§ 70. Mr. BRIDGEMANasked the Under-Secretary for War, in view of the fact that the wearing of a brassard by a person without a uniform is intended to identify such a person as a combatant, whether he will consider the advisability of allowing such Volunteer Training Corps as have been granted uniforms to adopt some other form of token than brassards to signify their affiliation to the Central Association?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe wearing of the authorised brassard, whether with or without a distinctive dress, does not signify that the man is a combatant, but that, he is a member of a corps affiliated to the Central Association Volunteer Training Corps and thereby recognised. The regulations which govern the question of the recognition of a person as a combatant are laid down in Article 1 of the annex to The Hague Convention of 1907.
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANWould the right hon. Gentleman tell us whether these volunteer corps are not to be recognised as combatants?
§ Mr. TENNANTI have already referred one hon. Member on that subject to the General Staff at Berlin. I am wholly unable to answer for them. I will tell the hon. Gentleman what is laid down in the annex to The Hague Convention. The laws, rights and duties of war apply not only to armies but also to such bodies as these volunteer training corps fulfilling the following conditions:—
- "(1) To be commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates.
- (2) To have a fixed distinctive emblem recognisable at a distance.
- (3) To carry arms openly; and
- (4) To conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war."
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANWhat is the object of adding the brassard to these corps who are already in uniform? Surely the uniform is enough?
§ Mr. TENNANTThat is not so. It is essential, from the point of view of having these Volunteer Training Corps affiliated 410 to the Central Association and recognised by the War Office, that they should wear these brassards.
§ Sir J. D. REESWill the right hon. Gentleman suggest to the Secretary of State the desirability of the uniform being the emblem, and not the brassard?
§ Mr. TENNANTI will represent that to my Noble Friend.