(2) If a right to repurchase or recover the vessel is reserved to the vendor.

(3) If the requirements of the municipal law governing the right to fly the flag under which the vessel is sailing, have not been fulfilled.

Chapter VI- Enemy Character

Article 57

Subject to the provisions respecting transfer to another flag, the neutral or enemy character of a vessel is determined by the flag which she is entitled to fly.

The case where a neutral vessel is engaged in a trade which is closed in time of peace, remains outside the scope of, and is in no wise affected by, this rule.

Article 58

The neutral or enemy character of goods found on board an enemy vessel is determined by the neutral or enemy character of the owner.

Article 59

In the absence of proof of the neutral character of goods found on board an enemy vessel, they are presumed to be enemy goods.

Article 60

Enemy goods on board an enemy vessel retain their enemy character until they reach their destination, notwithstanding any transfer effected after the outbreak of hostilities while the goods are being forwarded.

If, however, prior to the capture, a former neutral owner exercises, on the bankruptcy of an existing enemy owner, a recognized legal right to recover the goods, they regain their neutral character.

Chapter VII- Convoy

Article 61

Neutral vessels under convoy of war-ships of their own nationality, are exempt from search. The commander of a convoy

gives, in writing, at the request of the commander of a belligerent warship, all information as to the character of the vessels and their cargoes which could be obtained by search.

Article 62

If the commander of the belligerent war-ship has reason to suspect that the confidence of the commander of the convoy has been abused, he communicates his suspicions to him. In such a case it is for the commander of the convoy alone to investigate the matter. He must record the result of such investigation in a report, of which a copy is handed to the officer of the warship. If, in the opinion of the commander of the convoy, the facts shown in the report justify the capture of one or more vessels, the protection of the convoy must be withdrawn from such vessels.

Chapter VIII- Resistance to Search

Article 63

Forcible resistance to the legitimate exercise of the right of stoppage, search, and capture, involves in all cases the condemnation of the vessel. The cargo is liable to the same treatment as the cargo of an enemy vessel. Goods belonging to the master or owner of the vessel are treated as enemy goods.

Chapter IX- Compensation

Article 64

If the capture of a vessel or of goods, is not upheld by the prize court, or if the prize is released without any judgment being given, the parties interested have the right to compensation, unless there were good reasons for capturing the vessel or goods.

Final Provisions

Article 65

The provisions of the present Declaration must be treated as a whole, and cannot be separated.

Article 66

The Signatory Powers undertake to insure the mutual observance of the rules contained in the present Declaration in any war in which all the belligerents are parties thereto. They will therefore issue the necessary instructions to their authorities and to their armed forces, and will take such measures as may be required in order to insure that it will be applied by their courts, and more particularly by their prize courts.

Article 67

The present Declaration shall be ratified as soon as possible. The ratifications shall be deposited in London.

The first deposit of ratifications shall be recorded in a Protocol signed by the Representatives of the Powers taking part therein, and by His Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

The subsequent deposits of ratifications shall be made by means of a written notification addressed to the British Government, and accompanied by the instrument of ratification.

A duly certified copy of the Protocol relating to the first deposit of ratifications, and of the notifications mentioned in the preceding paragraph as well as of the instruments of ratification which accompany them, shall be immediately sent by the British Government, through the diplomatic channel, to the Signatory Powers. The said Government shall in the cases contemplated in the preceding paragraph, inform them at the same time of the date on which it received the notification.

Article 68

The present Declaration shall take effect, in the case of the Powers which were parties to the first deposit of ratifications, sixty days after the date of the Protocol recording such deposit, and, in the case of the Powers which shall ratify subsequently, sixty days after the notification of their ratification shall have been received by the British Government.

Article 69

In the event of one of the Signatory Powers wishing to denounce the present Declaration, such denunciation can only be made to take effect at the end of a period of twelve years, beginning sixty days after the first deposit of ratifications, and, after that time, at the end of successive periods of six years, of which the first will begin at the end of the period of twelve years. Such denunciation must be notified in writing, at least one year in advance, to the British Government, which shall inform all the other Powers.

It will only operate in respect of the denouncing Power.

Article 70

The Powers represented at the London Naval Conference attach particular importance to the general recognition of the rules which they have adopted, and therefore express the hope that the Powers which were not represented there will accede to the present Declaration. They request the British Government to invite them to do so.

A Power which desires to accede shall notify its intention in writing to the British Government, and transmit simultaneously the act of accession, which will be deposited in the archives of the said Government.

The said Government shall forthwith transmit to all the other Powers a duly certified copy of the notification, together with the act of accession, and communicate the date on which such notification was received. The accession takes effect sixty days after such date.

In respect of all matters concerning this Declaration, acceding Powers shall be on the same footing as the Signatory Powers.

Article 71

The present Declaration, which bears the date of the 26th February, 1909, may be signed in London up till the 30th June, 1909, by the Plenipotentiaries of the Powers represented at the Naval Conference.

In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Declaration, and have thereto affixed their seals.

Done in London, the twenty-sixth day of February, one thousand nine hundred and nine, in a single original, which shall remain deposited in the archives of the British Government, and of which duly certified copies shall be sent through the diplomatic channel to the Powers represented at the Naval Conference.

NOTE. The Powers represented at the Naval Conference of London were Great Britain, the convener of the Conference, and Germany, the United States of America, Austria-Hungary, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Holland, and Russia. They all signed the Declaration of London, which was the fruit of the labours of their representatives, and all looked forward to its early ratification. But a strong agitation against the Declaration, and especially that part of it which refers to Contraband of War, arose in England. The matter became largely a party question. The House of Lords threw out the Naval Prize Bill, which, had it passed, would have enabled the Government to join with other Powers in setting up the International Prize Court of Appeal provided for by the Hague Conference of 1907. Without the Bill the Prize Court was impossible, and without the Prize Court to administer the rules contained in the Declaration, the Declaration itself was incomplete and possibly dangerous. Accordingly it still awaits ratification. But a strong disposition has been shewn to regard its provisions as International Law, though they still lack the authority that only the formal consent of the nations can give. It is to be hoped that the next Hague Conference will embody in Conventions accepted by all the Powers a new and improved edition of the Declaration.