Unanchored automatic contact mines are forbidden with the exception of those constructed in such a way as to become harmless after a limited time, so as to offer no danger to neutral vessels. III United States Anchored automatic contact mines which do not become innocuous on getting adrift are prohibited. IV United States, Netherlands, Germany If anchored contact mines are employed, all necessary precautions must be taken for the safety of legitimate navigation. The belligerents undertake especially in case these mines are left to themselves to notify, as soon as possible, the danger zones to the public, or to render them harmless within a limited time, so that a peril to legitimate shipping may, as far as possible, be removed. V A sufficient period of time shall be given Governments to put into use perfected mine apparatus. VI At the latest, at the end of the war each belligerent removes the mines placed outside its territorial waters. Moreover, belligerents mutually communicate the necessary information as to the placing of the automatic contact mines that each has laid along the coasts of the other, and each belligerent or neutral must proceed as soon as possible to the removal of the mines found in its waters. Annex 24 AMENDMENT OF THE NETHERLAND DELEGATION TO THE SYNOPTIC TABLE1 ARTICLE 2 Before military ports the limit may be extended to a distance of six nautical miles from the shore batteries. Military ports shall be considered to be those which appear as such in the official list of the navy. 1 Annex 19. [671] Annex 25 AMENDMENT OF THE DELEGATION OF GREAT BRITAIN TO THE SYNOPTIC TABLE1 Add to the end of Article 4: ARTICLE 4 The laying by a belligerent of automatic contact mines before a commercial port of its adversary is not authorized except when there is anchored there at least one large fighting unit. Annex 26 TEXT OF DRAFT REGULATIONS BASED UPON THE DELIBERATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE OF EXAMINATION It is forbidden: ARTICLE 1 1. To lay unanchored automatic contact mines which do not become harmless one hour at most after the person who lays them has ceased to control them; 2. To lay anchored automatic contact mines which do not become harmless as soon as they have broken loose from their moorings; 3. To use torpedoes which do not become harmless when they have missed their mark. ARTICLE 2 It is forbidden to lay anchored automatic contact mines beyond a distance of three nautical miles from low-water mark, throughout the length of the coastline, as well as along the islands and banks adjacent thereto. In the case of bays, the zone of three nautical miles shall be measured starting from a straight line drawn across the bay in its part nearest the entrance at the first point where the opening does not exceed ten miles in width. ARTICLE 3 Off military ports the limit for the laying of mines is extended to a distance of ten nautical miles. As military ports are considered those ports which have been decreed as such by the State to which they belong and those where naval construction plants are situated. Within the limits indicated in the two preceding articles, the belligerents have the right to lay anchored automatic contact mines in the waters of their adversaries. However, it is forbidden to lay automatic contact mines there with the sole object of intercepting commercial shipping. 1 Annex 19. ARTICLE 5 Within the sphere of their immediate activity, the belligerents have likewise a right to lay automatic contact mines outside the limits fixed in Articles 2 to 4 of the present regulations. Mines used outside the limits fixed in Articles 2 to 4 must be so constructed as to become harmless within two hours at most after the person who lays them has abandoned them. ARTICLE 6 (Reserved) Communication between two open seas shall not be entirely barred by automatic contact mines. But passage through shall be subject to the conditions decreed by the competent authorities. The provision of paragraph 1 does not prejudice in any way the rules established by existing treaties and conventions, nor the rights of territorial sovereignty. ARTICLE 7 When anchored contact mines are used, every possible precaution must be taken for the safety of navigation. The Governments undertake especially, in case these mines should cease to be under surveillance, to notify the danger zones, as soon as it can be done, and to do their utmost to render them harmless within a limited time. ARTICLE 8 At the end of the war, at the latest, the belligerents shall be obliged to do all in their power to remove, respectively, the mines which they have each laid outside the limits imposed by Articles 2 and 3. They shall reciprocally communicate the necessary information regarding the automatic contact mines which each has laid along the coasts of the other. Each State must proceed with the least possible delay to remove the mines in its own waters. ARTICLE 9 . A period of . . years is allowed in which to put into use the perfected apparatus referred to in Articles 1, 5 and 7 of the present regulations. ARTICLE 10 The stipulations of the present Convention are concluded for a period of seven years from the date of the deposit of ratifications. [673] Annex 27 AMENDMENT OF THE DELEGATION OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY TO THE DRAFT REGULATION 1 The Austro-Hungarian navy has, at the present time, no anchored automatic contact mines fulfilling the conditions referred to in Article 1, paragraph 2, of the text based upon the deliberations of the committee of examination, which become harmless when they break loose from their moorings. In order to conform to the clause in question, the Austro-Hungarian navy would therefore be under the necessity of proceeding to a transformation of its mine material. For this transformation the Austro-Hungarian delegation could not however accept either the period of three years proposed or any other period fixed in advance as a measure of this kind contains, independently of individual volition, an element of uncertainty that, as long as it exists, is inconsistent with entering into a formal engagement that perhaps could not be fulfilled. In every improvement in technical matters the time when one may reach a satisfactory solution of a problem under study can scarcely be indicated in advance. Even if the scientific principle upon which the invention to be made rests were most simple from a theoretical point of view, obstacles absolutely unforeseen and very often difficult to overcome may at any turn occur to prevent the practical realization of the idea. It is also necessary not to lose sight in the case before us of the fact that it would not be sufficient to construct an apparatus of perfect action by means of which a mine on breaking loose from its moorings would be automatically rendered harmless; there is equally the problem, and this seems to me to be of no less importance, of giving the apparatus in question such a construction that the other mechanical parts of the mine are not altered to the prejudice of its military value, so that the mine remains simple and not dangerous to handle without losing its effectiveness. It is only after having tested the apparatus to be constructed from different points of view, which in all probability will necessitate a series of lengthy experiments, that we can accomplish the change in the material of mines and then indicate approximately the time in which this operation can be brought to an end. Now if in existing circumstances we were to fix in conventional form a period running from now on for the adoption of perfected mines, and if at the expiration of the time the change in question were not yet executed by one of the contracting Powers, this latter would find itself in a most embarrassing situation. For it would be obliged, if a war should break out in the interval, either to renounce the use of mines not yet converted or to fail in its conventional engagement. Both of these eventualities must necessarily be obviated. It therefore seems to us that if we take seriously the engagement in question, we cannot accept a period fixed in advance in the matter. In accordance with these ideas the delegation of Austria-Hungary permits itself to propose the following amendments: 1 Annex 26. ARTICLE 1 Add to paragraph 2 the following: The maritime Powers which do not at present own these perfected mines, and which consequently could not at present be a party to this pro[674] hibition, undertake to convert, as soon as possible, the matériel of their mines so as to bring them into conformity with the foregoing condition. Omit this article. ARTICLE 9 The fact that the conversion of mines is desirable not only for humanitarian reasons but also in the very interest of the Powers, offers a sufficient guaranty that the undertaking set forth in the above proposal will be faithfully carried out. In this way the humanitarian aim in view will be attained as soon as the means are provided. To do otherwise and to accept a particular period measured from the present for the conversion of mines would be, in the opinion of the delegation of Austria-Hungary, to make an engagement with a mental reservation which evidently would hardly be in harmony with the absolute obligation resulting from a conventional stipulation. As to the unanchored mines referred to in the first paragraph of Article 1, the delegation of Austria-Hungary entirely supports the observations presented on this subject by the naval delegate of Great Britain, and thinks that we might well get along without a provision analogous to that just mentioned or of any other provision fixing a definite time. As to the provision of the second paragraph of Article 5, the delegation of Austria-Hungary has no proposal to make, as the clause in question seems to it unacceptable in principle. Annex 28 AMENDMENT OF THE DELEGATION OF GREAT BRITAIN TO ARTICLE 9 OF THE TEXT OF THE DRAFT REGULATION1 ARTICLE 9 Add a second paragraph worded thus: Until a belligerent is provided with mines constructed so as to fulfill the condition contained in the second paragraph of Article 5, it is forbidden to place anchored automatic contact mines beyond the limits fixed by Articles 2 to 4. 1 Annex 26. |