711.5612A/8
The Netherlands Legation to the Department of State
The Arbitration Treaty concluded between The Netherlands and the United States on May 2, 1908 and extended since by the operation of renewal agreements is going to finish its effect on March 25, 1929.36
It seems that the time is too short, considering the rather long delay necessary to obtain the sanction of the Senate in the United States and the approval of the Legislature required by the Constitution in The Netherlands, to have the new proposed Arbitration Treaty, mentioned in the note of the Royal Legation of June 27, 1928, No. 1949, in force before March 25, 1929.
As it will not be advisable that there should be a period of time during which no arbitration treaty at all would exist between the two powers, the Netherland Legation proposes to the State Department to enter into a renewal agreement of the existing treaty of May 2, 1908.
In case the Government of the United States should agree with this proposal, a draft of a convention in the Netherland and English languages is joined herewith,37 extending for another period of five years the operation of the existing Arbitration Treaty.
The Netherland Government should appreciate highly if this Convention could be signed as soon as possible, as approval of the same by the Legislature in The Netherlands takes some time and as the First Chamber of the State General (Senate) on the occasion of the last renewal in 1925 has made the remark that the proposal of law for the agreement of the convention was introduced too late to allow sufficient time for consideration and discussion.
The Netherland Government is at the same time still willing to continue diligently the negotiations of the new Arbitration Treaty proposed by the Government of the United States and to cooperate in the conclusion of this treaty as soon as possible. A stipulation could be adopted that the new treaty would come in force immediately after the [Page 417] exchange of ratifications and that it would automatically replace the extended treaty of May 2, 1908.38
- Last previous extension of convention February 13, 1924; Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. ii, pp. 473–476.↩
- Not printed.↩
- An agreement further extending the duration of the convention of May 2, 1908, was signed Feb. 27, 1929 (Department of State Treaty Series No. 786).↩