783.003/209: Telegram
The Chairman of the American Delegation (Fish) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 21—6:35 p.m.]
1. Article 9 of the draft of convention provides as follows:
“Any dispute between the High Contracting Parties regarding the interpretation or application of the provisions of the present convention which they have been unable to settle by diplomatic means shall, at the request of one of the parties to the dispute, be submitted to the Permanent Court of International Justice.”
We submitted the following addition based on article 25 of Narcotics Convention of July 13, 1931:29
“If all the parties to the dispute are parties to the Protocol of December 16, 1920,30 relating to the statute of that Court and, if any of the parties to the dispute is not a party to the Protocol of December 16, 1920, to an arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with the Hague Convention of October 18, 1907,31 for the pacific settlement of international disputes”.
This addition is not acceptable to the British because it will not bind Egypt to go before the Permanent Court of International Justice before it is a member thereof. Does the Department approve the following substitute proposal which takes into account the remote contingency that the arbitration treaty between the United States and Egypt might lapse during the life of Montreux Convention:
“If any of the High Contracting Parties has a present existing treaty of arbitration with Egypt providing for another tribunal, this tribunal shall, during the life of this Convention, be substituted for the Permanent Court of International Justice for the purposes of this article, even though such treaty of arbitration may cease to exist for other purposes.”