996 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 30TH OCTOBER, 1886.
Whether, at the present early stage, this rather ambitious draft is preferable to the original proposals of the Federal Council, is a question which I am hardly in a position to discuss.
The French Delegation opposed several of the German proposals with forcible arguments, and with more or less success; and the Swedish Delegate, fully instructed by his Government, added much to the interest of the debates.
To the President, M. Droz, all praise must be decreed. Perfect master of his subject, calm in manner, and eloquent in language, he seldom intervened except to give information when it was needed, or to sum up arguments and place before the Conference, with singular lucidity, the points at issue.
The result of this Conference is, in my opinion, that the Union will be founded. I cannot, of course, surmise how many Powers will sign the first Convention. That France and Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, will do so, I can hardly doubt. I am aware that, unfortunately, in the present state of our Copyright Law, Great Britain is unable as yet to enter into any such Union, but I cannot help, with all due deference, urging upon Her Majesty's Government the expediency of taking measures for amending that Law. This course, I venture to presume, must ultimately be adopted. Should it not rather be sooner than later?
May I be permitted, from my own experience, to adduce an example in support of my recommendation ?
I had the honour of being First British Delegate at the Postal Congress in Paris in the year 1878. When the Congress was over, and my two colleagues were returning to London, I said to them that in my opinion one of their first acts on arriving there should be to impress upon the authorities the great importance of at once setting to work to establish an internal Parcel Post, in order to be able to follow the example of Continental States and conclude arrangements with them for the exchange of parcels by post. I added that this really ought to be done before the assembling of the next Postal Congress, when an international scheme might be proposed.
Nothing, however, was done, and the consequence was that although British Delegates attended the Conference which assembled at Paris in the Autumn of 1880, the result of which was the signature of a Parcel Post Convention on the 3rd November by Representatives of nearly twenty countries, those of Great Britain could not sign.
I think that the soundness of my suggestion has been proved by the establishment of our internal Parcel Post previous to the openion of the approaching Congress at Lisbon, before which body the Convention of 1880 will of course be laid.
I trust that your Lordship will not deem it presumptuous on my part to have offered the preceding observations, including as they do a suggestion that such an alteration in our copyright legislation may shortly be made as will pave the way to the adhesion of Great Britain to a Union which, I believe, has every likelihood of being founded at no distant period.
No. 27.
My Lord,
Mr. Adams to Earl Granville.—(Received October 8.)
Berne, October 3, 1884.).
THE proposal made at the first sitting of the International Copyright Conference by the German Delegation, to aim at a codification which would regulate in a uniform manner the whole of the International Copyright Law, seems clearly a step in the right direction, and should, I think, be kept in view as the sound principle to be ultimately adopted by the Union.
M. Reichardt, indeed, at the second sitting, allowed that the question could not be at once entered upon, but he doubtless wished that the German Delegation should have the honour of introducing it to the notice of the Conference; and he expressed the hope that such an international codification might be mentioned as one of the objects to be borne in mind in the project which would result from the labours of the Conference.
It was evident that the feeling of the Delegates generally was that an attempt at codification would be premature, and that such was not the primary business of the Conference, the essential object of which was to draw up a project likely to obtain the acceptance of as many States as possible, so that a Union might be constituted.
1
The result of the discussions in Committee and in plenary sittings was the adoption in the final procès-verbal of the second Annex: "Principes recommandés pour une unification ultérieure." The diversity of stipulations in different countries on important points is declared; and in consideration on the one hand of the little chance of any unification of principles being at once accepted by some countries, and on the other hand, of the fact that international codification must be adopted sooner or later, and should therefore be aimed at, the Conference consider that the expression of two wishes might be at once submitted to the Governments: one as to the duration of the right of protection, and the other having for object the gradual accomplishment of a complete assimilation of the right of translation to that of reproduction in general.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
F. O. ADAMS.