ARTICLE XXIII. A neutral Power may allow prizes to enter its ports and roadsteads, whether under convoy or not, when they are brought there to be sequestrated pending the decision of a Prize Court. It may have the prize taken to another of its ports. If the prize is convoyed by a war-ship, the prize crew may go on board the convoying ship. If the prize is not under convoy, the prize crew are left at liberty. ARTICLE XXIV. If, notwithstanding the notification of the neutral Power, a belligerent ship of war does not leave a port where it is not entitled to remain, the neutral Power is entitled to take such measures as it considers necessary to render the ship incapable of taking the sea during the war, and the commanding officer of the ship must facilitate the execution of such measures. When a belligerent ship is detained by a neutral Power, the officers and crew are likewise detained. The officers and crew thus detained may be left in the ship or kept either on another vessel or on land, and may be subjected to the measures of restriction which it may appear necessary to impose upon them. A sufficient number of men for looking after the vessel must, however, be always left on board. The officers may be left at liberty on giving their word not to quit the neutral territory without permission. ARTICLE XXV. A neutral Power is bound to exercise such surveillance as the means at its disposal allow to prevent any violation of the provisions of the above Articles occurring in its ports or roadsteads or in its waters. ARTICLE XXVI. The exercise by a neutral Power of the rights laid down in the present Convention can under no circumstances be considered as an unfriendly act by one or other belligerent who has accepted the Article relating thereto. ARTICLE XXVII. The Contracting Powers shall communicate to each other in due course all Laws, Proclamations, and other enactments regulating in their respective countries the status of belligerent war-ships in their ports and waters, by means of a communication addressed to the Government of the Netherlands, and forwarded immediately by that Government to the other Contracting Powers. ARTICLE XXVIII. The provisions of the present Convention do not apply except to the Contracting Powers, and then only if all the belligerents are parties to the Convention. • Not adhered to by United States (see page 2366). ARTICLE XXIX. The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible. The first deposit of ratifications shall be recorded in a procèsverbal signed by the Representatives of the Powers which take part therein and by the Netherland Minister for Foreign Affairs. The subsequent deposits of ratifications shall be made by means of a written notification addressed to the Netherland Government and accompanied by the instrument of ratification. A duly certified copy of the procès-verbal relative to the first deposit of ratifications, of the ratifications mentioned in the preceding paragraph, as well as of the instruments of ratification, shall be at once sent by the Netherland Government, through the diplomatic channel, to the Powers invited to the Second Peace Conference, as well as to the other Powers which have adhered to the Convention. In the cases contemplated in the preceding paragraph, the said Government shall inform them at the same time of the date on which it received the notification. ARTICLE XXX. Non-Signatory Powers may adhere to the present Convention. The Power which desires to adhere notifies in writing its intention to the Netherland Government, forwarding to it the act of adhesion, which shall be deposited in the archives of the said Government. That Government shall at once transmit to all the other Powers a duly certified copy of the notification as well as of the act of adhesion, mentioning the date on which it received the notification. ARTICLE XXXI. The present Convention shall come into force in the case of the Powers which were a party to the first deposit of the ratifications, sixty days after the date of the procès-verbal of that deposit, and, in the case of the Powers who ratify subsequently or who adhere, sixty days after the notification of their ratification or of their decision has been received by the Netherland Government. ARTICLE XXXII. In the event of one of the Contracting Powers wishing to denounce the present Convention, the denunciation shall be notified in writing to the Netherland Government, who shall at once communicate a duly certified copy of the notification to all the other Powers, informing them of the date on which it was received. The denunciation shall only have effect in regard to the notifying Power, and one year after the notification has been made to the Netherland Government. ARTICLE XXXIII. A register kept by the Netherland Ministry for Foreign Affairs shall give the date of the deposit of ratifications made by Article XXIX, paragraphs 3 and 4, as well as the date on which the notifica tions of adhesion (Article XXX, paragraph 2) or of denunciation (Article XXXII, paragraph 1) have been received. Each Contracting Power is entitled to have access to this register and to be supplied with duly certified extracts. In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries have appended their signatures to the present Convention. Done at The Hague, the 18th October, 1907, in a single copy, which shall remain deposited in the archives of the Netherland Government, and duly certified copies of which shall be sent, through the diplomatic channel, to the Powers which have been invited to the Second Peace Conference. RESOLUTION OF RATIFICATION BY THE SENATE OF A CONVENTION CONCERNING THE rights and DUTIES OF NEUTRAL POWERS IN NAVAL WAR, SIGNED AT THE HAGUE, 1907. Resolved (two-thirds of the Senators present concurring therein), That the Senate advise and consent to the adherence of the United States to a convention adopted by the Second International Peace Conference held at The Hague from June 15 to October 18, 1907, concerning the rights and duties of neutral powers in naval war, reserving and excluding, however, Article XXIII thereof, which is in the following words: A neutral power may allow prizes to enter its ports and roadsteads, whether under convoy or not, when they are brought there to be sequestrated pending the decision of a prize court. It may have the prize taken to another of its ports. If the prize is convoyed by a war ship, the prize crew may go on board the convoying ship. If the prize is not under convoy, the prize crew are left at liberty. Resolved, further, That the United States adheres to this convention with the understanding that the last clause of Article III implies the duty of a neutral power to make the demand therein mentioned for the return of a ship captured within the neutral jurisdiction and no longer within that jurisdiction. XIV 1907.@ DECLARATION PROHIBITING THE DISCHARGE OF PROJECTILES AND EXPLOSIVES FROM BALLOONS. Concluded October 18, 1907; ratification advised by Senate March 10, 1908; ratified by the President February 23, 1909; ratification deposited with the Netherlands Government November 27, 1909; proclaimed February 28, 1910. [Translation.] DECLARATION. The Undersigned, Plenipotentiaries of the Powers invited to the Second International Peace Conference at The Hague, duly authorized to that effect by their Governments, inspired by the sentiments which found expression in the Declaration of St. Petersburg of the 29th November (11th December), 1868, and being desirous of renewing the declaration of The Hague of the 29th July, 1899, which has now expired, Declare: The Contracting Powers agree to prohibit, for a period extending to the close of the Third Peace Conference, the discharge of projectiles and explosives from balloons or by other new methods of a similar nature. The present Declaration is only binding on the Contracting Powers in case of war between two or more of them. • The ratifications of this convention were deposited at The Hague November 27, 1909, by the United States of America, China, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Bolivia, and Salvador. |