APPENDIX I. THE UNITED STATES NAVAL WAR CODE OF 1900. GENERAL ORDERS | No. 551. NAVY DEPARTMENT, The following code of naval warfare, prepared for the guidance and use of the naval service by Capt. Charles II. Stockton, United States Navy, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, having been approved by the President of the United States, is published for the use of the Navy and for the information of all concerned. JOHN D. LONG, Secretary. GENERAL ORDER No. 150. NAVY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 4, 1904. By direction of the President, General Order No. 551, dated June 27, 1900, publishing a naval war code for the use of the Navy and for the information of all concerned, is hereby revoked. NOTE. WILLIAM H. MOODY, The above orders relate to the following code, entitled "The Laws and Usages of War at Sea," which furuished the basis for the International Law Discussions of 1903. (101) THE LAWS AND USAGES OF WAR AT SEA. SECTION I.-HOSTILITIES. ARTICLE 1. The general object of war is to procure the complete submission of the enemy at the earliest possible period with the least expenditure of life and property. The special objects of maritime war are: The capture or destruction of the military and naval forces of the enemy; of his fortifications, arsenals, dry docks and dockyards; of his various military and naval establishments, and of his maritime commerce; to prevent his procuring war material from neutral sources; to aid and assist military operations, on land, and to protect and defend the national territory, property, and sea-borne commerce. ART. 2. The area of maritime warfare comprises the high seas or other waters that are under no jurisdiction, and the territorial waters of belligerents. Neither hostilities nor any belligerent right, such as that of visitation and search, shall be exercised in the territorial waters of neutral states. Page 5. The territorial waters of a state extend seaward to the distance of a marine league from the low-water mark of Page 6. its coast line. They also include, to a reasonable extent, which is in many cases determined by usage, adjacent parts of the sea, such as bays, gulfs, and estuaries inclosed within headlands; and where the territory by which they are inclosed belongs to two or more states, the marine limits of such states are usually defined by conventional lines. ART. 3. Military necessity permits measures that are indispensable for securing the ends of the war and that are in accordance with modern laws and usages of war. It does not permit wanton devastation, the use of poison, or the doing of any hostile act that would make the return of peace unnecessarily difficult. Noncombatants are to be spared in person and property during hostilities as much as the necessities of war and the conduct of noncombatants will permit. The launching of projectiles and explosives from balloons, or by other new methods of a similar nature, is prohibited for a term of five years by the Declaration of The (103) |