Note 677 — Chapter II · RELATIONS BETWEEN BELLIGERENTS AND NEUTRALS

It was only during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 that this became generally recognised, and article 24 of Convention XIII. places it beyond all doubt. Until the Russo-Japanese War it was still a controverted question whether a neutral is obliged either to dismiss or to disarm and detain such men-of war as had fled into his ports for the purpose of escaping attack and capture. See Hall, § 231, p. 651, and Perels, § 39, p. 213, in contradistinction to Fiore, III. No. 1578. The "Règlement sur le régime légal des navires et de leurs équipages dans les ports étrangers," adopted by the Institute of International Law in 1898 at its meeting at the Hague—see Annuaire, XVII. (1898), p. 273—answers (article 42) the question in the affirmative.