The Secretary of State to Baron Moncheur.
Washington, April 2, 1906.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 26th ultimo, in which you refer to the memorandum of January 4 last, wherein you expressed the hope that the United States would unite with your Government in adopting the two agreements for the unification of certain rules on the subjects of collision and salvage, submitted by the conference on maritime law to the Governments represented at the said conference, and request an expression of the views of this Government as to the proposal that it adhere to the said conventions.
In reply, I have the honor to say that the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, whose department is the one most interested in the subject-matters of the conventions, is of the opinion, in which this department concurs, that, in view of the small number of adhesions to the conventions, it would not be opportune to submit the conventions to the Senate at this time.
This Government’s information is that adhesion to the conventions has been announced only by Belgium and the Independent State of the Kongo.
Accept, sir, etc.,