SIR: [EXCHANGE OF NOTES REGARDING U. S. SENATE PROVISOS] The Secretary of State to the Danish Minister DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, January 3, 1917. I have the honor to inform you that the Senate of the United States by its resolution of ratification has advised and consented to the ratification of the convention between the United States and Denmark, ceding to the United States the Danish West Indian Islands, with the following provisos: "Provided, however, That it is declared by the Senate that in advising and consenting to the ratification of the said convention, such advice and consent are given with the understanding, to be expressed as a part of the instrument of ratification, that such convention shall not be taken and construed by the high contracting parties as imposing any trust upon the United States with respect to any funds belonging to the Danish National Church in the Danish West Indian Islands, or in which the said church may have an interest, nor as imposing upon the United States any duty or responsibility with respect to the management of any property belonging to said church, beyond protecting said church in the possession and use of church property as stated in said convention, in the same manner and to the same extent only as other churches shall be protected in the possession and use of their several properties. And provided further, that the Senate advises and consents to the ratification of the said convention on condition that the attitude of the United States in this particular, as set forth in the above proviso, be made the subject of an exchange of notes between the governments of the two high contracting parties, so as to make it plain that this condition is understood and accepted by the two governments, the purpose hereof being to bring the said convention clearly within the Constitutional powers of the United States with respect to church. establishment and freedom of religion." In view of this resolution of the Senate I have the honor to state that it is understood and accepted by the Government of the United States and the Government of Denmark that the provisions of this convention referring to the property and funds belonging to the Danish National Church in the Danish West Indian Islands shall not be taken and construed by the high contracting parties as imposing any trust upon the United States with respect to any funds belonging to the Danish National Church in the Danish West Indian Islands, or in which the said church may have an interest nor as imposing upon the United States any duty or responsibility with respect to the management of any property belonging to said church, beyond protecting said church in the possession and use of church property as stated in said convention, in the same manner and to the same extent only as other churches shall be protected in the possession and use of their several properties. I trust that your government will in a formal reply to this communication accept this understanding as to the meaning and construction of the provisions of said convention in accordance with the foregoing resolution of the Senate. Accept, Sir, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration. ROBERT LANSING Mr. CONSTANTIN BRUN, Minister of Denmark. SIR: The Danish Minister to the Secretary of State. THE DANISH LEGATION In reply to your communication of this day concerning the relation of the United States to the rights of the Established Church in the Danish West Indies and to the provisions referring to this point in the convention between the United States and Denmark ceding to the States the Danish Westindian Islands, I have the honor to state that it is understood and accepted by the Government of Denmark and the Government of the United States that the provisions of this convention referring to the property and funds belonging to the Danish National Church in the Danish Westindian Islands shall not be taken and construed by the high contracting parties as imposing any trust upon the United States with respect to any funds belonging to the Danish National Church in the Danish Westindian Islands or in which the said Church may have an interest nor as imposing upon the United States any duty or responsibility with respect to the management of any property belonging to said church beyond protecting said church in the possession and use of church property as stated in said convention in the same manner to the same extent only as other churches shall be protected in the possession and use of their several properties. It will be evident from the above that the Danish Government accept the understanding as to the meaning and construction of the provisions of the said convention in accordance with the resolution of the United States' Senate concerning the question of the rights of the Church in the islands. I have the honor to be, Sir, with the highest consideration, Your most obedient and humble servant, The Honorable ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State of the United States. C. BRUN. CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT Signed at Washington, August 16, 1916; ratifications exchanged 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 1 1 U. S. Treaty Series, No. 628. 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 whoop ing 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. 3. The close season on other migratory nongame birds shall continue throughout the year, except that Eskimos and Indians may take at any season auks, auklets, guillemots, murres and puffins, and their eggs, for food and their skins for clothing, but the birds and eggs so taken shall not be sold or offered for sale. ARTICLE III The high contracting Powers agree that during the period of ten years next following the going into effect of this convention, there shall be a continuous close season on the following migratory game birds, to wit: Band-tailed pigeons, little brown, sandhill and whooping cranes, swans, curlew and all shorebirds (except the black-breasted and golden plover, Wilson or jack snipe, woodcock, and the greater and lesser yellowlegs); provided that during such ten years the close seasons on cranes, swans and curlew in the Province of British Columbia shall be made by the proper authorities of that Province within the general dates and limitations elsewhere prescribed in this convention for the respective groups to which these birds belong. |