CHAPTER III

TREATMENT OF WOUNDED AND SICK SOLDIERS

The generally accepted principle that in war one should do no more harm to one’s enemy than the object of the war unconditionally requires, has led to treating the wounded and sick combatants as being no longer enemies, but merely sick men who are to be taken care of and as much as possible protected from the tragic results of wounds and illness. Although endeavors to protect the wounded soldiers from arbitrary slaughter, mutilation, ill-treatment, or other brutalities go back to the oldest times, yet the credit of systematizing these endeavors belongs to the nineteenth century, and this system was raised to the level of a principle of international law by the Geneva Convention of 1864.

[Sidenote: The sanctity of the Geneva Convention.]

With the elevation of the Geneva Agreements to the level of laws binding peoples and armies, the question of the treatment of wounded and sick combatants, as well as that of the persons devoted to the healing and care of them, is separated from the usages of war. Moreover, and discussion of the form of this international law must be regarded from the military point of view as aimless and unprofitable. The soldier may still be convinced that some of the Articles are capable of improvement, that others need supplementing, and that yet others should be suppressed, but he has not the right to deviate from the stipulations; it is his duty to contribute as far as he can to the observance of the whole code.

[Sidenote: The “Hyenas of the Battlefield.”]

No notice is taken in the Geneva Convention of the question of the protection of fallen or wounded combatants from the front, from the rabble usually known as “The Hyenas of the battlefield,” who are accustomed to rob, ill-treat, or slay soldiers lying defenseless on the field of battle. This is a matter left to the initiative of the troops. Persons of this kind, whether they be soldiers or not, are undoubtedly to be dealt with in the sternest possible manner.