Convention (VIII) Relative to the Laying of Automatic Submarine Contact Mines

Article 1. It is forbidden –
1. To lay unanchored automatic contact mines, except when they are so
constructed as to become harmless one hour at most after the person
who laid them ceases 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.

Art. 2. It is forbidden to lay automatic contact mines off the coast and
ports of the enemy, with the sole object of intercepting commercial
shipping.

Art. 3. When anchored automatic contact mines are employed, every possible
precaution must be taken for the security of peaceful shipping.

The belligerents undertake to do their utmost to render these mines
harmless within a limited time, and, should they cease to be under
surveillance, to notify the danger zones as soon as military exigencies
permit, by a notice addressed to ship owners, which must also be
communicated to the Governments through the diplomatic channel.

Art. 4. Neutral Powers which lay automatic contact mines off their coasts
must observe the same rules and take the same precautions as are imposed on
belligerents.

The neutral Power must inform ship owners, by a notice issued in advance,
where automatic contact mines have been laid. This notice must be
communicated at once to the Governments through the diplomatic channel.

Art. 5. At the close of the war, the Contracting Powers undertake to do
their utmost to remove the mines which they have laid, each Power removing
its own mines.

As regards anchored automatic contact mines laid by one of the belligerents
off the coast of the other, their position must be notified to the other
party by the Power which laid them, and each Power must proceed with the
least possible delay to remove the mines in its own waters.

Art. 6. The Contracting Powers which do not at present own perfected mines
of the pattern contemplated in the present Convention, and which,
consequently, could not at present carry out the rules laid down in
Articles 1 and 3, undertake to convert the mat‚riel of their mines as soon
as possible, so as to bring it into conformity with the foregoing
requirements.

Art. 7. 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. 8. 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 inform them at the same time
of the date on which it has received the notification.

Art.9. Non-Signatory Powers may adhere to the present Convention.

The Power which desires to adhere notifies in writing its intention to the
Netherlands Government, transmitting to it the act of adhesion, which shall
be deposited in the archives of the said Government.

This 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. 10. The present Convention shall come into force, in the case of the
Powers which were a party to the first deposit of ratifications, sixty days
after the date of the procŠs-verbal of this deposit, and, in the case of
the Powers which ratify subsequently or adhere, sixty days after the
notification of their ratification or of their adhesion has been received
by the Netherlands Government.

Art. 11. The present Convention shall remain in force for seven years,
dating from the sixtieth day after the date of the first deposit of
ratifications.

Unless denounced, it shall continue in force after the expiration of this
period.

The denunciation shall be notified in writing to the Netherlands
Government, which shall at once communicate a duly certified copy of the
notification to all the Powers, informing them of the date on which it was
received.

The denunciation shall only have effect in regard to the notifying Power,
and six months after the notification has reached the Netherlands
Government.

Art. 12. The Contracting Powers undertake to reopen the question of the
employment of automatic contact mines six months before the expiration of
the period contemplated in the first paragraph of the preceding article, in
the event of the question not having been already reopened and settled by
the Third Peace Conference.

If the Contracting Powers conclude a fresh Convention relative to the
employment of mines, the present Convention shall cease to be applicable
from the moment it comes into force.

Art. 13. A register kept by the Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs
shall give the date of the deposit of ratifications made in virtue of
Article 8, paragraphs 3 and 4, as well as the date on which the
notifications of adhesion (Article 9, paragraph 2) or of denunciation
(Article 11, paragraph 3) have been received.

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

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