550.48 B1/110a
The Secretary of State to President Coolidge
The President: The undersigned, the Secretary of State, has the honor to lay before the President, with a view to its transmission to the Senate to receive the advice and consent of that body to accession by this Government, if his judgment approve thereof, a certified copy of the Slavery Convention signed at Geneva on September 25, 1926.48
There are thirty-six signatories to the Slavery Convention which has been ratified or acceded to by Australia, Austria, Belgium, the British Empire, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Haiti, Hungary, [Page 418] India, Latvia, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden and the Sudan.
The Convention was not signed on behalf of the United States. On May 19, 1927, however, the Secretary General of the League of Nations addressed a note to the Government of the United States in accordance with Article 11 of the Convention which provides that the Secretary General shall bring the Convention to the notice of States which have not signed it, including States which are not members of the League of Nations, and invite them to accede thereto.
In Article 11 of the Convention signed at St. Germain-en-Laye on September 10, 1919,49 Revising the General Act of Berlin of February 26, 1885, and the General Act and Declaration of Brussels of July 2, 1890, the Contracting Parties agreed that they would endeavor to secure the complete suppression of slavery in all its forms and of the slave trade by land and sea. The United States is a Party to the General Act of Brussels of July 2, 1890, for the Repression of the African Slave Trade50 and is a signatory of but has not ratified the Revising Convention of September 10, 1919.
The purpose of the Convention herewith submitted is to find a means for giving practical effect throughout the world to the intention of the Contracting Parties to suppress the slave trade and slavery as expressed in respect of certain territories in Africa in the international Acts of earlier date. It embraces an undertaking on their part to take appropriate measures in their respective territories to carry out this intention and likewise to take all necessary measures to prevent compulsory or enforced labor from developing into conditions analogous to slavery.
By a provision in Article 3 the High Contracting Parties undertake to negotiate as soon as possible a general convention with regard to the slave trade, which will give them rights and impose upon them duties of the same nature as those provided for in certain Articles of the Convention for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition and in Implements of War, signed at Geneva on June 17, 1925.51 The latter Convention was submitted to the Senate by the President on January 12, 1926, with a view to receiving the advice and consent of that body to ratification, but has not yet been acted upon by the Senate.
Articles 7, 10, 11 and 12 of the Slavery Convention contain certain references to the League of Nations. Under Article 7, the parties to the Convention undertake to communicate to the Secretary General [Page 419] of the League of Nations any laws and regulations which they may enact with a view to the application of the provisions of the Convention; Article 10 provides that notices of denunciation of the Convention shall be given in writing to the Secretary General of the League of Nations who will communicate certified copies to other parties; Article 11 provides that States desiring to accede to the Convention shall transmit their instruments of accession to the Secretary General, that they shall be deposited in the archives of the League, and that the Secretary General shall transmit certified copies to the other Parties to the Convention. Article 12 provides that instruments of ratification of the Convention shall be deposited in the office of the Secretary General. As the functions exercised by the Secretary General of the League of Nations under these Articles are merely those of a depository and of a transmitting agency, it is not considered that it would be necessary that accession to the Convention by the United States be made subject to a reservation indicating the position of this Government with respect to the League. If, however, the Senate should consider that a reservation on this point is desirable one might be made.
Considering that the purposes sought to be attained by the Slavery Convention are in accord with modern thought and humane measures taken by civilized peoples with a view to the suppression of slavery and conditions analogous to slavery, it is believed that the United States should cooperate with other powers in the effort to eradicate these evils throughout the world, and that its cooperation might well be expressed through accession to the Convention. Accordingly, it is recommended that, if this course meets with approval, the Senate be requested to take suitable action advising and consenting to accession on the part of the United States to the Slavery Convention of September 25, 1926.52
Respectfully submitted,
- Infra.↩
- Post p. 433↩
- Malloy, Treaties, 1776–1909, vol. ii, p. 1964.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. i, p. 61.↩
- On May 22, 1928, President Coolidge submitted to the Senate the above recommendation by the Secretary of State, together with the convention, and stated: “I concur in the recommendation by the Secretary of State.” See Congressional Record, Feb. 25, 1929, vol. 70, p. 4237.↩