, That the Secretary of State be requested to furnish to the Senate copies (translations) of Articles of Convention signed at Geneva, Switzerland, August 22, 1864, touching the treatment of those wounded in war, together with the forms of ratification employed by the several governments, parties thereto.

On the twelfth of December, 1881, in response to the above resolution, President Arthur addressed to the Senate a message transmitting a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, touching the Geneva convention for the relief of the wounded in war, which message, report and accompanying papers were as follows:

(Senate Ex. Doc. No. 6, 47th Congress, 1st Session.)

Message from the President of the United States, transmitting in response to Senate resolution of May 17th, 1881, a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, touching the Geneva convention for the relief of the wounded in war.

December 12, 1881.--Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed.

_To Senate of the United States:_

I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the Senate of the seventeenth of May last, a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, touching the Geneva convention for the relief of the wounded in war.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR,

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1881_.

_To the President:_

The Secretary of State, to whom was addressed a resolution of the Senate, dated the seventeenth of May, 1881, requesting him "to furnish to the Senate copies (translations) of Articles of Convention signed at Geneva, Switzerland, August 22, 1864, touching the treatment of those wounded in war, together with the forms of ratification employed by the several governments, parties thereto," has the honor to lay before the President the papers called for by the resolution.

In view of the reference made, in the annual message of the President, to the Geneva convention, the Secretary of State deems it unnecessary now to enlarge upon the advisability of the adhesion of the United States to an international compact at once so humane in its character and so universal in its application as to commend itself to the adoption of nearly all the civilized powers.

JAMES G. BLAINE.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, _December 10, 1881_.

THE "ADDITIONAL ARTICLES" CONCERNING THE RED CROSS FOR THE NAVY.

The governments of North Germany, Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and Würtemberg, desiring to extend to armies on the sea the advantages of the convention concluded at Geneva the twenty-second of August, 1864, for the amelioration of the condition of wounded soldiers in armies in the field, and to further particularize some of the stipulations of the said convention, proposed and signed the following additional articles:

Additional Articles to the Convention of Geneva of the twenty-second August, 1864, signed at Geneva the twentieth of October, 1868.

ARTICLE I. The persons designated in Article II. of the convention shall, after the occupation by the enemy, continue to fulfill their duties, according to their wants, to the sick and wounded in the ambulance or the hospital which they serve. When they request to withdraw, the commander of the occupying troops shall fix the time of departure, which he shall only be allowed to delay for a short time in case of military necessity.

ART. II. Arrangements will have to be made by the belligerent powers to ensure to the neutralized person, fallen into the hands of the army of the enemy, the entire enjoyment of his salary.

ART. III. Under the conditions provided for in Articles I. and IV. of the convention, the name "ambulance" applies to field hospitals and other temporary establishments, which follow the troops on the field of battle to receive the sick and wounded.

ART. IV. In conformity with the spirit of Article V. of the convention, and to the reservations contained in the protocol of 1864, it is explained that for the appointment of the charges relative to the quartering of troops and of the contributions of war, account only shall be taken in an equitable manner of the charitable zeal displayed by the inhabitants.

ART. V. In addition to Article VI. of the convention, it is stipulated that, with the reservation of officers whose detention might be important to the fate of arms, and within the limits fixed by the second paragraph of that article, the wounded fallen into the hands of the enemy shall be sent back to their country, after they are cured, or sooner if possible, on condition, nevertheless, of not again bearing arms during the continuance of the war.

ART. VI. The boats which, at their own risk and peril, during and after an engagement pick up the shipwrecked or wounded, or which, having picked them up, convey them on board a neutral, or hospital ship, shall enjoy, until the accomplishment of their mission, the character of neutrality, as far as the circumstances of the engagement and the position of the ships engaged will permit.

The appreciation of these circumstances is entrusted to the humanity of all the combatants. The wrecked and wounded thus picked up and saved must not serve again during the continuance of the war.

ART. VII. The religious, medical and hospital staff of any captured vessel are declared neutral, and, on leaving the ship, may remove the articles and surgical instruments which are their private property.

ART. VIII. The staff designated in the preceding article must continue to fulfill their functions in the captured ship, assisting in the removal of wounded made by the victorious party; they will then be at liberty to return to their country, in conformity with the second paragraph of the first additional article.

The stipulations of the second additional article are applicable to the pay and allowance of the staff.

ART. IX. The military hospital ships remain under martial law in all that concerns their stores; they become the property of the captor, but the latter must not divert them from their special appropriation during the continuance of the war.

The vessels not equipped for fighting, which during peace the government shall have officially declared to be intended to serve as floating hospital ships, shall, however, enjoy during the war complete neutrality, both as regards stores, and also as regards their staff, provided their equipment is exclusively appropriated to the special service on which they are employed.

ART. X. Any merchantman, to whatever nation she may belong, charged exclusively with removal of sick and wounded, is protected by neutrality, but the mere fact, noted on the ship's books, of the vessel having been visited by an enemy's cruiser, renders the sick and wounded incapable of serving during the continuance of the war. The cruiser shall even have the right of putting on board an officer in order to accompany the convoy, and thus verify the good faith of the operation.

If the merchant ship also carries a cargo, her neutrality will still protect it, provided that such cargo is not of a nature to be confiscated by the belligerents.

The belligerents retain the right to interdict neutralized vessels from all communication, and from any course which they may deem prejudicial to the secrecy of their operations. In urgent cases, special conventions may be entered into between commanders-in-chief, in order to neutralize temporarily and in a special manner the vessels intended for the removal of the sick and wounded.

ART. XI. Wounded or sick sailors and soldiers, when embarked, to whatever nation they may belong, shall be protected and taken care of by their captors.

Their return to their own country is subject to the provisions of Article VI. of the convention, and of the additional Article V.

ART. XII. The distinctive flag to be used with the national flag, in order to indicate any vessel or boat which may claim the benefits of neutrality, in virtue of the principles of this convention, is a white flag with a red cross. The belligerents may exercise in this respect any mode of verification which they may deem necessary.

Military hospital ships shall be distinguished by being painted white outside, with green strake.

ART. XIII. The hospital ships which are equipped at the expense of the aid societies, recognized by the governments signing this convention, and which are furnished with a commission emanating from the sovereign, who shall have given express authority for their being fitted out, and with a certificate from the proper naval authority that they have been placed under his control during their fitting out and on their final departure, and that they were then appropriated solely to the purpose of their mission, shall be considered neutral, as well as the whole of their staff. They shall be recognized and protected by the belligerents.

They shall make themselves known by hoisting, together with their national flag, the white flag with a red cross. The distinctive mark of their staff, while performing their duties, shall be an armlet of the same colors.

The outer painting of these hospital ships shall be white, with red strake.

These ships shall bear aid and assistance to the wounded and wrecked belligerents, without distinction of nationality.

They must take care not to interfere in any way with the movements of the combatants. During and after the battle they must do their duty at their own risk and peril.

The belligerents shall have the right of controlling and visiting them; they will be at liberty to refuse their assistance, to order them to depart, and to detain them if the exigencies of the case require such a step.

The wounded and wrecked picked up by these ships cannot be reclaimed by either of the combatants, and they will be required not to serve during the continuance of the war.

ART. XIV. In naval wars any strong presumption that either belligerent takes advantage of the benefits of neutrality, with any other view than the interest of the sick and wounded, gives to the other belligerent, until proof to the contrary, the right of suspending the Convention Treaty, as regards such belligerent.

Should this presumption become a certainty, notice may be given to such belligerent that the convention is suspended with regard to him during the whole continuance of the war.

ART. XV. The present act shall be drawn up in a single original copy, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Swiss Confederation.

An authentic copy of this act shall be delivered, with an invitation to adhere to it, to each of the signatory powers of the convention of the twenty-second of August, 1864, as well as to those that have successively acceded to it.

In faith whereof, the undersigned commissaries have drawn up the present project of additional articles and have affixed thereunto the seals of their arms:

Von Roeder, F. Löffler, Köhler, Dr. Mundy, Steiner, Dr. Dompierre, Visschers, J.B.G. Galiffe, D. Felice Baroffio, Paalo Cottrau, H.A. Van Karnebeck, Westenberg, F.N. Staaff, G.H. Dufour, G. Moynier, A. Coupvent des Bois, H. de Préval, John Saville Lumley, H.R. Yelverton, Dr. S. Lehmann, Husny, Dr. C. Hahn, Dr. Fichte.

[_International Bulletin, January, 1882._]

THE GENEVA CONVENTION IN THE UNITED STATES.

The friends of the Red Cross are not ignorant that the list of States which have signed the Geneva Convention presents a grave and lamentable lack. One of the most civilized nations of the world, and consequently one of the best prepared to subscribe to the principles of this treaty, that is to say, the United States of America, does not appear there. Their absence is so much the more surprising because the proceedings of the Geneva Convention have only been, in some respects, the partial reproduction of the celebrated "Instructions of the American Army," edited by the late Dr. Lieber, and adopted by President Lincoln (April 24, 1863), and put in practice by the armies of the North during the war of secession. More than this, it is remembered that the Government at Washington had been represented at the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva in 1864 by two delegates at the debates relative to the Geneva Convention, but without being furnished with sufficient power to sign it. [Protocol of the session of August 9, 1864.] These were Messrs. George J. Fogg, United States Minister at Berne, and Charles S.P. Bowles, European Agent of the American Sanitary Commission.

It was expected, then, that the adhesion of the United States would soon follow, but nothing came of it. Nevertheless, in the hope that this result would not be too long delayed, an aid society was formed at New York in 1866, when the civil war had come to an end, to gather in some way the heritage of the Sanitary Commission, which had just filled with much brilliancy, and during several years, the rôle of a veritable Red Cross Society.

One might have thought that the Berlin Conference in 1869 would be a determining circumstance which would induce the United States to enter into the European concert.