CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION

WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1946

UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Washington, D. C.

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., in the committee room, the Capitol, Senator Tom Connally (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Connally (chairman), George, Murray, Green, Guffey, Tunnell, Capper, La Follette, White, Shipstead, Austin, Wiley, and Gurney.

Also present: The Honorable William L. Clayton, Assistant Secretary of State; Mr. George P. Baker, Director, Office of Transport and Communications Policy, Department of State; Mr. John H. Ferguson, special assistant to the Under Secretary of State; Mr. J. D. Walstrom, Acting Chief, Aviation Division, Department of State; Dr. Theodore P. Wright, Administrator of Civil Aeronautics, Department of Commerce; Mr. Clarence Young, member, Civil Aeronautics Board; and Mr. F. H. Crozier, Chief, Analyses Division, of the Civil Aeronautics Board.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order.

We have this morning Assistant Secretary of State William L. Clayton, who appears to testify with respect to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.

Senator WHITE. Mr. Chairman, before Mr. Clayton starts, I want to apologize in advance, because I shall have to walk out while he is talking. The Senate meets at 11, and I feel I must be on the floor. I apologize now.

Senator SHIPSTEAD. I want to go to the floor if I can, too.

STATEMENT BY THE HONORABLE WILLIAM L. CLAYTON,
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE

Secretary CLAYTON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, on March 12, 1945, President Roosevelt sent to the Senate for its advice and consent the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. On March 19, 1945, I appeared before a subcommittee of this committee, during the hearings then in progress, to urge the ratification of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Mr. William A. M. Burden, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aviation Matters, Mr. L. Welch Pogue, Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, and Mr. Edward Warner, Vice Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, Mr. Robert A. Lovett, Assistant Secretary of War for Air, Mr. Artemus L. Gates, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air, General H. R. Harris, Chief of Staff of Air Transport Command, all likewise testified in support of

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ratification of the convention. I am firmly convinced that the rapid expansion of air transport throughout the world has made the need for the convention greater and more urgent than ever.

The convention on international civil aviation was drawn up at the International Civil Aviation Conference which was held in Chicago, November 1, to December 7, 1944. Because of the fact that three other agreements relating to international aviation were drawn up at the same conference, there has been some confusion concerning the relationship between the four documents and, in some respects, concerning just what is provided for in the convention. For this reason I wish to speak briefly about all four documents before directing my remarks to the specific provisions of the convention.

The convention is entirely independent of the other three agreements. It is a treaty or convention which will come into force on the 30th day after 26 countries have ratified it. Its provisions are in no way dependent upon the provisions of the other three agree ments, and a State which becomes a party to the convention does not thereby become a party to any of the other agreements, nor does it obligate itself to do so. If the other agreements had never become effective, in fact even if they had never been drafted, the convention would still be necessary and could still be ratified as it stands.

Among the other three documents drafted at Chicago is the interim agreement on international civil aviation. It is independent of the other two and of the convention. It could have been drawn up in its present terms and become effective without either the convention or the other two agreements having been drafted.

The interim agreement provides for the establishment of a provisional organization whose principal function is to prepare aviation standards for the consideration of the permanent organization envisaged by the convention. The provisional organization, known as PICAO-Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization-is already functioning in Montreal, where a meeting is currently being held on these questions. The Provisional Organization, however, under the terms of the agreement, can only remain in existence for approximately two more years or until the convention establishing a permanent International Čivil Aviation Organization comes into force. The remaining two agreements drawn up at Chicago are the international air services transit agreement, known as the "two freedoms" agreement, and the international air-transport agreement, known as the "five freedoms" agreement. The first exchanges the rights to fly over and make nontraffic stops in the territory of the other parties, and the second agreement grants in addition to those included in the "two freedoms" agreement commercial traffic rights to the parties which have accepted. Both of these agreements relate exclusively 'to scheduled air-line services. The "two" and "five" freedoms agreements are independent of each other and a nation may be a party to either one without being a party to the other, or may be a party to both without violating its obligations under either.

In order to illustrate the distinctions between the convention and the other three agreements, I have brought with me a chart illustrating the chief purposes of each of the documents, and I think we might just take a look at this chart, now.

(The chart referred to, entitled "Major Documents-Chicago Aviation Conference," is as follows:)