Of the original subcommittees of Committee 1, Subcommittee 2 was the only one to continue in existence after the tripartite talks and to complete its assignment. Their work was of considerable importance, not only because it covered practically the entire subject matter of the Paris and Habana conventions but also because it provided the means by which the work of Committee II and its 10 technical subcommittees on the so-called "annexes" could be implemented. Prior to the tripartite talks, six meetings of Subcommittee 2 were held, at which a first and second reading of the assigned portions of the United States draft convention and related proposals were completed. When it became known that the tripartite proposal did not cover airnavigation principles, the drafting committee of Subcommittee 2 renewed its efforts and produced an interim report (doc. 356), which was considered at the seventh and eighth meetings of the Subcommittee, held November 21 and 23. A ninth and final meeting was held November 30 in order to consider and revise documents 414, 423, and 443, the second interim report of the drafting committee and supplements thereto. CONSOLIDATION OF THE CONVENTION The final task of putting together in a new convention the work of Subcommittee 2 with that of the Joint Subcommittee was largely the work of the several drafting committees: the drafting committee of Subcommittee 2, composed of John Cooper (U. S.), Chairman; Joseph Nisot (Belgium); Luis Machado (Cuba); and Sir Frederick Tymms (India); and the drafting committee of the Joint Subcommittee,1 composed of F. C. Aronstein (Netherlands), Chairman; Lieutenant Colonel Hodgson (Australia); E. P. Barbosa da Silva (Brazil); J. R. Baldwin (Canada); R. Aglion (France); G. G. FitzMaurice (U. K.); and S. W. Morgan (U. S.). Virginia C. Little served as the secretary of the former committee and Paul T. David as the secretary of the latter. Sir Frederick Tymms was responsible for working out a complete outline of the proposed new convention into chapters and articles. This was revised slightly by the other members of the drafting committee of Subcommittee 2 and was used as the basis of the first consolidated draft of the convention, issued December 1. After being considered and further revised in joint meetings of the subcommittees of Committee I held December 2 and 4, the convention as amended was approved at a plenary meeting of Committee I held December 4, and adopted at a plenary session of the Conference the following day.2 OMITTED ARTICLES As originally submitted, the tripartite proposal contained certain blank articles: article II, section 3, Freedoms of the Air; article XI, Adjustment of Capacity to Traffic Offering; article XII, United Nations Participation, and article XXI, Denunciation or Termination. 1 Originally appointed as the joint drafting committee of Subcommittees 1 and 3 of Committee I, with the exception of Messrs. Aronstein and Morgan. 2 A commentary on the development of the individual articles of the Convention on International Civil Aviation has been included as appendix 2. Separate proposals on some or all of these articles were presented by the interested governments, but, except for the last mentioned, sufficient agreement could not be reached to include them in the convention, nor to include article X, Tariffs. The first omitted article, Freedoms of the Air, was however embodied in the two separate multilateral agreements previously referred to. This article, as well as the other three "omitted" articles, was referred to the Interim Council of the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization for further study. |