Mr. Secretary of State: I have the honor to
transmit to you copy of the annexed circular, by which my Government
informs me that all the powers signing the convention of March 14, 1884,
for the protection of submarine cables, have adopted the measures of
legislation or regulation contemplated by article 12 of that
international instrument.
You will also find hereto annexed in addition to the list of all the
States which have ratified the convention, ten copies of a pamphlet
containing a translation of the measures adopted subsequently to the
adjournment of the conference by the Argentine Republic,
Austria-Hungary, Brazil, the United States, and Roumania.
I am, moreover, advised, and I have the honor to inform you that by a
decree published in the Journal Officiel of the 25th of April, instant,
the international convention for the protection of submarine cables has
been put into operation to date from the 1st of May.
[Inclosure.—Translatioa.]
Mr. Flourens,
minister for foreign affairs, to Mr. Roustan, minister of France at
Washington.
Monsieur: By my circular of the 22d of
September last I requested you to communicate to the Government to
which you are accredited the procès-verbaux at the last meeting of
the international conference held at Paris, to the end of putting
into operation the convention of March 14, 1884, for the protection
of submarine cables.
As I explained to you in that communication, the powers signing the
convention in question agreed in a protocol drawn up by their
plenipotentiaries on the 7th of July last, that the international
instrument of the 14th March, 1884, should take effect the 1st of
May, 1888, under the condition, however, that at that date such of
the contracting governments as had not yet adopted the measures
contemplated by the 12th article of the aforesaid international
instrument should have conformed to that clause.
It appeared, moreover, to the conference (see the procès-verbaux,
page 204) that it only remained for five States, the Argentine
Republic, Austria-Hungary, Brazil, the United States, and Roumania,
to adopt the measures in question.
Conformably to the stipulation numbered II, of the above mentioned
protocol of the 7th of last July, the Government of the French
Republic has received from these five powers, since the closure of
the conference, the text of the laws or regulations adopted by them
in execution of article 12; and after the examination of the tenor
thereof, it is found that these measures of legislation or
regulation respond fully to the stipulations of the convention.
I have the honor to transmit to you, herewith, ten copies of a
pamphlet containing the translation of these measures, and would be
obliged to you if you would cause them to reach the Government of
the United States in communicating to it a copy of this
circular.
The condition whereunto the contracting powers had subordinated the
taking effect of the international convention of the 14th March,
1884, on the 1st of May next, being fulfilled, that convention is
therefore to be put into operation on the date stipulated.
I would beg of you, to this end, to ask the government to which you
are accredited
[Page 569]
to be
pleased to take the necessary steps, so far as it is concerned, and
I would attach importance, moreover, to knowing as promptly as
possible the result of your communication.
Accept, sir, etc.,
P. S.—I would call to mind, on this occasion, that Japan has,
subsequently to the signature of this international instrument,
acceded to the convention of 1884, and also that the Government
of the Republic gave notice thereof to the different governments
by its circular of the 29th of April, 1884.
You will find hereto annexed a complete list of the States which
have ratified the convention.
List of States which have
ratified the convention of March 14, 1884.
Germany, Argentine Republic, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil,
Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Spain, United States of
America, France, Great Britain, Guatemala, Greece, Italy,
Netherlands, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Salvador, Servia,
Sweden and Norway, Turkey, Uruguay.
Japan adhered to the convention, April 12, 1884.
Note.—Persia and the United States of
Colombia, enumerated among the contracting States in the
convention of March 14, 1884, have not ratified the
convention.
