Art. II. In cases of serious disagreement or conflict, before appealing to arms the signatory powers agree to resort, as far as circumstances will permit, to the good offices or mediation of one or more friendly powers.

Art. III. Independently of this recourse, the signatory parties deem it expedient that one or more powers, strangers to the dispute, should, of their own initiative, in so far as circumstances favor it, tender their good offices or mediation to the litigant states. The right of tendering good offices, or mediation, belongs to the powers who are strangers to the dispute, even during the progress of hostilities. The exercise of this right can never be considered, by either of the litigant parties, as an unfriendly act.

Art. IV. The role of mediator consists in the reconciliation of opposing claims and the removal of ill feeling to which the dispute between the states may-have given rise.

Art. V. The functions of a mediator cease the instant it is declared by one of the litigant powers, or by the mediator himself, that the measures of conciliation proposed by him are not accepted.

Art. VI. Good offices and mediation, either upon the request of the litigant states or upon the initiative of powers foreign to the dispute, have exclusively the character of advice; they never have obligatory force.

Art. VII. The acceptance of mediation can never have the effect, save in the event of an agreement to the contrary, to interrupt, delay, or impede mobilization, or other measures preparatory to war. If mediation occurs after the opening of hostilities, save in the case of a contrary agreement, it does not interrupt the existing military operations.

Art. VIII. The signatory powers agree in recommending the application, in circumstances which permit it, of special mediation under the following form:

In case of a dispute seriously compromising peace, the states in conflict choose, respectively, one power to whom they intrust the task of entering into direct communication with the power chosen by the other party, with a view to prevent the rupture of peaceful relations.

During the existence of this commission, the duration of which, save in the case of stipulations to the contrary, shall not exceed thirty days, the litigant states are to refrain from all direct communication with each other, in respect to the cause of difference, which is to be regarded as referred to the exclusive consideration of the mediating powers. The latter are to put forth every endeavor to adjust the difference. In case of definite rupture of friendly relations, these powers continue to be jointly charged with the duty of profiting by every opportunity to re-establish peace.