800.796/12–2144
The Acting Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration ( Hendrickson ) to the Secretary of State
Sir: With reference to this Administration’s note of 4 October 1944, I am pleased to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s communication, dated 13 November 1944, conveying the comments of the Government of the United States with regard to the two draft Sanitary Conventions which were approved in principle by the Council at its Second Session.
[Page 354]The comments were given careful consideration on 5 December 1944 by a Subcommittee on Draft Conventions, which was appointed by the Standing Technical Committee on Health. On 9 December 1944 the Subcommittee presented revised drafts of the International Sanitary Convention, 1944, and the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation, 1944, before the Standing Technical Committee on Health. Final drafts of the Conventions were adopted by unanimous vote of that Committee. The English language texts of these Conventions were transmitted to the Department on 14 December 1944.43
Accept [etc.]
- The two amendatory sanitary conventions were opened for signature in Washington on December 15 and were signed for the United States (with a reservation “subject to ratification”) on January 5, 1945. The conventions remained open for signature until January 15, 1945, during which time they were signed by plenipotentiaries of 17 other countries; after that time they were open to accession by any government not a signatory. The conventions came into force January 15, 1945, and were ratified and proclaimed by President Truman on May 29, 1945; the Government of the United States was designated in each of the conventions as the depositary government. See Department of State Bulletin, June 3, 1945, p. 1038, and Treaty Series Nos. 991 and 992, or 59 Stat. (pt. 2) 955 and 991, respectively.↩