700.00116/54
The Secretary of War (
Weeks
) to the
Secretary of State
Washington
,
November 6,
1922
.
WPD 375–10
My Dear Mr. Secretary: In further reply to your
letter of September 5, 1922, in which you request the views of the War
Department [Page 50] on the questions to
be taken up by the Commission of Jurists appointed by the United States
and certain other countries to consider amendment of the laws of war,
and to meet at The Hague on December 10, 1922, I transmit herewith a
draft of rules to govern the use of radio in war, as proposed by the War
Department. These rules were formulated by duly appointed Army
representatives, after careful study and conference with officials of
your Department and of the Navy Department, and they meet with my
approval.
I shall be pleased to transmit in a few days the views of the War
Department regarding the rules that should govern the use of aircraft in
war.
Sincerely yours,
[Enclosure]
Rules to Govern the Use of Radio in War as
Proposed by the War Department
- 1.
- A neutral government is bound to employ the means at its
disposal (a) to prevent the erection or
operation by a belligerent of radio stations within its
jurisdiction and (b) to prevent the
transmission from its jurisdiction of radio messages of military
value with reference to the existing war and not required for
the conduct of the legitimate commerce or business of such
neutral nation.
- 2.
- A belligerent government may regulate or prevent the
transmission of radio messages (a) by all
persons within its own territorial jurisdiction, (b) by all persons within land areas under
its military control and within the territorial waters adjacent
thereto, under its military control and (c) by all private craft, including neutral craft, on
the high seas within the zone or sphere of action of its
military operations.
- Such regulations, to be binding upon neutrals, must have been
seasonably notified to the neutral governments.
- 3.
- A neutral ship or neutral aircraft, whose government has been
seasonably notified of belligerent radio regulations made in
virtue of the preceding paragraph, is liable to condemnation for
violation of such regulations if captured before her next
arrival in her home country. Should an offending vessel not be
so captured, notice of her offense may be given to her
government. In the event of a second offense against the radio
regulations of the same belligerent being committed by the same
vessel on a voyage begun after the giving of said notice, the
vessel is liable to capture throughout the war.
- 4.
- The personnel of neutral vessels captured for violation of
radio regulations are entitled to unconditional release, except
in cases falling within the scope of paragraph 7 hereof.
- 5.
- Acts not otherwise constituting espionage are not espionage by
reason of their involving violation of radio regulations.
Operators of radio apparatus and bearers of radio dispatches
have like status as telegraph and cable operators and bearers of
dispatches in general.
- 6.
- Neutral craft that send by radio military information from a
zone of military activity may be removed therefrom by a
belligerent and their radio apparatus may be sequestered, even
where no violation of belligerent radio regulations or of the
duties of neutrality has been committed.
- 7.
- Neutral private craft, possession or control of which has been
vested by their owners in the enemy for the purpose of
transmitting military information by radio, receive the same
treatment as is applicable to enemy private craft.
- 8.
- So far as actual military operations permit, belligerents will
observe the same regulations as are, by international agreement,
prescribed for peace, in respect of facilitating radio messages
of distress from, or for persons at sea, in the polar regions or
in similar inaccessible places. The perversion of such signals
to any other purpose is forbidden.
