711.0012Anti-War/200: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Herrick)
261. Your 225, August 10, 4 p.m. I quite agree that it would be entirely proper and desirable for Governments to adhere to the treaty even before it comes into force through ratification by the original signatories. In order to clear up any question on this point [Page 144] I have revised as follows the draft note quoted in my 247, August 8, 3 p.m.:
The paragraph immediately following the treaty text has been rewritten to read:
“The provisions regarding ratification and adherence are, as Your Excellency will observe, found in the third and last article. That article provides that the treaty shall take effect as soon as the ratifications of all the powers named in the preamble shall have been deposited in Washington, and that it shall be open to adherence by all the other powers of the world, instruments evidencing such adherence to be deposited in Washington also. Any power desiring to participate in the treaty may thus exercise the right to adhere thereto and my Government will be happy to receive at any time appropriate notices of adherence from those Governments wishing to contribute to the success of this new movement for world peace by bringing their peoples within its beneficent scope. It will be noted in this connection that the treaty expressly provides that when it has once come into force it shall take effect immediately between an adhering power and the other parties thereto, and it is therefore clear that any Government adhering promptly will fully share in the benefits of the treaty at the very moment it comes into effect.”
The next paragraph is unchanged.
The last paragraph of the draft note is omitted entirely.16
- On August 16 the Ambassador informed the Department that the alteration in the draft note was acceptable to the French Government (file No. 711.0012 Anti-War/214).↩