The Acting Secretary of State to Brig. Gen. James Allen, Rear-Admiral Henry M. Manney, and John I. Waterbury, esq.
Washington , June 22, 1906.
Gentlemen: You having been respectively nominated by the departments of War, Navy, and Commerce and Labor for designation as delegates on the part of the United States to the international conference on wireless telegraphy, which is to meet at Berlin on October 3 next, I inclose herewith a certificate of your designation as such.
I also inclose a translation of the note of April 7, 1906, from the German ambassador extending, by direction of his Government, an invitation to that of the United States to participate in the conference, fixed therein for June 28, 1906, but by a subsequent note of May 13 following postponed to October 3, 1906.
You will observe by the note of April 7 that “it is intended to let the invited governments determine upon the international agreement to be eventually agreed upon,” but that as to the form to be given to the agreement, if concluded, “the German Government believes it would be advisable, to proceed on the lines followed in the Berne treaty of October 9, 1874, concerning the foundation of the Universal Postal Union and the Washington Universal Postal Convention of June 15, 1897.
As the scope of the conference is largely technical and practical, this department believes it best not to restrict the discretion of the delegates by detailed instructions, but to leave them free to deal with the various phases of the subject as they arise in the course of the conference. It is to be understood, however, that you have no plenary powers and that such action as you may take will be ad referendum.
[Page 1515]Mr. Charlemagne Tower, the ambassador of the United States at Berlin, will also be authorized to attend the conference as the head of the delegation from the United States. He will place the facilities of the embassy at your disposal, and should you have occasion during the progress of the conference to consult the department the cipher code of the embassy may be availed of.
I am, etc.,