The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-28
TEXT OF ANGLO.RUSSIAN
 NORTH SEA CONVENTION
COMMISSION TO BE COMPOSED
 OF FIVE MEMBERS.

Great Britain, Russia, United StateE
 and France Each to Name One and
 the Latter Two Nations the Fifth-
 In Event of Their Failure to Agree
 on the Fifth Member the Emperor of
 Austria wiiI Name Hlm.
 London. Nov. 27.-The foreign office has issued the following English trans lation of the declaration signed at St. Petersburg by Sir Charles Hardinge, the British ambassador, and Count Lamsdorf. the Russian foreign minis. ter:
 His Britannia majesty's government and the imperial Russian government, having agreed to entrust to an inter- national commission of inquiry assem- bled comformably to articles to XIV of The Hague convention of July 2s, 1S99 for the pacific settlement of in ternational disputes, the task of eluci- dating by means of impartial and con- scientious investigation the questions of fact connected with the incident which occurred during the night of of October 21-22, 1904, in the North sea, on which occasion the firing of guns on the Russian fleet caused the loss of boat and the death of two persons belong ing to British fishing fleet, as well as damages to other boats of that fleet and injuries to the crews of some of those boats) the undersigned being duly authorized thereto, have agreed upon the following provisions:
 Article I-The international commits sion of inquiry shall be composed of five members (commissioners) of whom two shall be officers of high rank in the British and imperial Russian navies, respectively. The governments of France and of the United States shall each be requested to select one of their naval officers of high rank as a mem Der of the commission, The fifth mem Der shall be chosen by agreement be- tween the four members above men, tioned in the event of no agreement being arrived at between the four commissioners as to the selection of the fifth member of the commission, his irl- 5isertattassa royal maj jjsstyyStt sss emperor of Austria and King of Hungary will be invited to select him.
 Each of the two high contracting parties shall likewise appoint legal assessor to advise the commissioners and an agent officially empowered to faIy iyl sion.
 Article 1.-The commission shall en- quire into and report on all circum- Nstanees relative to the North sea in cident, and particularly on the ques= tion as to where the responsibility lies and the degree of blame attaching to subjects of the two high contracting parties or to subjects of other coun- fries in the event of their responsibil- ity being established by the inquiry.
 Article III-The commission shall set tie the details of procedure which it will follow for the purpose of accom- plishing the task wherewtth it has been entrusted
 Article TV-The two high contract ing parties undertake to supply the tSOiluIilS5tOlt, LO lHC uIlItUSb sUl 5Iu6lE ability, with all the means and facili- ties necessary in order to enable it to acquaint itself thoroughly with and ap- preciate correctly the matters in dis pute.
 Article V-The commission shall as- semble in Paris as soon as possible af- ter the signature of this agreement.
 Article VI-The commission shall present it's report to the two high con- ltracting parties, signed by all the members of the commission. Article VII-The commission shall take all it's decisions by majority of the votes of the five commissioners. Article VIII-The two high contract- ing parties undertake each to bear on reciprocal terms the expenses of the iil- quiry made by it previous to the as- sembly of the commission, the expenses incurred by the international commis- sion after the date of its assembly in organizing it's staff and conducting the investigations which it will have to make shall be equally shared by the two governments.
 Tn faith thereof the undersigned have signed the present agreement (declaration) and affixed their seals to it.
 "Done in duplicate at St. Petersburg, November 25, 1SO4.''
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