The competent military authority may appeal to the charitable zeal of the inhabitants to collect and take care of, under his direction, the wounded or sick of armies, granting to those who respond to the appeal special protection and certain immunities.
CHAPTER II Medical Units and Establishments
Mobile medical units (that is to say, those which are intended to accompany armies into the field) and the fixed establishments of the medical service shall be respected and protected by the belligerents.
The protection to which medical units and establishments are entitled ceases if they are made use of to commit acts harmful to the enemy.
The following facts are not considered to be of a nature to deprive a medical unit or establishment of the protection guaranteed by Article 6:--
1. That the _personnel_ of the unit or of the establishment is armed, and that it uses its arms for its own defence or for that of the sick and wounded under its charge.
2. That in default of armed orderlies the unit or establishment is guarded by a picquet or by sentinels furnished with an authority in due form.
3. That weapons and cartridges taken from the wounded and not yet handed over to the proper department are found in the unit or establishment.
The _personnel_ engaged exclusively in the collection, transport, and treatment of the wounded and the sick, as well as in the administration of medical units and establishments, and the Chaplains attached to armies, shall be respected and protected under all circumstances. If they fall into the hands of the enemy they shall not be treated as prisoners of war.
These provisions apply to the guard of medical units and establishments under the circumstances indicated in Article 8 (2).
The _personnel_ of Voluntary Aid Societies, duly recognised and authorised by their Government, who may be employed in the medical units and establishments of armies, is placed on the same footing as the _personnel_ referred to in the preceding article, provided always that the first-mentioned _personnel_ shall be subject to military law and regulations.
Each State shall notify to the other, either in time of peace or at the commencement of or during the course of hostilities, but in every case before actually employing them, the names of the societies which it has authorised, under its responsibility, to render assistance to the regular medical service of its armies.