File No. 763.72116/533
The Chargé in Switzerland ( Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10.15 a.m.]
2615. Following is translation of text of appeal of International Committee of Red Cross, dated Geneva, February 6: [Page 780]
One of the saddest features of the war that is at present desolating humanity is the daily violation of the most solemn conventions of what were called the laws of war, of those agreements by which it was hoped its cruelty would be lessened. Far from lessening the evils of warfare one can say that the progress of science in aeronautics, in ballistics, or in chemistry have only increased suffering and unsparingly extended it to the entire population in such a manner that war will soon become solely a merciless work of general destruction.
Today we wish to raise protest against a barbarous innovation that science tends to perfect, that is to say to render more fatal and of a more refined cruelty, that is the employment of asphyxiating and poisonous gases, the use of which it appears is increasing at a rate never before imagined.
The Hague agreement concerning the laws and customs of war on land contains the following provision: “It is especially forbidden to employ poison or poisoned arms,” and also, “to employ weapons, projectiles, or materials calculated to cause needless suffering.” Poisonous or asphyxiating gases are without doubt one of the poisons forbidden by this convention. Members of sanitary corps who have ministered to combatants on the battlefield attacked by these gases, and also nurses who cared for them in hospitals are all unanimous in their testimony of the terrible sufferings caused by the gases, sufferings the sight of which is more heartrending than that of the most cruel wounds.
It is already too much that these methods should have entered into the practice of warfare; but what we wish to declare is that upon him who may have tried to render this method of combat more cruel will rest an ever-increasing responsibility of having forced warfare into a direction contrary to the ideas of humanity, which seemed to become more diffused and of which the Red Cross is the living witness; for here it is not a question of an act that an army can reject because it is repugnant to it. Its very existence is at stake. A combatant before an enemy which employs these gases if [is] forced in spite of itself to imitate it. If it does not wish to be in a position of inferiority which might be fatal to it, it will try to surpass the enemy, it will concentrate all its efforts to secure poisons of a more destructive and extended nature, it will result in a race to obtain the most murderous and cruel methods.
We hear now of new volatile poisons of which the manufacture in quantity is easy as they are composed of materials that can be obtained without difficulty. We are shown projectiles charged with these poisonous gases sowing death, and a cruel death, not only in the ranks of the combatants, but behind the lines in the midst of an inoffensive population in an extended zone where all living beings will be destroyed. We protest with all our soul against this manner of warfare that we can only call criminal, and if, as is probable, the adversary is forced to have recourse to counter-attacks or reprisals to force the enemy to renounce this barbarous practice, we foresee a struggle which will surpass in ferocity all that history has known of barbarity. That is why we, the Red Cross, whose flag is the emblem of the sentiment of humanity which appeared formerly to bring enlightenment even to the battlefield, address ourselves to the sovereigns, to the governments, and to the generals, [Page 781] then to the peoples who are ranged against each other. We appeal to that same sentiment of humanity that we do not believe to be extinct even after three years of war.
Do you wish that victory be for you only a complete destruction of those you fight? Do you wish that victory become opprobrium because it shall not have been due to the valour or intrepidity of your sons? Do you wish at their return to salute not the brave who do not hesitate to expose their lives for their country, but the men who without risk to themselves have succeeded in ridding themselves of their enemies by the aid of poison and by inflicting horrible suffering?
We cannot but believe that in every country generous hearts have revolted against this outlook, and therefore we do not hesitate to demand openly that this atrocious method of warfare be renounced. For this an immediate agreement is necessary which the various armies should agree to execute loyally. If the International Red Cross should bring about this agreement, if it could be concluded under the shadow of its flag, it would constitute the first return to the Geneva convention and the Hague conventions. This act which would save millions of lives would be entirely to the honour of the nations as well as of the armies.