651.0031/17
The French Chargé ( Chambrun ) to the Acting Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: I had the honor on March 9 last to give notice to Your Excellency of the termination of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between France and the United States, concluded June 24, 1822, and added that the Government of the Republic would wish that treaty to be extended for periods of three months by tacit renewal until the new agreement, that is to supersede it, shall have been put into effect.
In your acknowledgment of that communication, Your Excellency was pleased to inform me that in the State Department’s opinion, the extension of this treaty in the manner suggested would amount to continuing the treaty indefinitely, subject to termination upon three months’ notice and thus modify the terms of one of the provisions of the treaty, namely Article 7, which stipulates that the treaty will terminate when one of the contracting parties shall have notified the other at least six months beforehand, of its intention to renounce it.
In order to overcome that difficulty and so as to extend the present treaty in accordance with the wishes of both Governments, Your Excellency was pleased to recommend, in your note of April 29, the signing of a brief treaty, modifying Article 7, as the best method to arrive at the desired result. In the new wording the sentence “which declaration shall be made at least six months beforehand” would be changed to “which declaration shall be made at least three months beforehand”.
The Government of the Republic, to which I did not fail to refer that proposition, conformable to the precedents of 1913 and 1914 when the Federal Government had to extend the Commercial Treaty with Italy and the Arbitration Treaty with the Netherlands, wishes me to say that it is entirely disposed to adopt it.
I should therefore be thankful to Your Excellency if you would kindly cause to be drawn up at the State Department an instrument modifying Article 7 of the Convention of 1822 which might [Page 232] be signed by the Ambassador of France on his early return to the United States.
To that end I have the honor to append hereto the French translation5 of the draft enclosed in the afore-mentioned note of April 29, wherein Mr. Jusserand’s name has been substituted for mine.
Be pleased [etc.]
- Not printed.↩