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The date of coming into force of the convention shall be either that fixed by paragraph I of article 24, or the 1st December, 1914, whichever is the earlier, provided that all the necessary ratifications shall have been deposited,
It was explained that the date inserted was intended merely for the purpose of discussion.
M. Sanchos de Miranda, one of the two delegates from Portugal, explained the position of his Government, which had ratified the convention, but doubted whether its enforcement would be effectual in view of the abstentions and reservations which at present existed.
M. Stenio Vincent, delegate from Haïti, explained that constitutional reasons alone had hitherto prevented the ratification of the convention by his Government. He associated himself with the proposals put forward on behalf of the United States.
The first resolution submitted by the Comité de Rédaction was then put to the vote and carried. Twenty-five voted for; two, Germany and Portugal, voted against; and Luxemburg abstained.
A long discussion then ensued on the terms of the second resolution submitted by the Comité. It was urged that, like the first, it should be put in the form of a reu, la Conférence est d'avis que (the Conference is of opinion that), while and in regard to the proposed date for the coming into force, the difficulty of fixing such a date was emphasised, and it was urged that if all the signatories ratified, the date was determined automatically under article 24 of the convention; moreover, even if the resolution were carried as drafted, at most the enforcement of the convention would be accelerated by three months.
In the end the first paragraph of the resolution was put from the chair in the form of a vou!-
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The Conference is of opinion that the coming into force of the convention between all the signatory Powers shall take place when the Powers which have already signed, or which have expressed their intention of signing, shall have ratified it."
Sixteen voted for this, one of them (France) with a reserve, two (Germany and Portugal) voted against, and eleven (United States, Brazil, Chile, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Haiti, Luxemburg, Persia, Switzerland, and Uruguay) abstained.
An amendment had been adumbrated during the discussion by the Chinese delegate, Mr. Tang Tsai-Fou, but not put, as follows:-
"The convention will come into force on the 1st December, 1914, except in the case of the undermentioned Powers, by which general ratification is deferred only for reasons of a constitutional nature; in that cave the convention will come into force at this date for the Powers which shall have deposited their ratifications, and for the other Powers at the date of the successive deposit of their ratifications."
We had at the first session of the Conference gathered that some, at any rate, of the signatory Powers were disposed to defer ratification for reasous other than of a constitutional character, and in order to utilise the Conference to accelerate the progress of ratification in accord with the terms of our instructions, we drafted a resolution with the sanction and approval of the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs with a view to achieve this purpose.
Before handing it in we consulted with the delegates from the United States, and found them in cordial agreement with ourselves. The following notice of motion on behalf of the British and American delegations was accordingly handed in at the close
of the third session :—
The Conference invites his Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands to transmit, in the name of the Conference, an urgent and respectful request to those signatory Powers which have not ratified the convention nor expressed their intention of doing so, with a view to inducing them to declare as scon possible their readiness to deposit their ratifications in order that the convention may come into force with as little delay as possible.
HS
Prior to the assembling of the fourth full session of the Conference, we learnt that some apprehension was entertained by the President and some of the Dutch Ministers
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as to difficulties which might ensue if the foregoing resolution were not passed unani- mously, but was opposed by any of the Powers, or was the occasion for any abstentions. We accordingly addressed ourselves to the delegates of Germany and Portugal, who had voted in the negative on the first resolution submitted by the Comité de Rédaction. Our representations were very courteously entertained, the German delegate intimating that he would acquiesce in the resolution when proposed; and the Portuguese delegate undertook not only to support it, but to withdraw the negative vote given at the last sitting.
At the fourth full session on the 19th June. M. Huneeus, the Chilean delegate, announced that Congress was about to approve the convention, and that ratification would shortly follow.
Then, as arranged, Mr. Denby, the second American delegate, proposed, and on behalf of Great Britain we seconded, the resolution requesting the Netherlands Government to invite the signatory Powers to ratify the convention forthwith, so that it might come into force as soon as possible.
The President intimated that the Minister for Foreign Affairs would be prepared, if requested, to make the suggested representations, and the resolution was carried unanimously.
The President then invited the Conference to consider as an independent resolution the proposal originally put forward by the Chinese delegation as an amend- ment to the second resolution submitted by the Comité de Rédaction. (See p. 6.) As we anticipated difficulties would arise over the suggested partial enforcement of the convention, and in order to secure adequate consideration as well as to emphasise the distinction between the coming into force of the convention and of the legislation it necessitated, we put down an amendment, by way of addition, in the following words :—
Provided that the undertaking to draft and submit legislative measures to the respective Parliaments, laid down in paragraph 2 of article 24, shall not take effect until the expiration of six months from the date on which the last of those Powers which have been prevented from ratifying the convention by constitutional reasons before the 1st December, 1914, shall have deposited its ratification."
As soon as the motion had been proposed on behalf of the Chinese delegation, M. Pellet (France) emphatically objected, on the part of himself and his colleague from Russia, against any attempt to discriminate between constitutional and other reasons which precluded ratification by any Power. Such act of ratification was an act of sovereignty, which an international conference had no right to sit in judgment upon.
M. Carlin (Switzerland) drew attention to the irregularity of discussing the Chinese proposal, which was in form an amendment of resolution II already voted;
might be discussed as an addition or as a third resolution. The President and the Chinese delegation concurred in this view. We deemed it desirable, in view of our instructions, to point out that while it might perhaps be possible to accept the Chinese resolution, if amended in the sense we had suggested, it nevertheless raised questions upon which we should probably find it necessary to seek further instructions and might accordingly have to vote ad referendum.
The President suggested the remission of the proposals which had been made to the Comité de Rédaction to consider them carefully in the light of the important objections raised by France and Russia,
The delegates of Chile and Sweden also laid stress on the inadmissibility of the Conference enquiring into the reasons for non-ratification by particular Powers, and M. van Deventer having undertaken to accept the proposed reference to the Comité de Rédaction, it was unanimously resolved to refer to them the different resolutions with a view to finding
an acceptable solution, and to summon the Conference when they should have completed their labours.
In answer to points of order raised both at this and the previous sitting, the President ruled that, having regard to the vœu carried at the second Conference, the possibility of some necessary amendment of the convention by this Conference, in regard to putting the convention into force, had been admitted.
The fifth full session was held on Tuesday, the 23rd June, to consider the second report of the Comité de Rédaction.
M. Sanchos de Miranda (Portugal) intimated his readiness to withdraw the negative vote given on behalf of Portugal on the 18th June against the first resolution, and this was done later by his colleague M. Ferreiro. He then proceeded to explain at some length
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