The signatory Powers engage to take up the question of the use of submarine mines six months before the expiration of the period of seven years provided for in paragraph 1, in case it has not been taken up and settled by the Third Peace Conference at an earlier date. [678] Annex 33 AMENDMENT OF THE NETHERLAND DELEGATION TO THE DRAFT REGULATIONS PRESENTED TO THE COMMISSION 1 1 As no mention of "straits" has been made in the draft regulations respecting the laying of automatic contact mines, it might be thought that the different stipulations relating to mines contained in these regulations apply quite as well to straits as to other regions of the sea. But this interpretation is found to be utterly inconsistent with what is said in the report preceding the draft regulations. In short, we there read the following: 2 Owing to these reservations and declarations the committee unanimously decided to omit any provision concerning straits, which should remain unaffected by any stipulation in the present regulations; it was distinctly laid down that by the stipulations of the Convention to be concluded no change whatever is made in the present status of straits, which is in nowise affected by the provisions on the use of mines. As is seen, there is a capital contradiction between the draft regulations and the report as regards the status of straits in their relation to mines. In order to define clearly what the Convention is meant to establish, the delegation of the Netherlands proposes to add to the draft regulations an article worded as follows: ARTICLE 10 This Convention does not modify the present status of straits in any degree. Annex 34 AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY THE DELEGATION OF TURKEY TO THE DRAFT REGULATIONS PRESENTED TO THE COMMISSION 1 ARTICLE 3 Add to the second paragraph of the article: The provisions of this article are applicable also to ports whose entrance is defended by forts and fortifications. [681] AMENDMENTS TO THE HAGUE CONVENTION OF JULY 29, 1899, FOR THE ADAPTATION TO MARITIME WARFARE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION OF AUGUST 22, 1864 Annex 38 TEXT OF THE CONVENTION FOR THE ADAPTATION TO MARITIME WARFARE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION OF AUGUST 22, 1864 ARTICLE 1 Military hospital ships, that is to say, ships constructed or assigned by States specially and solely with the view to assist the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, the names of which have been communicated to the belligerent Powers at the commencement or during the course of hostilities, and in any case before they are employed, shall be respected and cannot be captured while hostilities last. These ships, moreover, are not on the same footing as men-of-war as regards their stay in a neutral port. ARTICLE 2 Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized relief societies, shall likewise be respected and exempt from capture, if the belligerent Power to which they belong has given. them an official commission and has notified their names to the hostile Power at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. These ships shall be provided with a certificate from the competent authorities, declaring that they had been under their control while fitting out and on final departure. ARTICLE 3 Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized societies of neutral countries, shall be respected and exempt from capture, if the neutral Power to which they belong has given them an official commission and has notified their names to the belligerent Powers at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. ARTICLE 4 The ships mentioned in Articles 1, 2 and 3 shall afford relief and assistance to the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked of the belligerents without distinction of nationality. the matériel of their mines as soon as possible, so as to bring them into conformity with the foregoing requirements. The stipulations of the present regulations are concluded for a period of seven years or until the close of the Third Peace Conference, if that date is earlier. The contracting Powers undertake to reopen the question of the employment of automatic submarine contact mines six months before the expiration of the period of seven years, in the event of the question not having been already reopened and settled by the Third Peace Conference. In the absence of a stipulation of a new Convention the present regulations will continue in force unless the present Convention is denounced. The denunciation shall not have effect (with regard to the notifying Power) until six months after the notification. Annex 36 AMENDMENT OF THE DELEGATION OF COLOMBIA TO THE Omit Article 2 and paragraph 2 of Article 5 and substitute the following provisions: ARTICLE 2 The employment of anchored automatic contact mines is absolutely forbidden except as a means of defense. Belligerents may not employ such mines except for the protection of their own coasts and only within a distance of the greatest range of cannon. In the case of arms of the sea or navigable maritime channels leading exclusively to the shores of a single Power, that Power may bar the entrance for its own protection by laying anchored automatic contact mines. Belligerents are absolutely forbidden to lay anchored automatic contact mines in the open sea or in the waters of the enemy. Annex 37 AMENDMENT OF THE BRITISH DELEGATION TO THE DRAFT 1 ARTICLE 6 Add to the article a paragraph as follows: The prohibition against using automatic contact mines which do not answer to the conditions of Article 1 shall come into force for unanchored mines one year and for anchored mines three years after the ratification of the present Convention. 1 Annex 35. [681] AMENDMENTS TO THE HAGUE CONVENTION OF JULY 29, 1899, FOR THE ADAPTATION TO MARITIME WARFARE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION OF AUGUST 22, 1864 Annex 38 TEXT OF THE CONVENTION FOR THE ADAPTATION TO MARITIME WARFARE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION OF AUGUST 22, 1864 ARTICLE 1 Military hospital ships, that is to say, ships constructed or assigned by States specially and solely with the view to assist the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, the names of which have been communicated to the belligerent Powers at the commencement or during the course of hostilities, and in any case before they are employed, shall be respected and cannot be captured while hostilities last. These ships, moreover, are not on the same footing as men-of-war as regards their stay in a neutral port. ARTICLE 2 Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized relief societies, shall likewise be respected and exempt from capture, if the belligerent Power to which they belong has given. them an official commission and has notified their names to the hostile Power at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. These ships shall be provided with a certificate from the competent authorities, declaring that they had been under their control while fitting out and on final departure. ARTICLE 3 Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized societies of neutral countries, shall be respected and exempt from capture, if the neutral Power to which they belong has given. them an official commission and has notified their names to the belligerent Powers at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. ARTICLE 4 The ships mentioned in Articles 1, 2 and 3 shall afford relief and assistance to the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked of the belligerents without distinction of nationality. [682] The Governments undertake not to use these ships for any military purpose. These ships must in nowise hamper the movements of the combatants. During and after an engagement they will act at their own risk and peril. The belligerents will have the right to control and search them; they can refuse to help them, order them off, make them take a certain course, and put a commissioner on board; they can even detain them, if important circumstances require it. As far as possible the belligerents shall enter in the log of the hospital ships the orders which they give them. ARTICLE 5 Military hospital ships shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of green about a meter and a half in breadth. The ships mentioned in Articles 2 and 3 shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of red about a meter and a half in breadth. The boats of the ships above-mentioned, as also small craft which may be used for hospital work, shall be distinguished by similar painting. All hospital ships shall make themselves known by hoisting, with their national flag, the white flag with a red cross provided by the Geneva Convention. Neutral merchantmen, yachts, or vessels, having, or taking on board, sick, wounded, or shipwrecked of the belligerents, cannot be captured for so doing, but they are liable to capture for any violation of neutrality they may have committed. ARTICLE 7 The religious, medical, and hospital staff of any captured ship is inviolable, and its members cannot be made prisoners of war. On leaving the ship they take with them the objects and surgical instruments which are their own private property. This staff shall continue to discharge its duties while necessary, and can afterwards leave when the commander in chief considers it possible. The belligerents must guarantee to the said staff when it has fallen into. their hands the enjoyment of their salaries intact. ARTICLE 8 Sailors and soldiers on board when sick or wounded, to whatever nation they belong, shall be protected and tended by the captors. ARTICLE 9 The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick of one of the belligerents who fall into the power of the other, are prisoners of war. The captor must decide, according to circumstances, whether to keep them, send them to a port of his [683] own country, to a neutral port, or even to an enemy port. In this last case, prisoners thus repatriated cannot serve again while the war lasts. |