500.C114/54
The Secretary General of the League of Nations (Drummond) to President Wilson
The Secretary-General of the League of Nations has the honour to forward herewith to the Government of the United States of America a certified copy of the Protocol of Signature relating to the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice, provided for by Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, together with the signatures already affixed by the representatives of the Members of the League, and the declarations relating to the optional clause concerning compulsory jurisdiction.17
The Secretary-General of the League of Nations has the honour, at the same time, to draw the attention of the Government of the United States of America to the importance of ratifications being deposited as speedily as possible.
According to the terms of para. 3 of the resolution relating to the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice,18 which was adopted by the Assembly of the League of Nations at its meeting on December 13th, 1920, the Statute of the Court will not come into force, and the Court will not be called upon to sit, in conformity with the said Statute, until this Protocol has been ratified by the majority of the Members of the League. The satisfactory fulfilment of this condition will alone enable the Assembly of the League of Nations at its next meeting (which is to take place in September, 1921) to proceed to elect the Judges, and thus to enable the Court to be formed and to enter upon its duties at the beginning of next year.
Further signatures to the Protocol will be notified to the Government of the United States of America as and when they are appended.
The same procedure will be observed in the case of communications addressed to the Secretariat by the various signatory Powers with regard to their ratification of the Protocol.
Certified copies of the various documents containing the ratifications will be communicated to the Government of the United States of America as and when they are deposited with the Secretariat.