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15.16.4 Parole of Belligerent Personnel Interned in Neutral Territory. The neutral Stateshall decide whether interned officers can be left at liberty on giving their parole not to leave theneutral territory without permission. 336Neutral States may release enlisted personnel on parole, prescribe penalties for violationsof parole, and authorize personnel to depart neutral territory temporarily so long as these actionsremain consistent with its obligations as a neutral State. 337 The granting of leave to an internedofficer to return to his or her own country, however, would be considered an exceptionalmeasure, and a neutral State inclined to grant such permission would be prudent in the firstinstance to obtain the consent of the opposing belligerent State.A neutral State may demand the return of persons who have been released on parole buthave left the neutral State in violation of their parole. 338 If such persons return to the State inwhose armed forces they serve, that State is obliged to return them to the neutral State at itsrequest. 33915.16.5 Military Equipment and Supplies of Belligerent Forces Taking Refuge. Themunitions, arms, vehicles, equipment, and other supplies that the interned forces are allowed tobring with them into a neutral State are likewise detained by the neutral State. A belligerentState’s military equipment and supplies, whether its own or captured, which are brought on toneutral territory must be returned at the end of the armed conflict to the State to which the items336 HAGUE V art. 11 (“It shall decide whether officers can be left at liberty on giving their parole not to leave theneutral territory without permission.”).337 Cf. JAMES BROWN SCOTT, THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCES: I THE CONFERENCE OF 1907147-48 (1920) (“Article 57, paragraph 3, of the [1899 Hague] Regulations leaves it to the neutral State to decidewhether interned officers may be left at liberty on giving their parole not to leave the neutral territory withoutpermission. It does not say upon what conditions a permission to leave this territory should be predicated; neitherdoes it provide any penalty for violation of the parole. Finally, it does not mention either non-commissionedofficers or private soldiers. The Japanese delegation proposed to fill this gap by deciding: (1) that the interned men,without distinction of rank, cannot be liberated nor permitted to reenter their country except with the consent of theadverse party under conditions fixed by it; (2) that the parole given in such cases to the neutral State would beequivalent to a parole given to the adverse party. Without ignoring the merits of this proposal, the Commissionpreferred to continue the existing text of the Regulations. It considered that permission given to an interned man toreturn temporarily to his country is something too exceptional to require regulation in express terms. There was nodifficulty, moreover, in recognizing that the Japanese proposal conforms to recent precedents and contains a usefulhint for a neutral State desirous of remaining entirely free from responsibility.”).338 For example, Robert Lansing, The Secretary of State to the German Ambassador, Nov. 16, 1915, reprinted inJAMES BROWN SCOTT, DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GERMANY AUGUST 1,1914 - APRIL 6, 1917, 163 (1918) (“It will be recalled that during the Russo-Japanese War, when the Russian ShipLena was interned by the United States Authorities on the Pacific coast, three officers of that ship escaped andreturned to Russia; and that upon the Government of the United States calling the matter to the attention of theRussian Government it immediately caused the escaped officers to return to American jurisdiction where they wereinterned for the remainder of the war. This precedent this Government regards as in accord with the best practice ofnations and applicable to the cases which I have had the honor to present in this note.”).339 1956 FM 27-10 (Change No. 1 1976) 535 (“Officers and men interned in a neutral State may in the discretion ofthat State be released on their parole under conditions to be prescribed by the neutral State. If such persons leave theneutral State in violation of their parole, the State in whose armed forces they serve is obliged to return them to theneutral State at its request.”).988