The High Contracting Parties agree to furnish the Permanent International Commission with all the means and facilities required for its investigation and report. The report of the International Commission shall be completed within one year after the date on which it shall declare its investigation to have begun, unless the High Contracting Parties shall limit or extend the time by mutual agreement. The report shall be prepared in triplicate; one copy shall be presented to each Government, and the third retained by the Commission for its files. The High Contracting Parties reserve the right to act independently on the subject matter of the dispute after the report of the Commission shall have been submitted. ARTICLE IV This treaty shall not affect in any way the provisions of the Treaty of the 11th January, 1909,5 relating to questions arising between the United States and the Dominion of Canada. ARTICLE V The present treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by His Britannic Majesty; and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible. It shall take effect immediately after the exchange of ratifications, and shall continue in force for a period of five years; and it shall thereafter remain in force until twelve months after one of the High Contracting Parties have given notice to the other of an intention to terminate it. In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty and have affixed thereunto their seals. Done in duplicate at Washington on the 15th day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fourteen. ADVANCEMENT OF PEACE Exchange of notes at Washington November 3, 1915, amending agree ment of September 15, 1914 Entered into force November 3, 1915 EXCELLENCY: III Redmond 2644; Treaty Series 602-A The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 3, 1915 It not having been found feasible to complete the international commission provided for in the treaty of September 15, 1914,1 between the United States and Great Britain, looking to the advancement of the general cause of peace, within the time specified in the treaty, which expired on May 10, 1915, I have the honor to suggest for the consideration of your Government that the time within which the organization of the commission may be completed be extended by an exchange of notes from May 10, 1915, to January 1, 1916. Your formal notification in writing, of the same date as this, that your Government receives the suggestion favorably, will be regarded on this Government's part as sufficient to give effect to the extension, and I shall be glad to receive your assurance that it will be so regarded by your Government also. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, Your Excellency's most obedient servant, His Excellency Sir CECIL ARTHUR SPRING-RICE, Ambassador of Great Britain. 1TS 602, ante, p. 370. 308-581-74- -25 ROBERT LANSING 373 SIR: The British Ambassador to the Secretary of State BRITISH EMBASSY, Washington, November 3, 1915 I have honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Note of this day's date in which you state as follows: [For text of U.S. note, see above.] I have the honour to inform you in reply that His Majesty's Government accepts this suggestion made by the United States Government and that they regard the exchange of to-day's Notes as sufficient to give effect to the PROTECTION OF MIGRATORY BIRDS Convention signed at Washington August 16, 1916 Senate advice and consent to ratification August 29, 1916 Ratifications exchanged at Washington December 7, 1916 Entered into force December 7, 1916 Proclaimed by the President of the United States December 8, 1916 39 Stat. 1702; Treaty Series 628 Whereas, Many species of birds in the course of their annual migrations traverse certain parts of the United States and the Dominion of Canada; and Whereas, Many of these species are of great value as a source of food or in destroying insects which are injurious to forests and forage plants on the public domain, as well as to agricultural crops, in both the United States and Canada, but are nevertheless in danger of extermination through lack of adequate protection during the nesting season or while on their way to and from their breeding grounds; The United States of America and His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, being desirous of saving from indiscriminate slaughter and of insuring the preservation of such migratory birds as are either useful to man or are harmless, have resolved to adopt some uniform system of protection which shall effectively accomplish such objects and to the end of concluding a convention for this purpose have appointed as their respective Plenipotentiaries: The President of the United States of America, Robert Lansing, Secretary of State of the United States; and His Britannic Majesty, the Right Honorable Sir Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G., etc., His Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Washington; Who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers which were found to be in due and proper form, have agreed to and adopted the following articles: ARTICLE I The High Contracting Powers declare that the migratory birds included in the terms of this Convention shall be as follows: 1. Migratory Game Birds: (a) Anatidae or waterfowl, including brant, wild ducks, geese, and swans. (b) Gruidae or cranes, including little brown, sandhill, and whooping cranes. (c) Rallidae or rails, including coots, gallinules and sora and other rails. (d) Limicolae or shorebirds, including avocets, curlew, dowitchers, godwits, knots, oyster catchers, phalaropes, plovers, sandpipers, snipe, stilts, surf birds, turnstones, willet, woodcock and yellowlegs. (e) Columbidae or pigeons, including doves and wild pigeons. 2. Migratory Insectivorous Birds: Bobolinks, catbirds, chickadees, cuckoos, flickers, flycatchers, grosbeaks, humming birds, kinglets, martins, meadowlarks, nighthawks or bull bats, nut-hatches, orioles, robins, shrikes, swallows, swifts, tanagers, titmice, thrushes, vireos, warblers, wax-wings, whippoorwills, woodpeckers and wrens, and all other perching birds which feed entirely or chiefly on insects. 3. Other Migratory Nongame Birds: Auks, auklets, bitterns, fulmars, gannets, grebes, guillemots, gulls, herons, jaegers, loons, murres, petrels, puffins, shearwaters, and terns. ARTICLE II The High Contracting Powers agree that, as an effective means of preserving migratory birds there shall be established the following close seasons during which no hunting shall be done except for scientific or propagating purposes under permits issued by proper authorities. 1. The close season on migratory game birds shall be between March 10 and September 1, except that the close season on the Limicolae or shorebirds in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and in those States of the United States bordering on the Atlantic Ocean which are situated wholly or in part north of Chesapeake Bay shall be between February 1 and August 15, and that Indians may take at any time scoters for food but not for sale. The season for hunting shall be further restricted to such period not exceeding three and one-half months as the High Contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate and define by law or regulation. 2. The close season on migratory insectivorous birds shall continue throughout the year. |