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commander who will act according to his instructions. The apparatus and the articles which it contains ought, in any case, to be seized by the military authorities or the police. The Federal military department or the commander of the army will decide what ought to be done with the personnel and matériel of a balloon or air craft coming into our territory through force majeure and when there appears to be no reprehensible intention or negligence.

18. The personnel of the frontier guard and of the police stationed at the frontier can be placed under the orders of the chief military officer commanding the troops occupying the frontier. In cases where this personnel remains independent, it will nevertheless be under the duty of assisting the troops in their tasks in the same manner as the troops protect and offer assistance to the police and frontier guards in case of need. The troops have, moreover, the same duties in reference to all persons exercising an official function in the territory occupied by the army, especially in reference to the personnel of public undertakings, transports, customs, sanitary, and veterinary police.

19. The railroad trains and ships can be visited only by the military and functionaries specially charged with this duty.

20. There will be no impediment to the usual communications with territories beyond the frontier except for restrictions ordered for the maintenance of neutrality and especially the above-mentioned regulations. However, the commander of troops can request and, if necessary, prescribe that traffic be limited to certain roads.

21. The Cantonal governments, especially the governments of the frontier Cantons and the military commanders according to their special instructions are charged with the execution of the present ordinance and the departments of customs, posts, and railroads are equally charged with that which concerns the cooperation and the attitude of their administrations and their personnels.

Berne, August 4, 1914.

In the name of the Swiss Federal council:

President of the Confederation, HOFFMANN.
Chancellor of the Confederation, SCHATZMANN.

Appeal to the Swiss people, August 5, 1914.

[Bundesgesetz und Verordnungen 1914, 30: 362.]

Faithful and dear members of the Confederation:

War is unchained at our frontiers. Our army is on foot, and on the 1st of August, the day of the anniversary of the foundation of the Confederation, the telegraph carried orders for the mobilization even into the most remote villages and hamlets of the country.

Faithful to our traditions, firmly attached to the line of conduct which the free decision of our people has chosen and conforming ourselves to the international treaties, we will observe a complete neutrality.

The Federal Assembly and the Federal Council have resolved to use all of their forces and to make every sacrifice to maintain our independence and the defense of our neutrality.

Behind its authority the entire Swiss people stand firm and resolute.

To our army now belongs the noble task of protecting our country against every attack and of repelling the aggressor, whoever he may be.

Soldiers, we expect of you that each cheerfully do his duty, ready to shed his blood and to give his life for his country.

Officers, you will all set for your subordinates, we are sure, a splendid example of duty and of sacrifice.

Underofficers and soldiers, you will show by your acts, we are convinced, that the soldier of a free state also knows how to observe the strictest discipline and to obey absolutely the orders of his chief.

And you, Swiss people, who remain by your firesides, keep calm and composed and have confidence in your authorities which in these trying days will consecrate themselves, with all their power, to the accomplishment of their task, and who will also do all possible to remedy misfortunes. Have confidence, whatever happens, in your army, for which during peace you have not made such great sacrifices in vain and of which you are justly proud. May God protect our dear fatherland! We commend it to the

protection of the All-Powerful.

Berne, August 5, 1914.

In the name of the Federal Council:

President of the Confederation: HOFFMANN.

Chancellor of the Confederation: SCHATZMANN.

Ordinance concerning the penal dispositions for the state of war. August 6, 1914.

[Bundesgesetze und Verordnungen 1914, 30:370.]

The Swiss Federal Council.

In view of article 102, paragraph 9, of the Federal constitution and the Federal order of August 3, 1914, on the measures proper to assure the security of the country and the maintenance of its neutrality; on the suggestion of the Federal military department;

Orders:

ARTICLE 1. The provisions of the military laws designed for time of war are applicable during the present mobilization of the troops.

ART. 2. Article 41 of the military penal code of August 27, 1851, is amended by the following provision:

Whoever, with design, lends aid to the hostile military purposes of a foreign state, of its army or of independent foreign corps, or hinders or compromises the military operations of the Swiss army is guilty of treason.

ART. 3. Article 2 of the military penal code is amended by the following provision:

The following are guilty of treason:

(1) Those who, in order to reveal them to a foreign state or to one of its agents, in order to give them publicity, or in order to render them accessible, have spied into facts, arrangements, or plans, which it is necessary in the interests of the confederation to hold secret because of the imminence of war or in time of war; those who shall have revealed to a foreign state or to one of its agents, shall have given publicity to, or shall have rendered accessible facts, arrangements, or plans which it is necessary in the interests of the confederation to hold secret because of the imminence of war or in time of war;

(2) Whoever, directly or indirectly, shall have hindered or compromised the military operations of the Swiss army, (a) either by damaging or destroying means of communication or of information, apparatus, or objects serving the army; (b) either by interfering with or compromising the use of the establishments serving the army of importance for the people; (c) either by promulgating false news of a nature to hinder the military operations of the Swiss army or to scatter anxiety and terror among the people;

(3) Whoever in war aids the enemy by services or supplies, or who cooperates in a loan for an enemy state.

ART. 4. There will be punished by imprisonment, and in grave cases by penal servitude, whoever violates Swiss territory or commits against Switzerland or a part of Switzerland any other act contrary to international law; whoever lends aid to any act of this kind.

ART. 5. Whoever in Swiss territory carries on an information service for the benefit of a foreign power will be punished by imprisonment and a fine of not over 20,000 francs. The correspondence and material (carrier pigeons, aeroplanes, automobiles, etc.) will be confiscated.

ART. 6. Whoever disobeys the orders given or the ordinances published by the Federal Council, the Federal military department, the commander of the army, the territorial commanders, or any other competent military authority for the protection of the military interests or the safeguarding of neutrality or in the exercise of the police power which appertains to them; whoever disseminates news contrary to a prohibition of the competent authority will be punished by imprisonment for three years or by a fine of not over 10,000 francs if he is not liable to more severe penal dispositions. The two penalties may be combined.

ART. 7. The criminal acts forbidden by the present order will be proceeded against and judged by the military tribunals exclusively according to the application of the military penal code and of the present order.

ART. 8. In case of a military offense committed, even by a civilian, the cantonal authorities are bound to act and to report it immediately to the commander of troops or to the nearest military station. The commanders of troops and the territorial commanders will arrest and deliver to the civil authorities all civilians who in the region of their command are guilty of a criminal act in the jurisdiction of the ordinary criminal tribunals. ART. 9. The present ordinance comes immediately into force. The Federal Council will fix the time when it shall cease to be in force.

Berne, August 6, 1914.

In the name of the Swiss Federal Council:

The President of the Confederation, HOFFMANN.
The Chancellor of the Confederation, SCHATZMANN.

Notification of the Swiss Federal Government to the Government of the French Republic in reference to balloons and air craft. August 8, 1914.

[Journal Officiel, Aug. 10, 1914, p. 7301.]

The Swiss Federal Government has notified the Government of the Republic under date of August 8, 1914, that in view of the maintenance of the neutrality of Switzerland it is forbidden to all balloons and air craft coming from a foreign country to pass in the aerial space above the Swiss territory. All means will be taken, if necessary, to prevent this passage.

Letter of M. Hoffmann, President of the Swiss Confederation, to M. Fosciali concerning the sending of the wounded into the neutral zone of upper Savoy. September, 1914.

[Rev. Gén., Doc. 22: 187.]

SIR: By your letter of the 25th of this month you wish to express your surprise to us that in spite of the important preparations made in upper Savoy for the reception of wounded soldiers, the hospitals and ambulances to provide for this end are wanting up to the present time. On this occasion you have repeated certain rumors which appear to be circulating in Savoy; rumors according to which the Federal Government, invoking the special situation created in certain parts of upper Savoy by the international treaties have raised some difficulties to admitting the introduction of the wounded into these countries.

We desire to assure you, you and your compatriots, that these suppositions are erroneous in all points. The Federal Council has not only raised no objection to sending the wounded into the

neutralized part of upper Savoy, but has on the contrary, considered with the greatest good will the possibility of a measure of this kind which it only desires to facilitate as far as it may depend upon itself. We believe it our duty to add, moreover, that according to our information, confirmed to-day by his excellency the ambassador of France at Berne, it is only some difficulties of communication which have led the French Government to refrain, for the moment, from sending the wounded into upper Savoy.

We have, doubtless, no need to assure you of the entire sympathy which we feel for the people of upper Savoy, our excellent neighbors, and we are persuaded, moreover, that these people ask no better for their part than to continue the good relations so happily and for so long a time existing between our two countries. HOFFMANN.

Notice of the Council of State of the Canton of Geneva concerning the neutralization of a part of upper Savoy, of Chablais, and of Faucigny. October, 1914.

[Rev. Gén., Doc. 22: 187.]

The Council of State has learned that there have been disseminated in the Department of Upper Savoy inexact rumors on the question of the reception in hospitals of the wounded on the neutralized territory.

We can declare that the Federal Council has never made any objection to the reception of the wounded in hospitals in Savoy. If a decision has been made in this respect, it has been by the competent French authorities.

The present declaration is suggested to us by the desire to maintain in time of war as in time of peace the excellent relations which exist between the people of upper Savoy and of Geneva.

In the name of the Council of State:

HENRY FAZY.

Communication of the Swiss Federal Council on the entry into Helvetic territory of the sick and wounded of belligerents wearing civilian clothes. October, 1914.

[Rev. Gén., Doc. 22: 187.]

The question has been raised whether the inhabitants of a belligerent state who have been wounded in war, or have contracted a disease from it, can, in order to recover or to convalesce, come for treatment into Switzerland in some of our stations or in a family, without danger of being interned, it being understood that these persons wear civilians' clothes. The Federal Council has replied affirmatively to the question, considering that it perceives no obligation to investigate whether or not per

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