After the evidence has been given, the shorthand writer for the foreign language shall withdraw to the General Secretary's Office. The hearing shall be suspended while he is transcribing his notes into his own language, and the translator is making a French translation thereof. As soon as these are done, the sitting will be resumed and the French translation of the evidence read. This modus operandi will be followed only in case the evidence is given in narrative form too long to be translated from memory instantly during the sitting.

(Adopted at sitting of Jan. 20, 1905.)

To enable the parties interested to follow entirely, during the public sittings, the questions and answers of the witnesses in the official language of the Commission, which is the French language, as well as in the English and Russian languages, which are the respective languages of the Contracting Parties, the following rule will be observed during the whole course of the proceedings:

"Any question put in any language other than the French language will immediately be translated into French first, and afterwards into the language of the witness.

"The answer of a witness will immediately be translated, into French first, and afterwards into the language used in putting the question."

(Adopted at sitting of Jan. 25, 1905.)

8. No witness shall be heard more than once on the same facts, except by consent of the Commission, or in order to be confronted with another witness whose evidence contradicts his.

9. Witnesses shall make their deposition without interruption (d'un seul trait), and without being allowed to read any written draft. Nevertheless, they may be authorised by the President to refer to memoranda or documents, if the nature of the facts testified to should render it necessary.

F. Conclusions and Report.

1. When the Commissioners have exhausted all means of information, each Agent will be at liberty to lodge in writing the conclusions and observations which he wishes to submit to the

Commission. These conclusions and observations will be read by the Agents at a public sitting.

2. After the public sitting at which the reading of the conclusions and observations of the Agents takes place, the Commissioners will proceed to deliberate, in the Council Chamber, as to the results obtained, and draw up the Report provided for in Art. VI. of the declaration dated 12th-25th November 1904.

G.-Dates and Hours of Sittings.

The Commission will fix at the end of each of its sittings the date and hour of the following sitting.

III

ADMISSION OF NON-SIGNATORIES TO HAGUE CONVENTIONS-EFFECT OF CONVENTIONS AS BETWEEN SIGNATORIES AND NON-SIGNATORIES

ARTICLE LX. of Peace Convention provides :

"The conditions on which the Powers who were not represented at the International Peace Conference can adhere to the present Convention shall form the subject of a subsequent agreement."

This question is one of those which have to be dealt with at the second Conference.

Under Article XIII. of the Convention on the adaptation of the Geneva Convention to maritime war, non-signatory Powers who have agreed to the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, are allowed to adhere by written notice to the Dutch Government, the latter in turn notifying other Governments.

A similar provision is contained in the Preamble to the Convention on the Laws and Customs of War under Article IV., which is as follows:

"Non-Signatory Powers are allowed to adhere to the present Convention. For this purpose they must make their adhesion known to the Contracting Powers by means of a written notification addressed to the Netherlands Government, and by it communicated to all the other Contracting Powers."

Article II. of the same Convention provides that it is only binding as between the contracting parties, and that it even ceases to be binding on a contracting party, if a co-signatory Power becomes allied in war against it with a non-signatory Power.

This does not, of course, release a signatory Power from observing any laws or customs of war which are recognised, apart from the Convention, as forming part of International Law.

The question of the adhesion of Powers, not represented at the Conference, to the Conventions gave rise to some correspondence between Sir Julian (afterwards Lord) Pauncefote and Lord Salisbury, then Foreign Secretary. Sir J. Pauncefote wrote that there had been strong opposition to the adhesion of such Powers being made conditional, and especially to any requirement being inserted that the consent of the signatory Powers to such adhesion should be obtained. Lord Salisbury, after taking the opinion of the Secretary of State for War as to the Convention relating to the laws and customs of war, replied "that so far as the revised Brussels and Geneva Conventions were concerned, the British Government agreed to unconditional adhesion of other Powers; but unless Great Britain was previously consulted and gave her assent, the British Government would not agree to admit the adhesion of a non-signatory Power to the Arbitration Convention. Ultimately Lord Salisbury instructed the British representatives (if any words were contained in the Final Act "implying the consent of Great Britain to the subsequent adhesion of other Governments without any general consent") to make the following reservation: "It is almost impossible for H.M. Government to admit that Great Britain, except with her own consent, formally conveyed in the usual manner by the signature of H.M. Plenipotentiary, can come under conventional obligations to another Government. Unless the consent of Great Britain has been previously obtained, any intimation of adhesion to this Convention by any Government or person but the Plenipotentiaries now signing it, will be regarded as non-avenue, so far as Great Britain is concerned." The British position as regards adhesions might be made clearer.

IV

liii.

INTERPRETATION OF ARTICLE LIII. OF CONVENTION ON LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR

"Art. LIII. An army of occupation can only take possession of the cash, funds, and property liable to requisition belonging strictly to the State, depots of arms, means of transport, stores and supplies, and generally all movable property of the State which may be used for military operations.

“Railway plant, land telegraphs, telephones, steamers, and other ships, apart from cases governed by maritime law, as well as depots of arms, and generally all kinds of war material, even though belonging to companies or to private persons, are likewise material which may serve for military operations, but they must be restored at the conclusion of peace, and indemnities paid for them on the termination of the war." (See also Article XLVI.)

This article was intended to be only a reproduction of the existing usage of the rule that private property on land is liable to seizure, but not to confiscation. It therefore sets out a principle which is not only applicable as between signatories, but also as between signatories and non-signatories.

The belligerent invader has a general right, under the existing practice, of seizure of whatever he in his discretion may consider necessary for the purpose of breaking the power of the enemy. Railways are, for obvious reasons, extremely useful to belligerents, and in many cases have determined the course of hostilities. The invading commander is therefore entitled to take possession of the rolling stock, stations, and the whole of the railway administration, without distinction as to whether the railways belong to the invaded State or to private companies. Where the railways belong to the State, the owner is displaced by the invading State. When they belong to private companies, the general rules of warfare, applying to private property within the invaded State, are followed. That is to say, that the right to take does not imply the right to take without payment.1

1 Mr. Hall observes on this subject that this distinction must be kept in mind, belligerent Governments and some writers being anxious to represent seizure, without payment, for military purposes as an act of sovereignty and not of military violence.-(W. E. Hall, Int. Law, 1895, p. 498.)