The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-03-20
TREATY APPROVED
HAGUE CONVENTION RATIFIED BY
THE SENATE
without Any Experimentation Of General
Funston in Capturing AsunaIdo Is Dis
cussed in the Convention-Some Of the
Things That Are Declared Violations of
Civilized Warfare-Spies Are Defined.

Washington, March 15.-The senate
s,ent an hour in executive session on
the convention growing out of The
uaoue peace conference relating to the
conduct of war on land and sea, and
fnallv ratified the agreement without
division. The discussion turned directly
on The conduct of the war in the Philip
mines, and related especially to General
Funston's capture of AguinaldO.
Senator Teller inquired whether, if
this treaty had been in force at the time,
the method of Aguilando's capture could
have been justified.
Senator Burton replied to the inquiry.
speaking especially for Gen. Funston,
and said he was sure that the proceed
ings on the generals part had been not
only humane, but that it had been in
accordance with the rules of civilized
warfare.
The countries party to the treaty are !:
Germany, Australia, Belgium, Denmark,
Spain, the United States, Mexico, France,
Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan,
Luxembourg, Montenegro, The Neither
lands, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Rus
STA. Servia, Sweden and Norway, Turkey
and Bulgaria. The provisions of the
treaty are binding only on the contract
ing powers in case of war between two or
more of them, and cease to be binding
when concentrating power joins
either of the belligerents.
The most important feature of the
treaty, the contents of which have been
generally known, is that prohibiting the
use of "dumdum" bullets.
Among other things specially prohib-
tied are: To employ poison or poisoned
arms; to kill or wound treacherously in
dividuals belonging to the hostile nation
or army; to kill or wound an enemy who
having laid down arms or having no
longer means of defense, has surrendered
at discretion to declare that no quarter
will be given; to employ arms, project
lies or material of a nature to cause SUI
pertiuous injury; to make improper use
of fpg of truce, the national flag or
ensignia and the enemy's uniform, AS well
as the distinctive badges of the general
convention; to destroy or seize the enc
mys property unless such destruction or
seizure be mperatively demanded by the
necessities of war. Ruses of war and the
employment of methods necessary to OBJ
tain information about the enemy and
the country are considered allowable.
The treaty provides as follows regard
ing spies;
"An individual can only be considered
a spy if, acting clandestinely or on false
pretenses, he obtains or seeks to obtain
information in the zone of operations of
belligerent with the intention of COM
municating it to the hostile party.
"Thus, soldiers not in disguise, who
have penetrated into the zone of opera
tons of hostile army to obtain informa-
ton, are not considered spies. Similarly
the following are not considered spies ::
Soldiers or civilians carrying out their
mission openly, charged with the de-
livery of dispatches destined either for
their own army or for that of the enemy.
To this class belong likewise individuals
sent in balloons to deliver dispatches and
generally to maintain communication
between the various parts of an army or
a territory"