Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs - 47 USC Section 27

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01/19/04

Sec. 27. Offending vessels to show nationality

      Any person having the custody of the papers necessary for the
    preparation of the statements provided for in article 10 of the
    said convention with respect to reports of infractions, by officers
    commanding vessels of war or vessels especially commissioned, who
    shall refuse to exhibit them or shall violently resist persons
    having authority according to article 10 of said convention to draw
    up statements of facts in the exercise of their functions, shall be
    guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be liable
    to imprisonment not exceeding two years, or to a fine not exceeding
    $5,000, or to both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the
    court.

                   PROVISION OF INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION               
      Article 10 of the International Convention for the Protection of
    Submarine Cables, made at Paris on May (March) 14, 1884, and
    proclaimed by the President of the United States on May 22, 1885,
    24 Stat. 996, referred to in this section, read as follows:
      "Evidence of violations of this convention may be obtained by all
    methods of securing proof that are allowed by the laws of the
    country of the court before which a case has been brought.
      "When the officers commanding the vessels of war or the vessels
    specially commissioned for that purpose, of one of the High
    Contracting Parties, shall have reason to believe that an
    infraction of the measures provided for by this Convention has been
    committed by a vessel other than a vessel of war, they may require
    the captain or master to exhibit the official documents furnishing
    evidence of the nationality of the said vessel. Summary mention of
    such exhibition shall at once be made on the documents exhibited.
      "Reports may, moreover, be prepared by the said officers,
    whatever may be the nationality of the inculpated vessel. These
    reports shall be drawn up in the form and in the language in use in
    the country to which the officer drawing them up belongs; they may
    be used as evidence in the country in which they shall be invoked,
    and according to the laws of such country. The accused parties and
    the witnesses shall have the right to add or to cause to be added
    thereto, in their own language, any explanations that they may deem
    proper; these declarations shall be duly signed."

Last modified: June 19, 2006