Convention (XIII) Concerning the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War

Art. 21. A prize may only be brought into a neutral port on account of
unseaworthiness, stress of weather, or want of fuel or provisions.

It must leave as soon as the circumstances which justified its entry are at
an end. If it does not, the neutral Power must order it to leave at once;
should it fail to obey, the neutral Power must employ the means at its
disposal to release it with its officers and crew and to intern the prize
crew.

Art. 22. A neutral Power must, similarly, release a prize brought into one
of its ports under circumstances other than those referred to in Article
21.

Art. 23. 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.

Art. 24. 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.

Art. 25. 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.

Art. 26. 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 articles
relating thereto.

Art. 27. 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.

Art. 28. The provisions of the present Convention do not apply except
between Contracting Powers, and then only if all the belligerents are
parties to the Convention.

Art. 29. The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible.
The ratifications shall be deposited at The Hague.

The first deposit of ratifications shall be recorded in a procŠs-verbal
signed by the representatives of the Powers which take part therein and by
the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The subsequent deposits of ratifications shall be made by means of a
written notification addressed to the Netherlands Government and
accompanied by the instrument of ratification.

A duly certified copy of the procŠs-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
Netherlands 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.

Art. 30. Non-Signatory Powers may adhere to the present Convention.
The Power which desires to adhere notifies in writing its intention to the
Netherlands 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.

Art. 31. 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 procŠs-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 Netherlands Government.

Art. 32. In the event of one of the Contracting Powers wishing to denounce
the present Convention, the denunciation shall be notified in writing to
the Netherlands 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 Netherlands
Government.

Art. 33. A register kept by the Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs
shall give the date of the deposit of ratifications made by Article 29,
paragraphs 3 and 4, as well as the date on which the notifications of
adhesion (Article 30, paragraph 2) or of denunciation (Article 32,
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, 18 October 1907, in a single copy, which shall remain
deposited in the archives of the Netherlands 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.

Author: international