INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA. 283 



1. Between ports in the States signatory to the convention; that is to say, foreign trade. 

 The question was discussed whether the convention should apply to American or British ves- 

 sels in trade, for example, between Liberia and Cuba — nonsignatory States — and the Ameri- 

 can delegation favored this proposition, but yielded to the argument that it would be difficult 

 to administer the convention rules effectively when both terminal ports were in countries 

 which may not adopt and provide the administrative machinery to carry out the convention 

 rules. 



2. Between ports in any contracting State and ports in its colonies, possessions, or pro- 

 tectorates, or the colonies, possessions, or protectorates of another contracting State. In 

 view of the extended oversea possessions of the principal powers represented the propriety 

 of this rule will not be questioned. In the case of the United States such over-sea posses- 

 sions include the Philippines, Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Canal Zone. Alaska, 

 Hawaii, and Porto Rico are included under the coasting laws of the United States, and the 

 American delegation was instructed not to commit the United States to coasting regulations. 

 The value of the words in Article 2, "Ports situated in the colonies, possessions, or protec- 

 torates are considered to be ports outside the States of the high contracting parties," is so 

 clear that if necessary the American delegation would have cabled for a modification of in- 

 structions to enable it to support finally this proposition. It was not necessary, however, as 

 article 66 is so framed that Hawaii, Porto Rico, and Alaska may be excluded, if the Senate 

 shall see fit, from the operation of the convention. The convention rules apply to vessels in 

 trade between a colony, possession, or protectorate and ports in contracting or noncontract- 

 ing States (final Protocol I), and, of course, do not apply to vessels of a colony, posses- 

 sion, or protectorate in respect to which the convention has not been ratified by the mother 

 country (final Protocol III). The convention also provides in Article 3 that each State may 

 except from the convention voyages which it is to specify at the time of ratification, subject 

 to modification later, but no voyages shall be so exempted if the vessel goes more than 200 

 miles from the nearest coast. This exemption was drawn principally to cover the trade 

 across the channel between England and the Continent, which from Brest to the River Elbe 

 has been described as "home trade" for many years in British laws, and from the point of 

 view of navigation shares most of the characteristics of our coasting trade. It was also de- 

 signed to cover the trade within the Baltic. Our immense trade on the Great Lakes is not 

 brought under the convention. So far as the United States is concerned there are some- 

 what similar voyages on Puget Sound between the United States and British Columbia, the 

 voyages of about 90 miles between Key West and Habana, and from Eastport, Me., to 

 St. John, New Brunswick. These voyages are mentioned in illustration, and not as recom- 

 mended exemptions. The last paragraph of Article 3 enables a State which imposes the con- 

 vention rules on its own ships on these short exempted routes to secure for them recognition 

 as such ships, even if the country at the other terminal of one of these short routes sees fit 

 to exempt its vessels from the requirements of the convention. 



