to the armies of the entente, together with representatives of the relief associations of the United States, France, Great Britain, and Italy shall form a commission charged with the care of Russian prisoners of war in Germany. This commission, the headquarters of which shall be in Berlin, shall be empowered to deal with the German Government direct, upon instructions from the Allied Governments, regarding all questions relating to Russian prisoners of war. The German Government shall accord the commission all traveling facilities necessary for the purpose of investigating the housing conditions and food supply of such prisoners. The Allied Governments reserve the right to arrange for the repatriation of Russian prisoners of war to any region which they may consider most suitable. 5. Naval clauses. - Article XXII, of the armistice agreement of the 11th November, 1918, shall be supplemented as follows: In order to insure the execution of such clause, the German authorities shall be bound to carry out the following conditions: All submarines capable of putting to sea, or of being towed, shall be handed over immediately and shall make for allied ports. Such vessels shall include submarine cruisers, mine layers, relief ships, and submarine docks. All submarines which cannot be surrendered shall be completely destroyed or dismantled under the supervision of the allied commissioners. Submarine construction shall cease immediately, and all submarines in course of construction shall be destroyed or dismantled under the supervision of the allied commissioners. Article XXIII of the armistice agreement of the 11th November, 1918, shall be supplemented as follows: In order to insure the execution of such clause, the German commission shall furnish the interallied naval armistice commission with a complete list of all surface vessels constructed or in course of construction (launched or on the stocks), specifying probable dates of completion. Article XXX of the armistice agreement of 11th November, 1918, shall be supplemented as follows: In order to insure the execution of such clause, the allied high command informs the German high command that all possible measures must be taken immediately for delivery, in allied ports, of all allied merchantmen still detained in German ports. 6. Restitution of material carried off from Belgium and French territories. As restitution of material carried off from French and Belgian territory is indispensable for setting factories once more into working order, the following measures shall be carried out, viz.: (a) All machinery, machinery parts, industrial or agricultural plant, accessories of all kinds and, generally, all industrial or agricultural articles carried off by German military or civilian authorities or individuals, under any pretext whatever, from territories formerly occupied by the German armies on the western front, shall be placed at the disposal of the Allies for the purpose of being returned to their places of origin, should the French and Belgian Governments so desire. These articles shall be returned without further alteration and undamaged. (b) In view of such restitution, the German Government shall immediately furnish the armistice commission with all official or private accounts, agreements for sale or hire, or correspondence relating to such articles, together with all necessary declarations or information regarding their existence, origin, adaptation, present condition and locality. (c) The delegates of the French or Belgian Government shall cause inventories or examinations of such articles to be made on the spot in Germany, should they think fit. (d) The return of such articles shall be effected in accordance with special instructions to be given as required by the French or Belgian authorities. (e) With a view to immediate restitution, declarations shall more particularly be made of all stocks of driving belts, electric motors and parts thereof, or plant removed from France or Belgium and existing in depot parks, railways, ships, and factories. (f) The furnishing of the particulars referred to in articles 3 and 6 hereof shall commence within eight clear days from the 20th January, 1919, and shall be completed in principle before the 1st April, 1919. 7. As a further guarantee, the supreme allied command reserves to itself the right to occupy, whenever it shall consider this desirable, the sector of the fortress of Strassburg formed by the fortifications on the right bank of the Rhine, with a strip of territory extending from 5 to 10 kilometers in front of such fortifications, within the boundaries defined on the map appended hereto. The supreme allied command shall give six days' notice prior to such occupation, which shall not be preceded by any destruction of material or of buildings. The limits of the neutral zone will, therefore, be advanced by 10 kilometers. 8. In order to secure the provisioning of Germany and of the rest of Europe, the German Government shall take all necessary steps to place the German fleet, for the duration of the armistice, under the control and the flags of the allied powers and the United States, who shall be assisted by a German delegate. This arrangement shall in no wise affect the final disposal of such vessels. The Allies and the United States shall, if they consider this necessary, replace the crews either entirely or in part, and the officers and crews so replaced shall be repatriated to Germany. Suitable compensation, to be fixed by the Allied Governments, shall be made for the use of such vessels. All questions of details, as also any exceptions to be made in the case of certain types of vessel, shall be settled by a special agreement to be concluded immediately. The undersigned plenipotentiaries, possessed of the powers in virtue of which the armistice agreement of November 11, 1918, was signed, have concluded the following additional agreement: Admiral Wemyss being replaced by Admiral Browning, General von Winterfeldt by General von Hammerstein, and the minister plenipotentiary, Count von Oberndorff, by the minister plenipotentiary, von Haniel. I. The Germans are to cease all hostilities against the Poles at once, whether in the district of Posen or any other district. With this end in view, they are forbidden to allow their troops to cross the following line: The old frontier between East and West Prussia and Russia as far as Louisenfelde, from thence the line west of Louisenfelde, west of Gr. Neudorff, south of Brzoza, north of Schubin, north of Exin, south of Samotschin, south of Chodziesen, north of Czarnikau, west of Miala, west of Birnbaum, west of Bentschen, west of Wollstein, north of Lissa, north of Rawitsch, south of Krotoschin, west of Adelnau, west of Schildberg, north of Doruchow, to the Silesian frontier. II. The armistice of November 11, prolonged by the agreements of December 13, 1919, and January 16, 1919, until February 17, 1919, is further prolonged for a short period, the date of expiry not being given, the allied powers and those associated with them reserving to themselves the right to terminate the period at three days' notice. III. The carrying out of those clauses of the agreement of November 11, 1918, and of the additional agreements of December 13, 1918, and January 16, 1919, the terms of which have not yet been fully carried into effect, will be continued and completed during the prolongation of the armistice, according to detailed arrangements made by the permanent armistice commission, acting on instructions issued by the supreme allied command. SUPPLEMENT TO PROTOCOL OF ARMISTICE WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, NOVEMBER 3, 1918.1 Contains details and executive clauses of certain points of the armistice between the allied and associated powers and AustriaHungary. (I) MILITARY CLAUSES. 1. Hostilities on land, sea, and air, will cease on all Austro-Hungarian fronts twenty-four hours after the signing of the armistice, i.e., at 3 o'clock on November 4 (Central European time). From that hour the Italian and allied troops will not advance beyond the line then reached. The Austro-Hungarian troops and those of her allies must retire to a distance of at least 3 kilometers (as the crow flies) from the line reached by the Italian troops or by troops of allied countries. Inhabitants of the 3-kilometer zone included between the two lines (above-mentioned) will be able to obtain necessary supplies from their own army or those of the Allies. All Austro-Hungarian troops who may be at the rear of the fighting lines reached by the Italian troops, on the cessation of hostilities, must be regarded as prisoners of war. 2. Regarding the clauses included in Articles 2 and 3 concerning artillery equipment and war material to be either collected in places indicated or left in territories which are to be evacuated, the Italian plenipotentiaries representing all the allied and associated powers, give to the said clauses the following interpretation, which will be carried into execution: (a) Any material or part thereof which may be used for the purpose of war must be given up to the allied and associated powers. The Austro-Hungarian army and the German troops are only authorized to take personal arms and equipment belonging to troops evacuating the territories mentioned in Article 3, besides officers' chargers, the transport train, and horses specially allotted to each 1 This supplement was not printed with the Armistice in our issue of April, 1919 (Supplement, pp. 80-84), because an authentic text was not then available. The official text is now printed from Senate Document No. 147, 66th Congress, 1st Session. |