RIGHTS OF ESCAPED WAR PRISONERS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24094, 2 November 1943, Page 4

RIGHTS OF ESCAPED WAR PRISONERS

FREEDOM IN NEUTRAL STATE New Zealand prisoners of war who escaped from Italy to Switzerland when Italy capitulated are no longer liable to any form of detention under international law, and cannot be interned. This was stated last evening by Mr A. C. Brassington, lecturer on international law at Canterbury University College. If any of the men could find a way of leaving Switzerland, as the late Brigadier Miles had done, the Swiss Government could not detain them, he said; but, obviously, with Germanoccupied territory all round Switzerland, it would riot be easy for them to get away. In Switzerland they would have the right to full liberty. Mr Brassington said the status of these men was covered by Article 13, Convention 5, of The Hague Convention of 1907, which stated that a neutral Power receiving escaped prisoners of war should leave them at liberty. The position of escaped prisoners should not be confused with that of belligerent troops who were driven across the frontier into neutral territory. Under international la* •. the latter had to be interned. An escaped prisoner became free as soon as he reached neutral territory, Mr Brassington said. As soon as he touched neutral soil the right of asylum, which was many centuries old, arose. In 1588 a galley of the Spanish Armada was wrecked near Calais. On it were a number of Turkish captives, who escaped. The Spanish Ambassador claimed their return from the French Government, which refused, and sent them back to Constantinople. This principle had become well established by the time it was written into The Hague Convention.