of the date of the signing of the contract and the date on which the keel of the ship is laid; and shall also communicate to them the particulars relating to the ship prescribed in Chapter II, Part 3, Section 1 (b), (4) and (5). XVIII. Each of the contracting Powers undertakes not to dispose by gift, sale or any mode of transfer of any vessel of war in such a manner that such vessel may become a vessel of war in the navy of any foreign Power. CHAPTER II.-Part 3.-Section 1. (b.) Each of the contracting Powers shall communicate promptly to each of the other contracting Powers, the following information (4.) The standard displacement in tons and metric tons of each new ship to be laid down, and the principal dimensions, namely, length at waterline, extreme beam at or below waterline, mean draught at standard displacement. (5.) The date of completion of each new ship and its standard displacement in tons and metric tons, and the principal dimensions, namely, length at waterline, extreme beam at or below waterline, mean draught at standard displacement, at time of completion. Part 4.-Definitions. For the purposes of the present treaty, the following expressions are to be understood in the sense defined in this Part. Capital Ship. A capital ship, in the case of ships hereafter built, is defined as a vessel of war, not an aircraft carrier, whose displacement exceeds 10,000 tons (10,160 metric tons) standard displacement, or which carries a gun with a calibre exceeding 8 inches (203 millimetres). Aircraft Carrier. An aircraft carrier is defined as a vessel of war with a displacement in excess of 10.000 tons (10.160 metric tons) standard displacement designed for the specific and exclusive purpose of carrying aircraft. It must be so constructed that aircraft can be launched therefrom and landed thereon, and not designed and constructed for carrying a more powerful armament than that allowed to it under Article IX or Article X, as the case may be. Standard Displacement. The standard displacement of a ship is the displacement of the ship complete, fully manned, engined, and equipped ready for sea, including all armament and ammunition, equipment, outfit, provisions and fresh water for crew, miscellaneous stores and implements of every description that are intended to be carried in war, but without fuel or reserve feed water on board. The word "ton' in the present treaty, except in the expression "metric tons," shall be understood to mean the ton of 2,240 lb. (1,016 kilo.). [CXVI] H 2 Vessels now completed shall retain their present ratings of displacement tonnage in accordance with their national system of measurement. However, a Power expressing displacement in metric tons shall be considered for the application of the present treaty as owning only the equivalent displacement in tons of 2.240 lb. A vessel completed hereafter shall be rated at its displacement tonnage when in the standard condition defined herein. SECOND SCHEDULE. Articles of Treaty to protect Neutrals and Non-combatants at Sea in time of War, and to prevent use in War of Noxious Gases and Chemicals. ART. I. The Signatory Powers declare that among the rules adopted by civilised nations for the protection of the lives of neutrals and non-combatants at sea in time of war, the following are to be deemed an established part of international law : 1. A merchant vessel must be ordered to submit to visit and search to determine its character before it can be seized. A merchant vessel must not be attacked unless it refuse to submit to visit and search after warning, or to proceed as directed after seizure. A merchant vessel must not be destroyed unless the crew and passengers have been first placed in safety. 2. Belligerent submarines are not under any circumstances exempt from the universal rules above stated; and if a submarine cannot capture a merchant vessel in conformity with these rules, the existing law of nations requires it to desist from attack and from seizure and to permit the merchant vessel to proceed unmolested. III. The Signatory Powers, desiring to ensure the enforcement of the humane rules of existing law declared by them with respect to attacks upon and the seizure and destruction of merchant ships, further declare that any person in the service of any Power who shall violate any of those rules, whether or not such person is under orders of a governmental superior, shall be deemed to have violated the laws of war, and shall be liable to trial and punishment as if for an act of piracy and may be brought to trial before the civil or military authorities of any Power within the jurisdiction of which he may be found. BRITISH NOTIFICATION of the Termination by Great Britain of the Treaty and Additional Convention between Great Britain and Chile for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, signed at Santiago respectively on January 19, 1839, and August 7, 1841.-London, July 26, 1922.* Foreign Office, July 26, 1922. IN accordance with the general policy of His Majesty's Government to abolish obsolete Treaty instruments, notice London Gazette," July 28, 1922. * 66 of the decision of His Majesty's Government to terminate the Treaty and Additional Convention between Great Britain and Chile for the abolition of traffic in slaves, signed at Santiago respectively on the 19th January, 1839,* and the 7th August, 1841, was given to the Chilean Government by His Majesty's Minister at Santiago in Notes dated the 16th July and the 25th November, and was accepted by the Chilean Minister for Foreign Affairs on behalf of his Government by Notes dated the 8th August, 1921, and the 12th April, 1922. 2. The Treaty and Additional Convention accordingly ceased to have effect from the final date of the acceptance of the denunciation, viz., the 12th April, 1922. BRITISH NOTIFICATION of Exchange of Notes applying to Canada the provisions of the Anglo-Russian Trade Agreement of March 16, 1921.-London, July 31, 1922.‡ Foreign Office, July 31, 1922. By an exchange of Notes, dated the 3rd instant, between His Majesty's Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Assistant Official Agent of the Russian Trade Delegation in this country, it has been agreed that the provisions of the Trade Agreement between Great Britain and the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Government, signed at London on the 16th March, 1921, § shall apply as from the 3rd July, 1922, to the Dominion of Canada, and to merchandise the produce and manufacture of Canada, and shall govern the relations between Canada and Russia. * Vol. XXVIII, page 260. 66 London Gazette," August 1, 1922. [CXVI] + Vol. XXX, page 301. H 3 198 DESPATCH from His Majesty's Acting Secretary of State The Earl of Balfour to the French Ambassador. 1 Your Excellency, Foreign Office, August 1, 1922. As your Excellency is aware, the general question of the French debt to this country has not as yet been the subject of any formal communication between the two Governments, nor are His Majesty's Government anxious to raise it at the present moment. Recent events, however, leave them little choice in the matter, and they feel compelled to lay before the French Government their views on certain aspects of the situation created by the present condition of international indebtedness. Speaking in general terms, the war debts, exclusive of interest, due to Great Britain at the present moment amount in the aggregate to about £3,400,000,000, of which Germany owes £1,450,000,000, Russia £650,000,000, and our allies £1,300,000,000. On the other hand, Great Britain owes the United States about a quarter of this sum-say, £850,000,000, at par of exchange, together with interest accrued since 1919. No international discussion has yet taken place on the unexampled situation partially disclosed by these figures; and, pending a settlement which would go to the root of the problem, His Majesty's Government have silently abstained from making any demands upon their allies, either for the payment of interest or the repayment of capital. But, if action in the matter has hitherto been deemed inopportune, this is not because His Majesty's Government either underrate the evils of the present state of affairs, or because they are reluctant to make large sacrifices to bring it to an end. On the contrary, they are prepared, if such a policy formed part of a satisfactory international settlement, to remit all the debts due to Great Britain by our allies in respect of loans, or by Germany in respect of reparations. Recent events, however, make such a policy difficult of accomplishment. With the most perfect courtesy, and in the exercise of their undoubted rights, the American Government have required this country to pay the interest accrued since 1919 on the Anglo-American debt, to convert it from an * Parliamentary Paper, "Miscellaneous, No. 5 (1922)." Cmd. 1737. Also to the representatives of Italy. Serb-Croat-Slovene State, Roumania, Portugal and Greece, mutatis mutandis. unfunded to a funded debt, and to repay it by a sinking fund in twenty-five years. Such a procedure is clearly in accordance with the original contract. His Majesty's Government make no complaint of it; they recognise their obligations and are prepared to fulfil them. But evidently they cannot do so. without profoundly modifying the course which, in different circumstances, they would have wished to pursue. They cannot treat the repayment of the Anglo-American loan as if it were an isolated incident in which only the United States of America and Great Britain had any concern. It is but one of a connected series of transactions, in which this country appears sometimes as debtor, sometimes as creditor, and, if our undoubted obligations as a debtor are to be enforced, our not less undoubted rights as a creditor cannot be left wholly in abeyance. His Majesty's Government do not conceal the fact that they adopt this change of policy with the greatest reluctance. It is true that Great Britain is owed more than it owes, and that, if all inter-Allied war debts were paid, the British Treasury would, on balance, be a large gainer by the transaction. But can the present world situation be looked at only from this narrow financial standpoint? It is true that Inany of the Allied and Associated Powers are, as between each other, creditors or debtors, or both. But they were, and are, much more. They were partners in the greatest international effort ever made in the cause of freedom; and they are still partners in dealing with some, at least, of its results. Their debts were incurred, their loans were made, not for the separate advantage of particular States, but for a great purpose common to them all, and that purpose has been, in the main, accomplished. To generous minds it can never be agreeable, although, for reasons of State, it may perhaps be necessary, to regard the monetary aspect of this great event as a thing apart, to be torn from its historical setting and treated as no more than an ordinary commercial dealing between traders who borrow and capitalists who lend. There are, moreover, reasons of a different order, to which I have already referred, which increase the distaste with which His Majesty's Government adopt so fundamental an alteration in method of dealing with loans to allies. The economic ills from which the world is suffering are due to many causes, moral and material, which are quite outside the scope of this despatch. But among them must certainly be reckoned the weight of international. indebtedness, with all its unhappy effects upon credit and exchange, upon national production and international trade. The peoples of all countries long for a speedy return to the normal. But how can the normal be reached while conditions so abnormal are permitted to prevail? And how can these [CXVI] H 4 |