Section 6 Methods of Warfare as Affecting Neutrals
(Mines)
On the views expressed in the first of the two letters which follow, as also in the writer’s British Academy paper on Neutral Duties, as translated in the Marine Rundschau, see Professor von Martitz of Berlin, in the Transactions of the International Law Association, 1907. The Institut de Droit International has for some years past had under its consideration questions relating to mines, and has arrived at conclusions which will be found in its Annuaire, t. xxi. p. 330, t. xxii. p. 344, t xxiii. p. 429, t. xxiv. pp. 286, 301.
The topic has also been dealt with in The Hague Convention, No. viii. of 1907, ratified with a reservation, by Great Britain on November 27, 1907. By Art. 1 it is forbidden “(1) to lay unanchored automatic-contact mines, unless they are so constructed as to become harmless one hour at most after he who has laid them has lost control over 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 employ torpedoes which do not become harmless when they have missed their mark.” By Art. 2, (which is, however, not accepted by France or Germany) it is forbidden “to lay automatic-contact mines off the coast and ports of an enemy, with the sole object of intercepting commercial navigation.”