MISCELLANEOUS Claims Convention between the United States and Canada for the establishment of a tribunal to decide questions of indemnity and future regime arising from the operation of a smelter at Trail, British Columbia (Treaty Series, No. 893) . . Exhibitions Convention concerning artistic exhibitions (Treaty Series, No. 929) . TEXTS OF TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS Page 101 103 Convention for facilitating the international circulation of films of an educational character 104 PROMOTION OF PEACE ARMAMENT REDUCTION LONDON NAVAL TREATY OF 1936 (TREATY SERIES, No. 919)1 The Governments parties to the London naval treaty of 1936, namely, the United States, France, and Great Britain, notified to each other on March 31, 1938, the decisions reached by each in regard to the necessity to exercise the right of effecting a departure from the limitations and restrictions of the treaty reserved under the provisions of article 25. There is printed below the text of article 25 of the treaty, which provides the right of escalation, and the texts of the notes exchanged: "Article 25 "(1) In the event of any vessel not in conformity with the limitations and restrictions as to standard displacement and armament prescribed by Articles 4, 5 and 7 of the present Treaty being authorised, constructed or acquired by a Power not a party to the present Treaty, each High Contracting Party reserves the right to depart if, and to the extent to which, He considers such departures necessary in order to meet the requirements of His national security; (a) during the remaining period of the Treaty, from the limitations and restrictions of Articles 3, 4, 5, 6 (1) and 7, and (b) during the current year, from His Annual Programmes of construction and declarations of acquisition. This right shall be exercised in accordance with the following provisions: "(2) Any High Contracting Party who considers it necessary that such right should be exercised, shall notify the other High Contracting Parties to that effect, stating precisely the nature and extent of the proposed departures and the reasons therefor. "(3) The High Contracting Parties shall thereupon consult together and endeavour to reach an agreement with a view to reducing to a minimum the extent of the departures which may be made. "(4) On the expiration of a period of three months from the date of the first of any notifications which may have been given under paragraph (2) above, each of the High Contracting Parties shall, subject to any agreement which may have been reached to the con 1 See Bulletin No. 101, February 1938, p. 33; text of treaty, 50 Stat. (pt. 2) 1363. exercise the right reserved in paragraph (1) of effecting a departure from the limitations and restrictions of the treaty. "The proposed departure relates to the upper limits of capital ships of sub-category (a). The precise extent of the departure will depend on the result of the consultations provided for in paragraph (3) of Article 25. "The reasons for the above proposed departure consist in the reports received by His Majesty's Government to the effect that Japan is constructing or has authorized the construction of capital ships of a tonnage not in conformity with the limitations and restrictions of the Treaty. In view of the refusal of the Japanese Government, on being formally approached, to give assurances that these reports are ill-founded, His Majesty's Government have no alternative but to regard them as being substantially correct." Text of the French Note "The Government of the French Republic has examined with the greatest care the communication through which the Government of the United States has been good enough under date of March 31 to notify its intention of departing from the upper limits which the London Naval Treaty, 1936, had fixed for capital ships in subcategory (a). "The Government of the Republic has taken due note of the reasons which have led the American Government, as well as the British Government, to this grave decision. Being desirous of limiting as far as possible the extent and eventual consequences of this first departure from the Treaty it desires that an agreement may be reached at an early date among all the powers which have up to the present conformed their construction to the limitations at present in force. "Without awaiting the beginning of the consultations necessary in order to attain this result, the French Government must declare that in spite of the departures to which the American and British Governments have had recourse, it will persist in respecting, in so far as regards naval construction, the qualitative limitations fixed by the Treaty of London so long as no continental power departs from that standard." CONSULTATION CONVENTION FOR THE MAINTENANCE, PRESERVATION, AND REESTABLISHMENT OF PEACE (TREATY SERIES, No. 922)2 Colombia The American Ambassador to Argentina transmitted to the Secretary of State with a despatch dated April 6, 1938, a copy and trans See Bulletin No. 100, January 1938, p. 1. |