711.5612/56a
The Secretary of State to President Coolidge
The President: It will be recalled that in 1913–1914 this Government concluded treaties with several countries looking to the advancement of the cause of general peace. Such a treaty was concluded with the Government of the Netherlands. With minor changes the text for the most part was uniform in all the treaties. The treaty with the Netherlands (Dutch and English texts) was signed on December 18, 1913, and the Senate consented to its ratification on August 13, 1914. Article I defines the character of disputes which are the subject of the treaty. After the conclusion of the treaty, in 1917, the Netherlands Government invited the Department’s attention to a variance between the Dutch and the English texts of Article I.
The English text reads:
“The High Contracting Parties agree that all disputes between them, of every nature whatsoever, to the settlement of which previous arbitration treaties or agreements do not apply in their terms or are not applied in fact, shall, when diplomatic methods of adjustment have failed, be referred for investigation and report to a permanent International Commission, to be constituted in the manner prescribed in the next succeeding article; and they agree not to declare war or begin hostilities during such investigation and before the report is submitted.”
It will be seen that this article covers “all disputes between them of every nature whatsoever” without specifying the time of origin of such disputes. The Dutch text specifies “all disputes of every nature whatsoever that may arise between them”, thus implying that only those disputes arising after the coming into force of the treaty are contemplated. The Netherlands Government observed that a literal interpretation of the Dutch text would preclude disputes having their origin in fact arising prior to the time when the treaty goes into effect, and suggested the signing, at the time of the exchange of ratification of the treaty, of a Protocol interpretative of Article I, the [Page 408] effect of which would be to make the treaty applicable to all disputes whether arising after the coming into force of the treaty or having their origin in facts arising prior thereto. Due to the exigencies of the late war, however, the matter lay dormant and was not renewed until 1923, at which time my predecessor was of the opinion that the proposed Protocol would have the effect of modifying the terms of the treaty to which the Senate had given its approval and would therefore require its submission to that body. At that time neither this Government nor the Netherlands Legation at this capital was aware of the existence of any controversy between the United States and the Netherlands and the Department advised the Legation that there would appear to be no occasion for submitting the proposed Protocol to the Senate.
The Department is now in receipt of a note from the Netherlands Minister25 in which he states that his Government confirms his prior statement that there is no existing controversy between the two Governments. The Department understands that the insistence of the Netherlands Government to have the Protocol concluded is due solely to their desire to clarify the variance between the Dutch and the English texts, without which, they are not prepared to proceed to the exchange of ratifications of the original treaty, since the Netherlands States Assembly has approved the treaty on the understanding that this Government would accept the interpretative Protocol.
I have the honor therefore to request that, should your judgment approve thereof, you transmit the enclosed Protocol dated February 13, 1928, to the Senate with a view to receiving the advice and consent of that body to ratification.26 When such ratification has been received steps will be taken immediately to effect the exchange of ratifications of the original treaty accompanied by this Protocol.
Respectfully,