1. Because of its strategic position and responsibility in the protection of the means of communication in its territory, which are of the utmost importance to world trade, and vital to the defense of the Western Hemisphere, the Republic of Panama reserves the right to take, with respect to all flights through the air space above its territory, all measures which in its judgment may be proper for its own security or the protection of said means of communication. 2. The Republic of Panama understands that the technical annexes to which reference is made in the Convention constitute recommendations only, and not binding obligations. For Paraguay: For Peru: A REVOREDO. J. S. KOECHLIN. LUIS ALVARADO. F ELGUERA. GUILLERMO VAN OORDT. For the Philippine Commonwealth: URBANO A. ZAFRA. J. H. FOLEY. For Poland: ZBYSLAW CIOLKOSZ. For Portugal: MÁRIO DE FIGUEIREDO. ALFREDO DELESQUE DOS SANTOS CINTRA. DUARTE DE GUSMÃO. VASCO VIEIRA GARIN. For Spain: E. TERRADAS. GERMÁN BARAIBAR. For Sweden: R. KUMLIN. For Switzerland: For Syria: For Turkey: S. KOCAK. F. SAHINBAS. ORHAN H. EROL. For the Union of South Africa: For the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: SWINTON. For the United States of America: ADOLF A. BERLE, Jr. F. LAGUARDIA. EDWARD WARNER. L. WELCH POGUE. WILLIAM A. M. BURDEN. For Uruguay: CARL CARBAJAL. Col. MEDARDO R. FARIAS. For Venezuela: For Yugoslavia: For Denmark: HENRIK KAUFFMANN. For Thailand: M. R. SENI PRANOJ. I CERTIFY THAT the foregoing is a true copy of the Convention on International Civil Aviation dated December 7, 1944, concluded at the International Civil Aviation Conference at Chicago, Illinois, in the English language, the signed original of which is deposited in the archives of the Government of the United States of America. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I, E. R. Stettinius, Jr., Secretary of State, have hereunto caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed and my name subscribed by an Assistant Chief, Division of Central Services of the said Department, at the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, this twenty-second day of January, 1945. E. R. STETTINIUS, Jr., Secretary of State. M. L. KENESTRICK, Assistant Chief, Division of Central Services. PROCEEDINGS Senator GEORGE (presiding). The committee will please come to order. I understand the chairman is kept at the dental office and will be here shortly but not immediately. Now, I am not familiar with the purpose of this call this morning at 9:30, and perhaps some of the other members of the committee are;. I am not. Senator WHITE. Mr. Chairman, I can state the situation generally, and others perhaps can amplify what I am able to say from my knowledge; but this question of aviation has been one of the problems that has been very disturbing to a lot of members. My colleague, Senator Brewster, was one of the delegates of the United States at the Chicago meeting, at which there was drafted the agreement, and then various premises, some called treaties, that may be regarded as merely executive agreements. The matter came before this committee some weeks ago. At that time Senator Brewster appeared and expressed in brief the views he held as to the disadvantage of these agreements to the United States, and he expressed his great concern that they should not be hurriedly entered into by the United States or approved by this committee. It is my understanding that the committee voted that there would be no action taken until the committee had had opportunity to go further into the merits of the various matters, and I had further understood that the State Department acquiesced in that situation, that until the committee was fully advised in the matter there would be no acceptance by the United States of these instruments; that the whole matter would remain in status quo until the committee had been further advised and the committee had determined upon its action. Now in that situation as some of us supposed the situation to be we learned from a press release that the State Department had signified its acceptance of these instruments, these agreements, or treaties, or whatever they may be. At the instance of some of the minority members I then wrote to the chairman of the committee stating what my understanding of the situation was, and I earnestly asked that a meeting be held of the committee at which the matter could be again canvassed, and at which in particular my colleague, Senator Brewster, might more fully make known to the members of the committee just what he conceives to be involved in this whole problem and just what he thinks the evils are from the standpoint of the United States. It is my understanding again that none of these instruments come into effect, even the executive agreements, if there are any of them that fall properly within that category; that none of them were to come into effect until there had been acceptances of a formal nature by 26 nations. Now my information was that there had not been up to this time 26 acceptances by nations, so that the United States is now free to take whatever course it sees fit: It may accept, or, if it has indicated acceptance, it may withdraw that acceptance and is a perfectly free agent up until the time the matter becomes frozen by the acceptances of 26 nations. The chairman of the committee was good enough at my request to call this meeting, and it was my notion that we ought to ascertain first just what the facts are, whether 26 nations have accepted. Senator GEORGE. Well, if that is agreeable we will do so. Mr. Secretary, can you give us the information regarding this matter at this time, its present status, and so forth? Mr. ACHESON. Yes, Senator George. Senator WHITE. May I suggest, Mr. Chairman, that Senator Brewster may be permitted to make such statement as he thinks proper in order that we may know just what the factual situation is? Senator GEORGE. Yes, let us ascertain that, first. Mr. ACHESON. First of all, Senator, I had perhaps better run over the procedural situation and clear that up if I can. On the 21st of December after there had been a meeting before this committee with Mr. Grew and Mr. Morgan, who is with me now, the Department got a letter from Mr. Shirley, the clerk of the committee, in which he says: The chairman has instructed me to advise you that in the executive session Wednesday, December 20, the following motion was passed by the committee— and this is the motion: On the motion of Senator Vandenberg, of Michigan, the committee voted to request the executive department of the Government that papers, matters, and commitments of any nature relative to the International Civil Aviation Conference held recently at Chicago be held in abeyance until the committee could review and consider the subject at the new session of Congress, and, probably, the early part of January. Sincerely, ROBERT V. SHIRLEY. That was received by the Department, and in accordance with that no action was taken by the State Department. Early in January this committee will recall that there was a meeting with Mr. Stettinius at which this subject was brought up, and Mr. Stettinius stated that he was not acting on aviation matters, for a reason which he I suppose explained to the committee, and asked me to speak to it. I then said that the Department was holding up matters out of respect to this resolution by the Foreign Relations Committee and that before any action was taken by the State Department the chairman of this committee would be informed that the Department wished to act and we would learn the views of the committee, through the chairman. That seemed to be agreeable to the committee, nothing adverse was asid to it. Some weeks later, I should say about a week agoMr. MORGAN. The meeting with the Congressmen. Mr. ACHESON. Yes, the meeting with the Congressmen. MI. MORGAN. It was I think on the 8th of February. Mr. ACHESON. Shortly before the 8th of February? Mr. MORGAN. On the 8th of February. Mr. ACHESON. I came to see the chairman. A few days before the 8th of February I came to see the chairman of this committee and told him that the Department had given very careful study to this, that there had been one question of law under which some question had been raised; on that question of law we had gotten the advice of our Solicitor, and the advice had been put up to the Attorney General, who confirmed it, and who assured us that on this point he had no doubt; and that therefore the Department had concluded that the main agreement was an agreement on which the advice and consent of the Senate should be asked and would be asked. Senator WHITE. That is appendix 2? Mr. MORGAN. That is the whole convention. Mr. ACHESON. That is the whole, the permanent convention. Mr. ACHESON. That the interim agreement setting up the machinery for 3 years was regarded as an executive agreement, and that the same was true of the two freedoms and of the five freedoms which were believed by us to fall within the permission of existing statutory law. I asked the chairman what I should do, having reached that conclusion. The chairman said that the matter was being actively considered by a subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, of which Senator Bailey was chairman, and that on that committee were Senators Brewster and Vandenberg, who had been interested in this matter, and that he, therefore suggested that I take the matter up with Senator Bailey and get his views on the subject. I spoke to Senator Bailey. We discussed it one afternoon for a short time, and he told us that he was planning to have a meeting of his committee either the next day or the day after; it turned out to be the 8th of February; of his subcommittee. We then appeared before that subcommittee and had a very long session, I think from 2:30 in the afternoon until after 6 o'clock in the evening, in which the entire matter was discussed in great detail. Senator LA FOLLETTE. What date was that? Mr. ACHESON. That was the 8th of February. Senator Bailey is here, and he can tell you in more detail than I can. Senator BAILEY. What was it? Senator CONNALLY. You said something about Senator Bailey. Mr. ACHESON. No; I was just talking about a meeting before Senator Bailey's committee on the 8th of February. At that meeting we discussed in very considerable length the question of whether these were or were not executive agreements and what the questions of law were on which that decision hinged. There was then a very great deal of discussion by the committee on the questions of policy, and at the end of the meeting we asked Senator Bailey in the presence of the full subcommittee whether or not his committee was asking us to delay action any longer on any of these matters, and Senator Bailey said that they were not. I then reported that to the chairman of this committee. Senator BREWSTER. It has been in your hands for a week? Senator BREWSTER. Well, I speak of your Department-inviting your comment. Mr. ACHESON. Well, it may be. I am just talking about my personal knowledge. I have not seen the transcript. Senator BREWSTER. What I wanted was this quotation. I have been searching for it, myself, since I learned you were going to urge this estoppel, and I have not been able to find it. Mr. ACHESON. I am not urging any estoppel, at all. Mr. ACHESON. I am just stating the procedure. If I may refer to this, you were there and Senator Bailey was there and you can correct me. Senator BAILEY. Well, I will correct you at this point. You asked me a question toward the close. I said our committee was not pursuing the policy and would not pursue a policy. That was the language I used. I think you will find that in the record. Senator BREWSTER. Yes; that is right. Senator BAILEY. And that is my policy right now-the policy of delay; and I will just say on that point, the Commerce Committee requested delay. I understood that the Committee on Foreign Relations had requested that no action should be taken on the interim agreement in any of its forms until further advices from the Foreign Relations Committee, and I think that also appears in the record. Senator BREWSTER. That is right. Senator BAILEY. And it was agreed that that request would be made. Senator BREWSTER. That is right. Senator BAILEY. But we had made none. Senator BREWSTER. That is right. Senator BAILEY. We have a record here. Senator BREWSTER. Yes. Mr. ACHESON. I accept that statement of it. Senator BREWSTER. Yes; that is correct. Mr. ACHESON. If it is not, then we will correct what I said to accord with what Senator Bailey and Senator Brewster have just said. Senator BAILEY. I would rather leave that to the record just as it is. Senator BREWSTER. Yes. Senator BAILEY. The record is here. Senator BREWSTER. You have stated it correctly. Mr. ACHESON. As I say, after that meeting I reported the situation to the chairman of this committee and asked him what further steps he thought were necessary on the part of the State Department or whether we were in the clear to go forward with whatever action we thought best. The chairman said he thought it was a decision which we had to make, that he thought we had discharged our obligation under the resolution; whether it was an executive agreement or not was |