INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA. 3 



The foundation of the International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea is the 

 Safety Certificate and the international attributes bestowed upon it. By this cer- 

 tificate the nation which issues it certifies that after inspection and survey the 

 vessel which carries it complies in an efficient manner with the requirements of the 

 Convention. In every case the government which issues the Safety Certificate is 

 bound by the Convention fully to guarantee the completeness and efficiency of the 

 inspection and survey. Articles 60 and 61 of the Convention read as follows: — 



"article 60. 



. "The Safety Certificate issued under the authority of a Contracting State shall 

 be accepted by the governments of the other Contracting States for all purposes 

 covered by this Convention. It shall be regarded by the governments of the other 

 Contracting States as having the same force as the certificates issued by them to 

 their own vessels. 



"article 61. 



"Every vessel holding a Safety Certificate issued by the officers of the Contract- 

 ing State to which it belongs, or by persons duly authorized by that state, is subject 

 in the ports of the other Contracting States to control by officers duly authorized 

 by their governments in so far as this control is directed towards verifying that 

 there is on board a valid Safety Certificate, and, if necessary, that the conditions 

 of the vessel's seaworthiness correspond substantially with the particulars of that 

 certificate; that is to say, so that the vessel can proceed to sea without danger to 

 the passengers and the crew." 



To appreciate the great benefit to international commerce by sea and to ship- 

 building and shipowning which these two articles will confer it must be borne in 

 mind that hitherto there have been no rules of the law of nations for the safety 

 of ocean travel. The aim of the London Conference above all else was to demon- 

 strate the willingness and ability of nations to agree upon standards of safety for 

 ocean travel, then of their willingness to recognize the good faith of one another 

 in agreeing to live up to those standards. This aim was attained in the two 

 articles just quoted, and the balance of the work of the conference related to detail, 

 important in many respects, but necessarily incomplete. The step taken is a long 

 advance in substance and principle over the practice of the past fifty years of en- 

 forcing uniform rules for preventing collisions at sea, and it begins an era in 

 maritime afifairs. 



The agreement upon the two articles mentioned was not reached without 

 patient effort, and involved, of course, concessions. The shaping of Article 61 was 

 approached from two quite different points of view. By common consent, freedom 

 on the open sea and the fact that vessels on the open sea remain under the au- 

 thority of the flag state exclude as a rule the exercise of any state's authority over 



