Convention (VI) Relating to the Status of Enemy Merchant Ships at the Outbreak of Hostilities

Article 1. When a merchant ship belonging to one of the belligerent Powers
is at the commencement of hostilities in an enemy port, it is desirable
that it should be allowed to depart freely, either immediately, or after a
reasonable number of days of grace, and to proceed, after being furnished
with a pass, direct to its port of destination or any other port indicated.

The same rule should apply in the case of a ship which has left its last
port of departure before the commencement of the war and entered a port
belonging to the enemy while still ignorant that hostilities had broken
out.

Art. 2. A merchant ship unable, owing to circumstances of force majeure, to
leave the enemy port within the period contemplated in the above article,
or which was not allowed to leave, cannot be confiscated.

The belligerent may only detain it, without payment of compensation, but
subject to the obligation of restoring it after the war, or requisition it
on payment of compensation.

Art.3. Enemy merchant ships which left their last port of departure before
the commencement of the war, and are encountered on the High Seas while
still ignorant of the outbreak of hostilities cannot be confiscated. They
are only liable to detention on the understanding that they shall be
restored after the war without compensation, or to be requisitioned, or
even destroyed, on payment of compensation, but in such cases provision
must be made for the safety of the persons on board as well as the security
of the ship’s papers.

After touching at a port in their own country or at a neutral port, these
ships are subject to the laws and customs of maritime war.

Art. 4. Enemy cargo on board the vessels referred to in Articles 1 and 2 is
likewise liable to be detained and restored after the termination of the
war without payment of compensation, or to be requisitioned on payment of
compensation, with or without the ship.

The same rule applies in the case of cargo on board the vessels referred to
in Article 3.

Art. 5. The present Convention does not affect merchant ships whose build
shows that they are intended for conversion into war-ships.

Art. 6. 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. 7. 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 notifications 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 at the same time inform them
of the date on which it received the notification.

Art. 8. 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.

The said 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,
stating the date on which it received the notification.

Art. 9. The present Convention shall come into force, in the case the of
the Powers which were a party to the first deposit of ratifications,
I be sixty days after the date of the procŠs-verbal of that deposit, and,
in the case of the Powers which ratify subsequently or which adhere, sixty
days after the notification of their ratification or of their adhesion has
been received by the Netherlands Government.

Art. 10. 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, which shall at once communicate a 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 reached the Netherlands Government.

Art. 11. A register kept by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall give the
date of the deposit of ratifications made in virtue of Article 7,
paragraphs 3 and 4, as well as the date on which the notifications of
adhesion (Article 8, paragraph 2) or of denunciation (Article 10, paragraph
1) have been received.

Each Contracting Power is entitled to have access to this register and to
be supplied with certified extracts from it.

In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries have appended to the present
Convention their signatures.

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