2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA. 



United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Russia and 

 Sweden participated in the conference. Before the conference was called, the 

 United States and Germany united in the request to the British Government that 

 the Australian Commonwealth, the Dominion of Canada, and New Zealand be 

 invited to attend the conference as self-governing British dominions, with inde- 

 pendent delegations. Accordingly, fifteen delegations enjoyed plenary powers, while 

 Norway's delegation was sent ad referendum. Japan, which had been unable to 

 make the necessary preliminary studies, was represented from the Embassy staff 

 at London for purposes of observation and study. The conference consisted of 

 ninety-six delegates and technical advisers with eighteen secretaries, some of whom 

 gave the benefit of technical training and long experience to their delegations. 



It was evident at the outset that so large an assemblage could not discuss in de- 

 tail the many and intricate questions on the programme, and, accordingly, the work 

 was divided among six committees under the heads, respectively, of Safety of Navi- 

 gation, Construction, Certificates, Radiotelegraphy, Lifesaving Appliances, and Re- 

 vision, each nation being represented on each committee by one or more delegates. 

 Chief Constructor Washington Lee Capps, U. S. N., was chairman of the im- 

 portant Committee on Construction. A seventh committee was organized infor- 

 mally, comprising Lord Mersey, President of the Conference, the chairman of the six 

 committees, and two or three other members, to determine questions of jurisdiction 

 between the committees, to consider matters not properly within the province of any 

 committee and, in general, to act as a steering committee. These committees held 

 one hundred and thirty-three meetings during the seven weeks of unremitting work 

 of the conference. Besides these meetings, the delegations of each nation, of course, 

 held separate meetings for the purpose of determining the policy of each delegation 

 as questions arose on which the delegations had not reached conclusions before the 

 conference assembled. In many instances, of course, delegations modified conclu- 

 sions in order to promote ultimate agreement. 



In respect of preparation before the conference, the British, French, and 

 German delegations were better equipped than the delegation from any other nation. 

 The governments of these three countries more than a year before the conference 

 met had provided ample means and facilities for the study of the more important 

 subjects by committees of men of the highest training, and each of these delegations 

 entered the conference with more less matured views as to the policy to be pursued 

 on larger questions. An effort, undertaken three times, to secure from Congress 

 sanction and means for similar preparation in the United States, was not success- 

 ful. It was necessary, therefore, to organize in this country committees composed 

 entirely of officers in the various departments more or less directly concerned with 

 the administration of laws upon the subjects to be taken up at the conference. In 

 this work the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers was invited to help, 

 and it may be stated here that should the Convention be ratified by the Senate of 

 the United States, the co-operation of the Society will be needed in the framing of 

 laws to give effect to the Convention. 



