The second part of the agreement deals solely with civilian prisoners:
Art. 1. Civilian prisoners, regardless of age or sex, are
authorized, upon their own demand and under conditions hereafter
stated, to leave the country where they are held; this applies
alike to interned persons and to those who have been liberated
after a period of internment.
Art. 2. The word internment is to include all civilians who,
whatever the cause or date of their commitment, are or have been
detained in any place of internment against their will.
Art. 3. Civilians who at the beginning of the war had their
domicile or habitual residence either in the State where they are
or on the free territory of the other State will be conducted to
the Swiss frontier, whence they can proceed to Germany if they
come from France or to France if they come from Germany.
Art. 4. Civilians who at the beginning of the war had their homes
in a locality of the occupied regions will be sent back there.
They can ask to be taken to the Swiss frontier, and the request
will be complied with whenever military necessity does not stand
in the way. In cases where, for military reasons, the return
of such persons to their homes is impossible, the civilians in
question shall be sent to the frontier or to another part of the
occupied territory, which will be assigned to them, as nearly as
possible, in accordance with their wishes.
Art. 5. If a civilian desires to remain in the territory or State
where he now is interned, he will be authorized to do so on
condition that his residence there shall be permanent.
Art. 9. The civilians interned in Switzerland at the moment when
this agreement goes into effect will be freed from internment.
Art. 12. Civilians who return to their country under the present
agreement cannot be employed in military service, either at the
front, or in the war zone, or in the interior of occupied enemy
territory, or in the territories or possessions of an allied State.
Art. 13. The arrangements for the liberation of civilians shall
be put into operation immediately after this agreement goes into
effect. Reckoning from that date, the transportation ought to be
finished in a space of not more than three months for civilians
now actually interned and six months for those interned at some
time in the past. This transportation will be furnished free.
The following articles deal with the population of occupied territory:
Art. 17. The inhabitants of occupied territory cannot be compelled
to work, except under the following rules: The work must be done
under the best material and moral conditions, with due regard
to personal aptitudes, social conditions, sex, age, and the
physical status of the workers. Members of a family, so far as
possible, must not be separated. Their labors must never involve
any obligation to take part in war operations against their own
country. Work can be demanded only (a) as service for the needs
of the army of occupation, within the limitations laid down in
Article 52 of The Hague Convention regarding war on land; (b) with
the object of preventing idleness on the part of persons capable
of working, who are supported at public expense, and who have
refused voluntary employment; (c) with the object of providing, in
the absence of other means, for the existence of the population.
Art. 18. Persons compelled to work under Article 17 must be
employed, with the exception mentioned, in the locality of their
domicile or in its immediate neighborhood. If for military or
economic reasons an inhabitant has to be removed from his home in
order to put him at work, this removal shall not in any case take
him outside the occupied territory, nor shall it bring persons
whose residence is more than thirty kilometers from the firing
line within the limits of that zone.
Suitable provision shall be made for housing and food for workers
who shall receive fair remuneration, and, if need be, medical
service. Besides rest periods and normal changes they shall be
given permission as often as possible to visit their families,
with whom they shall also be allowed to correspond and exchange
parcels.
Art. 19. Aside from the cases designated in Article 18, and aside
from the case of a total or partial evacuation of a locality for
military reasons, an inhabitant of occupied territory cannot be
displaced from his home against his will, unless, because of his
personal attitude, his presence endangers military security or
public order.
Art. 20. No civilian coming from one of the two States can
in future be interned in the other State or in the occupied
territories. Nevertheless, a civilian who, by reason of his
personal attitude, and in the interest of military security or
public order, has to be removed from his domicile in occupied
territory, can be taken into the territory of the occupying
State. The duration of his absence from occupied territory must
be limited to a period of strict necessity and must not exceed
six months, save in exceptional cases. At the expiration of
this period the interested person is authorized to return to
the occupied territory, unless the authorities should prefer to
conduct him to the Swiss frontier.
The foregoing Franco-German agreement was entered into for an initial
period of fifteen months, beginning May 15, 1918, and can be renewed
for periods of three months each. A Belgo-German agreement of narrower
scope was signed at Berne on March 22, 1918, relating only to civilian
prisoners.