sittings of the Commission, for the purpose of giving complementary information or advice. 3. Deliberations in the Council Chamber between the Commissioners and the Assessors shall not be published. Decisions resulting therefrom will be communicated, if deemed fit, at the open sittings. ORDER OF HEARING. First, the President will put to the witness the questions specified in Art. 3 of title E. Immediately thereafter he will give permission to speak, to the Agent calling the witness. The Agent shall let the witness make his declaration without interrupting him. As soon as the deposition is ended, the Agent will, either personally or through his Counsel or Advocate, examine the witness on questions of detail. The Advocate, Counsel, or Jurist to whom the Agent may have entrusted the putting of such questions, will beforehand submit such questions to the President, and the questions will not be put to the witness if the President should object. The Agent of the other Party shall then have leave to speak, and he will observe the same rules of examination. After the two Agents have successively proceeded with their examinations, the President will ask the first Agent if he wishes to put any further questions relating to detail or to any new facts brought in by the questions of the second Agent; any return to facts already dealt with is excluded by Art. 8 of title E. (Adopted at sitting of January 20, 1905.) D.-Statement of Facts. 1. The Agents of the High Contracting Parties will proceed with the statement of the facts which are the subject of the examination carried on by the Commission of Inquiry. These Agents will be allowed to have the assistance of Jurists, Counsel, or Advocates, whose names shall be previously submitted to and approved by the Commission. 2. The statements of the facts submitted for examination by the International Commission of Inquiry shall be set out, first, by the Agent of His Britannic Majesty's Government; and, secondly, by the Agent of the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of Russia. 3. These statements as well as the documents accompanying them shall be lodged in writing and simultaneously, at least two days before they are read at a public sitting. No alteration can be made therein after they are lodged. The production of documents subsequently to the handing in of the statements shall be allowed, provided the Commissioners shall have decided upon such admission. (Adopted at sitting of January 7, 1905.) E.-Witnesses. 1. Witnesses shall be cited before the Commission ex-officio, or at the request of the Parties. 2. The witnesses whom the High Contracting Parties will produce before the Commission, or whom the latter will cite, shall be examined in manner hereinafter mentioned.1 3. Before being heard, each witness shall declare his name, age, nationality, residence and occupation, and state whether or not he is in the service of one of the Parties. He will be requested to take an oath, or to declare on his honour that he will tell the whole truth, or to make a solemn declaration. The oath, declaration upon honour, solemn declaration, or refusal will be recorded in the report.2 4. Written depositions of witnesses unable to appear within a brief period will be accepted a titre de documents.3 5. Any witness who refuses or is unable to appear will be allowed to give his evidence before the competent authorities of his dwelling-place, on questions set by the Commission. 6. The Assessors and Agents will have entire freedom in carrying on the examination of the witnesses. As regards the Jurists, Counsel, or Advocates, they will not be allowed to address any questions direct to witnesses without having communicated the terms thereof to the President.4 7. The shorthand report of every deposition shall be accepted as an official report; the General Secretary will have it afterwards transcribed and read to the witness, who will sign it. If the witness declares that he refuses or is unable to sign, this will be mentioned in the report of the deposition. Depositions elicited by the Commissioners and made in any other than the French language will be filed with their translations into French with the Commission's documents, the translation into French having been made under the care of the General Secretary's department. Depositions elicited by the Agents of the High Contracting Parties and made in any other than the French language will be handed to the General Secretary, together with their French translations, approved by the Agent who elicited such depositions. 1 Witnesses shall be successively admitted to the Sitting-Hall; those who have not been heard during the day not to be admitted. (Adopted at sitting of Jan. 20, 1995.) 2 As regards the administering of the oath, the Russian Agent made the following statement: "An oath made in accordance with Russian law being a strictly religious ceremony, the Agent of the Imperial Government has the honour to bring to the knowledge of the International Commission of Inquiry that all Officers of the Imperial Government called upon to testify as witnesses will give their evidence on honour." In accordance with this declaration, the Russian Officers at the request of the President declared on their honour to tell the whole truth. (Sitting of Jan. 31, 1905.) 3 At the sitting of January 23, 1905, Sir Edward Fry (British Assessor) read the following note : "Having for many years occupied myself with questions of evidence, I have read with great interest the written depositions lodged by both sides since our last sitting. I wish, with your permission, to say a few words as to the nature of these depositions, without entering in to any appreciation of the facts, which appreciation belongs to the Commission. "The most direct witnesses are undoubtedly, when reliable, the most valuable; such are those who speak of things which they themselves have seen. "But among the other documents which are submitted to you, I think you will find some depositions which may be of help to you in your inquiry, some others are of relatively great value, some of little importance, and I have the honour to point out to you the necessity of a careful consideration of each of these documents, as well as of the different depositions which will be made before this Commission. In this analysis it is necessary to pay attention to different points: "You will ask yourself, if the witness speaks of his own knowledge or only of what he has heard; "What was the psychological condition of the witness at the time of which he speaks; "If his mind was calm and impartial, or if he was subject to any preoccupation or obsession of any kind; "If the deposition of to-day is the same as that given by the witness immediately after the incident; "If he has modified it, perhaps involuntarily, in consequence of the pending proceedings; "Lastly, what relation exists between the fact testified to by the witness and the fact which alone is the object of this Inquiry." 4 As regards questions put by the Commissioners themselves, the British Commissioner suggested that when a Commissioner spoke, the report should not mention his name, but simply say that a Commissioner had spoken. When the President spoke, he should be mentioned. The American Commissioner suggested that if a Commissioner did not wish to ask a question in his own name, he should be allowed to ask the President to put the question in the name of the Commission. The Commissioners adopted these suggestions (sitting of Jan. 20, 1905). 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." |