148 WRIGHT— CONCLUSIVENESS OF THE ACTS 



this case the notes m question had been submitted to the Senate 

 but had not been formally acted on by that body.^* 



28. Reservations Tacitly Consented to. 



Tacit consent to reservatons is also possible, but it seems doubt- 

 ful whether the United States would be bound by a reservation 

 submitted by a foreign power unless the Senate has had an oppor- 

 tunity to object. The signature and exchange of ratifications of 

 treaties are formal ceremonies offering suitable opportunities for the 

 proposal of reservations. It would appear that if such proposals 

 are stated as conditions of consent by the proposing power, on 

 either of these occasions, lack of protest within a reasonable time 

 by others could be construed as tacit consent. At the Hague Con- 

 ferences, the numerous reservations offered upon signature of the 

 Conventions and maintained by the power upon ratification were 

 accorded tacit consent in this manner.^^ Other signatories are, 

 however, at liberty to object to reservations. Thus the powers 

 objected to a reservation to the treaty of Versailles proposed by 

 China upon signature and, as a result, China refused to sign the 

 treaty.^*' Sometimes the treaty itself has stated that it is not sub- 

 ject to reservation. Thus article 65 of the Declaration of London 

 provided "The provisions of the present Declaration form an 

 indivisible whole." ^^ 



^* Supra, note 28. 



35 The Marie Glaeser, L. R. (1914), P. 218; The Appam (1916), 243 U. S. 

 124, infra, note 38. In most cases reservations were offered at signature 

 and affirmed at ratification though sometimes they were offered for the first 

 time at ratification. Thus the Senate resokition advising ratification of the 

 1907 Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Dis- 

 putes affirmed the declaration made by the American plenipotentiaries on 

 signature and added a new reservation. Malloy, Treaties, etc., p. 2247. The 

 reservations with statement of the method of presentment are given in 

 full in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace edition of the 

 Hague Conventions and Declarations of 1899 and 1907. Presumably a reser- 

 vation made at signature but not maintained at ratification is not effective. 



^^ Am. Year Book, 1919, p. 93. 



s'' Upon this, the drafting committee, of which M. Renault was chair- 

 man, commented as follows : " This Article is of great importance, and is in 

 conformity with that which was adopted in the Declaration at Paris. The 

 rules contained in the present Declaration relate to matters of great im- 

 portance and great diversity. They have not all been accepted with the 



