ARTICLE 16

The countries which have not taken part in the present convention shall be permitted to adhere to it upon their request.

The accession shall be notified through the diplomatic channel to the Government of the Swiss Confederation, and by the latter to all the other Governments.

It shall entail, as a matter of right, accession to all the classes, as well as admission to all the advantages, stipulated in the present convention, and shall take effect one month after the dispatch of the notification by the Government of the Swiss Confederation to the other countries of the Union, unless a subsequent date has been indicated by the acceding country.

ARTICLE 16 BIS

The contracting countries have the right of acceding to the present convention at any time on behalf of their colonies, possessions, dependencies, and protectorates, or territories administrated by virtue of a mandate from the League of Nations, or any of them. For this purpose they may either make a general declaration, including all their colonies, possessions, dependencies, and protectorates, and the territories referred to in paragraph 1, in the accession, or may expressly name those included, or may confine themselves to indicating those which are excluded therefrom.

This declaration shall be notified in writing to the Government of the Swiss Confederation and by the latter to all the other Governments.

Under the same conditions, the contracting countries may denounce the convention on behalf of their colonies, possessions, dependencies, and protectorates, or for the territories referred to in paragraph 1, or for any of them.

ARTICLE 17

The execution of the reciprocal engagements contained in the present convention is subordinated, in so far as necessary, to the observance of the formalities and rules established by the constitutional laws of those of the contracting countries which are bound to procure the application of the same, which they engage to do with as little delay as possible.

ARTICLE 17 BIS

The convention shall remain in force for an unlimited time, till the expiration of one year from the date of its denunciation.

This denunciation shall be addressed to the Government of the Swiss Confederation. It shall affect only the denouncing country,

the convention remaining in operation as regards the other contracting countries.

ARTICLE 18

The present act shall be ratified and the ratifications deposited at The Hague not later than the 1st of May, 1928. It shall come into force, between the countries which will have ratified it, one month after such date. However, if before May 1, 1928, it should be ratified by at least six countries, it will come into force between those countries one month after the Government of the Swiss Confederation has notified them of the filing of the sixth ratification, and for the countries which should subsequently ratify, one month after the notification of each of these ratifications.

This act shall replace, as regards relations between the countries which ratify it, the convention of the Union of Paris of 1883, revised at Washington June 2, 1911, and its final protocol, which shall remain in force as regards relations with countries which have not ratified the present act.

ARTICLE 19

The present act shall be signed in a single copy, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the Netherlands. A certified copy shall be forwarded by the latter to each of the Governments of the contracting countries.

In witness whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the present act.

Done at The Hague, in a single copy, the 6th day of November, 1925.

ACCEPTANCE BY THE UNITED STATES OF INVITATION TO ATTEND THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH CONFERENCE AT PARIS IN 1925

574.D3/121

The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador (Daeschner)

WASHINGTON, July 17, 1925. EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note dated May 14, 1925,1 with which you were good enough to send me a memorandum setting forth a list of the principal questions concerning wireless telegraphy that it is proposed to discuss at the International Telegraph Conference at Paris beginning September 1, 1925. You state that you are informed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of your Government that these questions are set forth in a book published by the International Telegraph Bureau at Berne 1a and that copy of it has been delivered to the Minister of the United States to Switzerland for transmission to this Government. You inquire whether this Government agrees not to call the International Radiotelegraph Conference 1b until the spring of 1926 and what the program of that Conference will be.

I have referred these matters to the other interested Departments of this Government for their consideration and I now desire to set

*The first international telegraph conference was held at St. Petersburg in 1875, the second at Lisbon in 1908; see Documents de la Conférence Télégraphique Internationale de Lisbonne (Berne, Bureau International de l'Union Télégraphique, 1909).

'Not printed.

Documents de la Conférence Télégraphique Internationale de Paris, 1925 (Berne, Bureau International de l'Union Télégraphique, 1925), tome I.

See

pp. 297 ff.

forth the considered views of this Government regarding these sub

jects.

Conferences of parties to the International Telegraph Convention are held pursuant to the provisions of Article 15 of the Telegraph Convention, which reads as follows:

"The Tariffs and Regulations provided for by Articles 10 and 13 are annexed to the present Convention. They possess the same authority and come into operation at the same time as the Convention.

"They will be subject to revisions, at which all adhering States will have the right to be represented.

"With this object, Administrative Conferences will take place periodically, each Conference fixing the time and place of the next meeting." ie

The provision for conferences of parties to the International Radiotelegraph Convention is found in Article 11 of that Convention, which reads in part as follows:

"... Conferences of plenipotentiaries having power to modify the Convention and the Regulations, shall take place from time to time; each conference shall fix the time and place of the next meeting." 2

It will be observed that the Telegraph Convention provides that the "Tariffs and Regulations" shall be revised at the administrative conferences, whereas the International Radiotelegraph Convention provides for the revision of the "Convention and the Regulations”. It is, therefore, evident that it was intended that the periodic conferences to revise the Radiotelegraph Convention and Regulations annexed to it might add to the subjects which are dealt with in the present Convention.

The limitations upon the work of the Telegraph Conference were recognized by the International Telegraph Bureau at Berne when it issued its circular telegram No. 99/12 dated July 12, 1924, requesting Governments to submit their proposals. This telegram reads as follows:

"French Service reports that as unanimity could not be secured for meeting of mixed conference about which the offices were told in Circular No. 744, of June 12, 1922, the French Government invites countries in the Telegraphic Union to an International Telegraphic Conference at Paris in the spring of 1925. The exact date of opening will be given later. The International Bureau, therefore, begs the several services to kindly forward to it within four months their propositions for that conference based exclusively on the telegraph regulations now in force. Circular letter follows." (Underscoring added.)

1 Documents de la Conférence Télégraphique Internationale de Lisbonne, pp. 15, 121. 2 Foreign Relations, 1913, p. 1377.