Art. I. The high contracting parties shall issue instructions to their armed land forces which shall be in conformity to the rules concerning war on land annexed to the present convention.

Art. II. The provisions contained in the rule contemplated in Article I are obligatory only upon the contracting powers in the event of war between two or more of them. These provisions shall cease to be binding from the instant at which, in a war between contracting powers, a non-contracting power shall be associated with one of the belligerents.

Art. III. The present convention shall be ratified with the least possible delay. The ratifications shall be deposited at The Hague. On the deposit of each ratification a minute shall be prepared, one copy of which, properly certified, shall be transmitted, through diplomatic channels, to each of the contracting powers.

Art. IV. Non-signatory powers are permitted to become parties to this convention. For that purpose they shall make known their acceptance to the contracting powers, by means of a notification in writing, addressed to the government of the Netherlands, and communicated by that government to the other contracting powers.

Art. V. If it should happen that one of the high contracting parties should disavow the present convention, such disavowal shall not become operative until a written notification thereof shall have been made to the government of the Netherlands, and immediately communicated by the latter to all of the other contracting powers. This disavowal shall become operative only in so far as it concerns the power which shall have given notice of it.

Executed at The Hague, on the 29th day of July, 1899, in an original which shall remain on deposit in the archives of the government of the Netherlands, and of which duly certified copies shall be submitted to the contracting powers through diplomatic channels.

Agreement for the Adaptation of Maritime Warfare to the Rules of the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864.

Art. I. Military hospital ships - that is, ships constructed or fitted out by states especially and solely with a view to give assistance to the sick, wounded, and shipwrecked - the names of which shall have been communicated to the belligerent powers at the opening or during the continuance of hostilities, and, in every case, before being placed in service, are to be respected and may not be captured during the continuance of hostilities. These vessels are not assimilated to ships-of-war in matters pertaining to their sojourn in neutral ports.

Art. II. Hospital ships equipped, wholly or in part, at the expense of private individuals, or aid societies which have been officially recognized, are equally to be respected and exempted from capture, if the belligerent power to which they are attached has given them an official commission, and has notified their names to the adverse power at the opening of hostilities, or during their progress, but in every case before being placed in service. These ships shall carry a document, from competent authority, declaring that they have been subjected to its inspection during their equipment and at their final departure.

Art. III. Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals, or of societies officially recognized by neutral states, are to be respected and exempted from capture if the neutral power to which they are subject issues commissions to them and notifies their names to the belligerent powers at the outbreak of hostilities or during their continuance, but in all cases before being placed in service.

Art. IV. Ships mentioned in Articles I, II and III shall carry aid and assistance to the sick, wounded, and shipwrecked individuals of the belligerent armies without distinction of nationality. The governments agree not to use these ships for any warlike purpose. These ships shall not embarrass in any manner the movements of the combatants. During and after the combat they shall act at their own risk and hazard. Belligerents shall have the right to visit and inspect them; they may refuse assistance to them, or require them to remove to a distance, or impose upon them a fixed sailing course, and may place a commissioner on board; they may even detain them if circumstances demand it. As far as possible orders given by belligerents to hospital ships shall be entered in their logbooks.

Art. V. Military hospital ships shall be distinguished by an exterior coloring of white with a green horizontal band of about one metre and a half in width. Ships mentioned in Articles II and III shall be distinguished by an exterior coloring of white with a red horizontal band of about one metre and a half in width. The small boats of the ships just mentioned, as well as the small boats which may be employed in hospital service, shall be distinguished by similar painting. All hospital ships shall be recognized by hoisting with their national flags the red cross emblazoned upon the white flag, as prescribed by the Geneva Convention.

Art. VI. Commercial vessels, yachts, or neutral small boats conveying or receiving sick, wounded, or shipwrecked persons, are not liable to capture for engaging in such transport; but they remain liable to capture for any violations of neutrality which they may have committed.

Art. VII. The personnel of the medical and hospital service, including chaplains, of every captured vessel, is inviolable and cannot be made prisoners of war. They carry away with them, on quitting the ship, the surgical instruments and appliances which are their personal property. These persons shall continue to perform their functions so long as may be necessary, and they may be withdrawn when the commander-in-chief deems such withdrawal possible. Belligerents are to secure to such persons who may fall into their hands the full enjoyment of their salaries.

Art. VIII. Persons in the military or naval service, to whatever nation they may belong, who are sick, wounded, or shipwrecked, shall be protected and cared for by their captors.

Art. IX. Sick, wounded, and shipwrecked persons in the service of a belligerent who fall into the hands of the enemy become prisoners of war. It is for the enemy to decide, according to the circumstances of the case, whether it is expedient to hold them, to send them to a port of their own nation, or to a neutral port, or even to a port of the enemy. In the last case the prisoners so returned to their country cannot serve during the continuance of the war.

Art. X. Sick, wounded, or shipwrecked persons who are sent to a neutral port, with the consent of the local authority, shall, unless a contrary arrangement be entered into between the neutral state and the belligerents, be subjected to such restraint by the neutral state that it will be impossible for them to again take part in the operations of the war. The expenses of hospital treatment and internment of the sick, wounded, and shipwrecked shall be borne by the state to which they belong.

Art. XI. The rules contained in the foregoing article are obligatory only upon the contracting powers in the event of war between two or more of them. The said rules shall cease to be obligatory from the instant when, in a war between contracting powers, a non-contracting power joins one of the belligerents.

Art. XII. The present convention shall be ratified with the briefest possible delay. The ratifications shall be deposited at The Hague; a minute shall be prepared, on the deposit of each ratification, of which a properly authenticated copy shall be transmitted, through diplomatic channels, to each of the contracting powers.

Art. XIII. Non-signatory powers who have accepted the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, are permitted to adhere to this convention. To that end they shall make known their adhesion to the contracting powers by a notification in writing, addressed to the government of the Netherlands, and communicated by it to all of the other contracting powers.

Art. XIV. It if should happen that one of the high contracting parties should disavow the present convention, such disavowal shall not become operative until one year after it shall have been notified, in writing, to the government of the Netherlands and immediately communicated by the latter to all of the other high contracting powers. This disavowal shall be operative only in respect to the power which shall have given notice of it.

Done at The Hague this 29th day of July, 1899.