which Germany, Austria, and Turkey undertook to accept any such revisions which should be agreed upon by some or all of the powers. Such revisions were signed by several powers on September 10, 1919, but have not yet been ratified. The revision of the general act of Berlin provides for the continuance of the open door, but removes the limitation of ten per cent as a maximum rate of import duty. (See p. 121.) The act of the Algeciras Conference of 1906 and the later treaties in regard to Morocco not only provided for the open door in the French and Spanish spheres and in the international zone at Tangier, but prescribed also a new maximum tariff rate. These treaties are valid without limitation of time. Other treaties or less formal agreements pledging the open door, in wider or narrower terms,52 have also been made without time limitations-notably the notes exchanged in 1885 between Great Britain and Germany relative to their colonies in the Gulf of Guinea (Kamerun, Togo, Nigeria, and the Gold Coast); the Anglo-German declarations of 1886 in regard to a great area of Oceania; the notes relating to spheres of influence and territorial acquisition in China which were exchanged by the powers in 1899 at the instance of Secretary Hay; the Anglo-German-American treaty of December 2, 1899, dividing the Samoan Islands; and the Anglo-French treaty of 1906 for a condominium in the New Hebrides. The open door was thus pledged for the greater part of the new colonial acquisitions after 1880, including all the German colonies except Southwest Africa. These pledges were given at the time of the acquisition of the territory or very soon thereafter.53 Öther open-door pledges have been made for a limited time. Thus the Anglo-French treaty of 1898-1899 guarantees for thirty years the maintenance of an open door in Dahomey, the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, Nigeria, and all the territory south and east of Lake Chad to 5° north and to the River Nile.54 The United States maintained the open door in the Philippine Islands in accordance with the treaty with Spain 55 for ten years from the date of ratification (April 11, 1899); and Japan likewise, after the annexation of Korea in 1910, 12 These bilateral agreements or exchanges of notes generally pledged the open door specifically only for the countries concerned, but Great Britain in some cases gratuitously niade the pledge applicable to the commerce of other countries than the one with which the agreement was being made. In all cases, however, these pledges were followed by an open-door régime in which all countries participated regardless of whether or not their commercial treaties entitled them to most-favored-nation treatment in the colonies of the powers which were parties to open-door agreements. The status of these agreements, in so far as Germany was a party to them, is now in some doubt, since by the treaty of Versailles Germany has renounced all her rights under the Anglo-German-American treaty of 1899 relative to Samoa and has accepted a clause by which all her bilateral conventions with any of the allied and associated powers have lapsed except such as the said power gives notice of its desire to maintain. No notice has been given of the desire of France or Great Britain to revive any of these open-door agreements, and perhaps, therefore, the British pledges made to all the world but embodied only in the agreements with Germany have now lapsed. 53 The longest time which elapsed was in the case of the Fiji Islands, which were put under British protection in 1874 and included in the declarations exchanged with Germany in 1886. The chief territories acquired in this period for which there were no open-door pledges were Indo-China, Burma, the Malay States. Italian Eritrea and Libia, and the French extensions of territory in North Africa and Senegal. 54 See p. 216. The line of 5° north latitude was the limit of the conventional basin of the Congo, so that this treaty added to the open-door territory the territories between the geographical basin of the Congo and Lake Chad. The negotiators in behalf of the United States declared that it was the policy of the United States to maintain the open door; the treaty guaranteed only to Spanish trade the same treatment as was accorded to American trade. 185766°-22-3 pledged the open door and the maintenance of the previous Korean tariff for a period of ten years. TREATIES LIMITING RATES. Several agreements for uniform tariff schedules for certain colo nies have expired, namely, for Dahomey and Togo (1887): for Tog and the part of the Gold Coast east of the River Volta (1894–1904): that for the Congo, French Congo, and Portuguese Congo (18921910); and for British and German East Africa and Italian Somalia (1892-1905). The three Brussels' treaties of 1890, 1899, and 1906 prescribed minimum rates of duty upon alcoholic beverages throughout all the territory in Africa between 22° south and 20° north. including parts or all of over a score of colonies belonging to seven different powers. In 1919 a revision of this treaty was signed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and an even larger territory was made subject to its provision.56 The four agreements named successively higher rates as the minimum, concluding with 800 francs per hecto liter of pure alcohol.57 Somewhat different are the treaties by which the states of northern Africa and southern Asia, from Morocco to China, have agree! to limit their tariff rates to certain maxima. These provisions, to gether with the pledge to give most-favored-nation treatment to the various powers, are of importance in cases where parts of these ter ritories fall into the possession of colonial powers. The open door was guaranteed in this manner in Tunis at the time of the establishing of the French protectorate, and it was not until 1898 that the French obtained relatively a free hand there.58 In the same way for decades before the conference of Algeciras the treaties of Morocco with various powers entitled them to a limitation of import duties to 10 per cent and to equality of treatment in Morocco. In Egypt the general rate of 8 per cent established under the Turkish régime is still maintained. Similarly, in parts of China "leased" by the various powers the tariffs are limited, at least for a certain period, by the restrictions imposed long since by treaty in respect to the tariff of China. If Turkey and Persia fall under the sway of European powers, it may be expected, on the basis of their treaties with other countries, that the open door will be maintained. rate. 60 This treaty has apparently been ratified only by France. The status of the Brussels treaty after 1916 was not clear. The conventions of 1899 and 1906 were supplementary acts subsidiary to the treaty of 1890 and contain little else than revisions of the minimum The convention of 1906 was to be in effect for ten years, but its intent is clearly that after the expiration of that period the rate should be reconsidered and not that the treaty should lapse. In any event after the end of the prescribed ten years the colonial powers continued to increase rather than decrease the duties upon alcoholic beverages through their African colonies. 57 The object is to hinder the sale to the natives. The Brussels conferences also recommended the prohibition of the sale of liquor to natives in areas where they had not already become accustomed to its use. This recommendation has been put in force through large areas both within and without the limits to which the treaty applies. By the Brussels treaties and certain others limitations upon the sale of arms to the natives have also been agreed upon. ES And not until 1919 did they denounce the treaty which contained the last restriction, which in practice operated somewhat in the same way as an open-door provision--the limitation to 5 per cent ad valorem of the rate on cotton textiles from the British Empire. As in similar cases noted above, this rate was applied to foreign cottons generally. GENERAL COMMERCIAL TREATIES. The treaties of commerce and navigation which regulate the intercourse of nations may be divided into four classes in respect of their inclusion or exclusion of provisions relating to the colonies. (1) Many commercial treaties, even when both contracting parties. are colonial powers, make no reference to the colonies, or mention them only to exclude them from the scope of the convention. To this class belong some of the French treaties and most of those of the United States (which has concluded only four general commercial treaties since the acquisition of the Philippines and Porto Rico), and of Germany, Spain, Italy, and Belgium (whose colony was acquired in 1908). (2) Other commercial treaties make a sweeping inclusion of the colonies, in some cases by using such expressions as "throughout their territories and possessions. Some of the oldest British treaties belong to this class. The French tariff law of 1892 granted the right to the minimum tariff in the assimilated colonies to all countries which by treaty were entitled to that tariff in France, so that a group of French treaties which did not specifically mention the colonies were of practical effect in them. (These French treaties have been denounced.) Some treaties, for instance the Spanish-American treaty of 1902,59 contain stipulations relative to customs duties, tonnage dues, and treatment of vessels in the ports of the countries making the agreement, but in other clauses of the same treaty relating, e. g., to rights of residence, either use such expressions as "throughout all parts of the territories," or "in the States, territories, and dominions." (3) Other treaties again provide either that some or all of the colonies of one of the powers concerned may withdraw from the convention, or, where the colonies had not originally been included within its scope, that they might become parties thereto, and in some cases that they might thereafter separately withdraw. Most of the British treaties made since 1881 contain one or other of these provisions. Some of these treaties provide that the British colonies even without adhering to the treaty shall continue to enjoy mostfavored-nation treatment in the ports of the other contracting party so long as the colonies continue to grant most-favored-nation treatment. A few of the French treaties also provide that the provisions of the treaty should become applicable to such colonies as the French Government may designate. (4) A few commercial treaties mention the colonies for the purpose of making special provisions for them. The majority of the Portuguese treaties provide that colonial products reexported from the mother country shall receive the same treatment as Portuguese products. The treaty with France, however, limited 60 this concession to the products of certain colonies. The treaty between Portugal and Italy provides for most-favored-nation treatment of the products of the colonies of one country in the market of the other country, but explicitly withholds the like right in regard to the Malloy Treaties, Conventions, [etc.] of the United States, vol. 2, p. 1701. 60 The treaty has been denounced. colonial markets. The treaty between Italy and Egypt excludes Eritrea from its provisions. In its reciprocity treaty with the United States, Cuba explicitly withholds any preferential reduction of duty upon American tobacco and that of the American insular possessions. Several treaties made by Great Britain and the Netherlands in the first half of the nineteenth century contain various special provisions in regard to trade with their colonies, most of them more restrictive than the policies now in force. With the general commercial treaties may be considered certain special treaties or agreements made by the mother countries, or by accredited representatives in the colonies, on behalf of one or more colonies. Such are various treaties made on behalf of India or Egypt. Earlier illustrations-of agreements which have now expired-were the reciprocity arrangements between the United States and Spanish or British colonies in the West Indies; the treaties providing for free trade between Togo and its neighbors, that regulating the intercourse of Eritrea and Egypt, and a group of FrancoBritish treaties made on behalf of various British colonies. Some of these treaties, it will be seen, concerned intercolonial relations exclusively. Conventions of this description which are still in force are the Mozambique-Transvaal arrangement and the numerous intercolonial reciprocity agreements to which the British Dominions and the British West Indies are parties. The treaties which by their terms regulate trade with the colonies deal with the treatment to be accorded (1) in one country to the products of the colonies of the other or (la) to such products when reexported from the mother country, or (2) in the colonies of one country to the products of the other country, or (3) in the colonies of one country to the products of the colonies of the other. The general treaties of commerce of most of the colonial powers deal chiefly with (1); those of Portugal generally include (1-a); the French treaties recently terminated either explicitly or by construetion belonged under (2), and some of the more recent treaties of Japan (e. g., the treaty of 1911 with the United States) include (2) and (3). The French legislation 2 by which certain American products have enjoyed in France the minimum or intermediate tariff rates, extends the same treatment to products of Porto Rico. On the whole the commercial treaties of the colonial powers deal much more with the customs and tonnage duties and other commercial regulations to be enforced in national ports and markets by the citizens and the products, both of a given foreign country and of its colonies, than they do with the similar rights to be enjoyed in the colonies. 62 The content of the commercial treaties in so far as they regulate the import trade of the colonies does not differ markedly from the content as applicable to the mother country. The most-favorednation clause is found in a large part of them in connection with the customs duties, tonnage, and other navigation dues, and a wide range of provisions in regard to commerce, residence, taxation and property. When the treaty deals with the colonial markets separately This treaty is being continued temporarily in force. This legislation was the result of negotiations carried on in 1910, which were never published as a definite international agreement. |