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NORTH SEA FISHERIES ACT 1893 - SECT 12

Short title.

12. This Act may be cited as the North Sea Fisheries Act, 1893.

HER Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, His
Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia, in the name of the German Empire,
His Majesty the King of the Belgians, His Majesty the King of Denmark, the
President of the French Republic, and His Majesty the King of the Netherlands,
having recognised the necessity of remedying the abuses arising from the
traffic in spirituous liquors amongst the fishermen in the North Sea outside
territorial waters, have resolved to conclude a Convention for this purpose,
and have named as their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say:

Names etc. of plenipotentiaries

Who, after having communicated their full powers, found in good and due form,
have agreed upon the following Articles:

The provisions of the present Convention shall apply to the North Sea, outside
territorial waters, and within the limits fixed by Article IV. of the
Convention of the Hague of the 6th May, 1882, respecting the police of the
fisheries to every person on board a ship or boat of any one of the High
Contracting Parties.

The sale of spirituous liquors to persons on board or belonging to
fishing-boats is forbidden.

The purchase of those liquors by such persons is forbidden.

The exchange of spirituous liquors for any article, and especially for
products of the fisheries, gear or equipments of fishing boats, or fishing
implements is forbidden.

Every liquid obtained by distillation, and containing more than five litres of
alcohol per hectolitre, shall be considered a spirituous liquor.

The liberty to deal with fishermen in provisions and other articles for their
use (spirituous liquors excepted) shall be subject to a licence to be granted
by the Government of the country to which the vessel belongs. This licence
must specify the following amongst other conditions:

1.The vessel may not have on board a quantity of spirits greater than what is
deemed requisite for the consumption of her crew.

2.All exchange of the articles above indicated for products of the fisheries,
gear, or equipments of fishing-boats, or fishing implements, is forbidden.

Vessels provided with this licence must carry a special and uniform mark to be
agreed upon by the High Contracting Powers.

The High Contracting Parties engage to take, or to propose to their respective
Legislatures, the necessary measures for insuring the execution of the present
Convention, and especially for punishing, by either fine or imprisonment, or
by both, those who may contravene Articles II. and III.

The Tribunals competent to take cognisance of infractions of Articles II. and
III. are those of the country to which the accused vessel belongs. If vessels
of different nationalities should be implicated in the same infraction, the
Powers to which such vessels belong will mutually communicate to each other
the Judgments given by the Tribunals.

Prosecutions for infractions shall be instituted by the State, or in its name.

Infractions may be verified by all means of proof allowed by the legislation
of the country of the Court concerned.

The superintendence shall be exercised by the cruisers of the High Contracting
Parties which are charged with the police of the fisheries.

When the officers commanding these cruisers have reason to believe that an
infraction of the measures provided for in the present Convention has been
committed, they may require the captain or master to exhibit the official
documents establishing the nationality of his vessel, and where the case
occurs, the licence. The fact of such documents having been exhibited shall
then be indorsed upon them immediately.

Further, formal statements of the facts may be drawn up by the said officers
whatever may be the nationality of the accused vessel. These formal statements
shall be drawn up according to the forms and in the language used in the
country to which the officer belongs; they may be used as means of proof in
the country where they are adduced, and conformably with the laws of that
country. The accused and the witnesses shall be entitled to add or to have
added thereto, in their own language, any explanations which they may think
useful. These declarations must be duly signed.

Resistance to the directions of Commanders of cruisers, or of those who act
under their orders, shall, without taking into account the nationality of the
cruisers, be considered as resistance to national authority.

The Commander of the cruiser may, if the case appears to him sufficiently
serious to justify the step, take the offending vessel into a port of the
nation to which she belongs.

The proceedings in respect of infractions of the provisions of the present
Convention shall always take place as summarily as the Laws and Regulations
will permit.

The High Contracting Parties will communicate to each other, at the time of
the exchange of ratifications, the Laws which shall have been made in their
respective countries in relation to the object of the present Convention.

States which have not signed the present Convention may adhere to it on making
a request to that effect. This adhesion shall be notified through the
diplomatic channel to the Government of the Netherlands, and by the latter to
the other Signatory Powers.

The present Convention shall be brought into operation from and after a day to
be agreed upon by the High Contracting Parties.

It shall remain in force for five years from that day, and, unless any of the
High Contracting Parties shall, twelve months before the expiration of the
said period of five years, have given notice of its intention to terminate its
operation, it shall remain in force for one year longer, and so on from year
to year.

If the Convention of the Hague of the 6th May, 1882, respecting the police of
the fisheries, should cease to be in force, Article XXVI. of the same
Convention shall continue to operate as regards the object of the present
arrangement.

The present Convention shall be ratified; the ratifications shall be exchanged
at the Hague as soon as possible, and, if practicable, within a year.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present
Convention, and have thereto affixed their seals.

Done at the Hague, in six copies, the 16th November 1887

Signatures of plenipotentiaries

Whereas it appears from the communications which have been received by the
Government of the Netherlands that the Government of the French Republic is
not at present in a position to proceed to the ratification of the Convention
which was signed at the Hague on the 16th November 1887, for remedying the
abuses arising from the traffic in spirituous liquors amongst the fishermen in
the North Sea outside territorial waters, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries of
Great Britain, of Germany, of Belgium, of Denmark, and Minister for Foreign
Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, having met in conference at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Hague this 14th day of February 1893, and
being duly authorised to that effect have agreed as follows:

1.The above-mentioned Convention shall be brought into force by the other
signatory Governments, namely, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and
the Netherlands, six weeks after they shall have exchanged the ratifications
thereof.

2.The power of adhesion accorded by Article X. of the said Convention for
non-Signatory States is extended to France.

3.In modification of Article XI. of the Convention the periods of five years
and twelve months are respectively reduced to one year and to three months.

4.The present protocol, which shall be ratified at the same time as the
Convention to which it refers, has been drawn up in five copies.

Signatures of plenipotentiaries



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