Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 7, 1911

By the President of the United States of America.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas an arrangement between the United States of America and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, and Switzerland relative to the suppression of the circulation of obscene publications, was concluded and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries at Paris, on the fourth day of May, one thousand nine-hundred and ten, the original of which arrangement, being in the French language, is word for word as follows:

[Translation.]

arrangement relative to the repression of the circulation of obscene publications.

The Governments of the powers hereinbelow named, equally desirous of facilitating within the scope of their respective legislation the mutual interchange of information with a view to tracing and repressing offences connected with obscene publications, have resolved to conclude an arrangement to that end and have, in consequence, designated their plenipotentiaries who met in conference at Paris from April 18 to May 4, 1910, and agreed on the following provisions:

Article I.

Each one of the contracting powers undertakes to establish or designate an authority charged with the duty of—

(1) Centralizing all information which may facilitate the tracing and repressing of acts constituting infringements of their municipal law as to obscene writings, drawings, pictures or articles, and the constitutive elements of which bear an international character.

(2) Supplying all information tending to check the importation of publications or articles referred to in the foregoing paragraph and also to insure or expedite their seizure all within the scope of municipal legislation.

(3) Communicating the laws that have already been or may subsequently be enacted in their respective States in regard to the object of the present arrangement.

The contracting Governments shall mutually make known to one another, through the Government of the French Republic, the authority established or designated in accordance with the present article.

Article II.

The authority designated in Article I shall be empowered to correspond directly with the like service established in each one of the ether contracting States.

Article III.

The authority designated in Article I shall be bound, if there be nothing to the contrary in the municipal law of its country, to communicate bulletins of the sentences passed in the said country to the similar authorities of all the other contracting States in cases of offences coming under Article I.

Article IV.

Nonsignatory States will be permitted to adhere to the present arrangement. They shall notify their intention to that effect by means of an instrument which shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the French Republic. The said Government shall send through diplomatic channel a certified copy of the said instrument to each one of the contracting States and shall at the same time apprize them of the date of deposit.

Six months after that date the arrangement will go into effect throughout the territory of the adhering State which will thereby become a contracting State.

Article V.

The present arrangement shall take effect six months after the date of deposit of the ratifications.

In the event of one of the contracting States denouncing it, the denunciation would only have effect in regard to that State.

The denunciation shall be notified by an instrument which shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the French Republic. The said Government shall send through the diplomatic channel a certified copy thereof to each one of the contracting States and at the same time apprize them of the date of deposit.

Twelve months after that date the arrangement shall cease to be in force throughout the territory of the denouncing State.

Article VI.

The present arrangement shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be deposited at Paris as soon as six of the contracting States shall be in position to do so.

A procés verbal of every deposit of ratifications shall be drawn up and a certified copy thereof shall be delivered through the diplomatic channel to each one of the contracting States.

Article VII.

Should a contracting State wish to enforce the present arrangement in one or more of its colonies, possessions, or consular court districts, it shall notify its intention to that effect by an instrument which shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the French Republic. The said Government shall send through the diplomatic channel a certified copy to each one of the contracting States and at the same time apprize it of the date of the deposit.

Six months after that date the arrangement shall go into effect in the colonies, possessions, or consular court districts specified in the instrument of notification.

The denunciation of the arrangement by one of the contracting States in behalf of one or more of its colonies, possessions, or consular court districts will be effected in the form and under the conditions set forth in the first paragraph of this article. It will become operative twelve months after the date of the deposit of the instrument of denunciation in the archives of the Government of the French Republic.

Article VIII.

The present arrangement which will bear date of May 4, 1910, may be signed at Paris until the following 31st of July by the plenipotentiaries of the powers represented at the conference relative to the repression of the circulation of obscene publications.

Done at Paris, the fourth day of May one thousand nine hundred and ten in a single copy of which a certified copy shall be delivered to each one of the signatory powers.

For Germany:	Albrecht Leutze.
	Curt Joel.
For Austria and Hungary:	A. Nemes.
For Austria:	J. Eichhoff.
For Hungary:	G. Lers.
For Belgium:	Jules Lejeune.
	Isidore Maus.
For Brazil:	J. C. de Souza Bandeira.
For Denmark:	C. E. Cold.
For Spain:	Octavio Cuartero.
For the United States:	A. Bailly-Blanchard.
For France:	R. Bérenger.
For Great Britain:	E. W. Farnall.
	F. S. Bullock.
	G. A. Aitken.
For Italy:	J. C. Buzzatti.
	Gerolamo Calvi.
For the Netherlands:	A. de Stuers.
	Rethaan Macare.
For Portugal:	Count de Souza Roza.
For Russia:	Alexis de Bellegarde.
	Wladimir Deruginsky.
For Switzerland:	Lardy.

And whereas, the said arrangement has been duly ratified by the Governments of the United States, Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland, and the ratifications of the said Governments were, as provided for by article 6 of the said arrangement, deposited by their respective plenipotentiaries with the Government of the French Republic on March 15, 1911;

Now, therefore, be it known that I, William Howard Taft, President of the United States of America, have caused the said arrangement to be made public, to the end that the same and every article and clause thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[seal] Done at the city of Washington this thirteenth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-fifth.

Wm. H. Taft.

By the President:
P. C. Knox,
Secretary of State.