711.1212Anti-War/11: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Mexico (Morrow)
Washington, November
3, 1928—11 a.m.
288. Your 286, October 23, 11 a.m. Department’s instructions upon which your notes of September 24 and 28 were based, are to be interpreted as follows:
- 1.
- The giving by a Government of a notice of adherence to the Multilateral Peace Pact, subject to ratification according to its own constitutional or legal requirements, will be regarded as corresponding to the signature of the Pact by the signatory States and as placing the notifying State on the same basis as signatory States, requiring of the notifying State ratification of the adherence in accordance with its constitutional or legal requirements the same as signatory States are required to ratify.
- 2.
- It is not necessary for adhering States to await going into force of the treaty in order to give such notice, or to withhold until then [Page 230] deposit of the final formal act of adherence, which is the equivalent of ratification by a signatory State, any more than it would be necessary for a signatory Government to withhold deposit of its act of ratification until all signatories are prepared to deposit.
- 3.
- Act of ratification by a signatory Government may be deposited at Washington at any time, and will become effective when the treaty comes into force by ratification; of all the signatory Governments. So, in the same manner, formal acts of adherence by non-signatory Governments, perfected in accordance with their respective constitutional or legal requirements, may be deposited at any time, and if they are deposited before the date the treaty comes into force they also will become effective on that date.
- 4.
- Department regarded the Mexican Government’s note of September 14 as notice of adherence of the character referred to in paragraph 1 above. If, as would appear to be the case by your cablegram, the Mexican Government desires to deposit its perfected instrument of adherence at Washington, the Government of the United States will be happy now to receive it in accordance with the foregoing statement.
- 5.
- This Government regards the procedure whereby a notice of adherence is given and ratification deposited by a non-signatory power before the treaty comes into force as an alternative to and as consistent with the procedure whereby such formal acts of adherence are deposited after the treaty comes into force between the signatory powers, in view of which interpretation no reason is seen for withdrawal of your notes of September 24 and 28 which, if Mexican Government so desires, may be merely acknowledged by that Government.
Kellogg