the travaux préparatoires hague rules hague-visby rules - Comite ...

80 COMITE MARITIME INTERNATIONALThe Travaux Préparatoires of the Hague and Hague-Visby RulesCMI - 1922 London ConferenceSitting of Tuesday 10 October 1922Mr. Laurent Toutain: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[324]To our great satisfaction, the “Comité Central des Armateurs de France” has comeround to these views, on the essential condition that, instead of being left optional,they should become compulsory, at least amongst the seafaring nations which actuallycount in the shipping competition. Failing an international convention, binding thesenations to uniformity, they fear lest there should be evasion from the rules, not only byshipowners, chiefly by the tramp owners, but also by the shippers and the bankers,whenever, as has been generally the case up to now, under the spur of competition,cheapness counts for more than security. Such an action Mr. de Rousiers aptlyremarked would not necessarily mean a breach of good faith, for such voluntaryagreements as the proposed Rules, even when they are entered into by the leadingmembers of a Syndicate, do not carry with them the pledge of all the members of aprofession.I, for one, fully concur in this opinion. New facts have cropped up since then. Themost important and significant of them is, if I understood rightly what has fallen fromthe Right Honourable President, the pledge given by the Executive Power of GreatBritain to the Dominions to pass at an early date a National law if possible on the linesof the amended Hague Rules, called Rules for the [325] carriage of goods by sea. Thus,the method of voluntary agreement has fallen through. There remains only one wayopen to clear out of the danger of national legislation on the matter in hand, that is astrong and speedy action towards the adoption of the Hague Rules, more or lessamended, by means of an international convention to be carried out by Diplomaticmethods and to be followed by the passing of uniform national laws. These methodshave been successfully started in the case of the two Codes drafted by the “ComitéMaritime International” relating to collisions at sea and salvage.In recommending this course of action I feel confident that I shall gain the fullapproval of the French businessmen at large, in Havre and all over the country.(Applause).[329]Mr. Otto Liebe (Denmark): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Well, to make a long story short, as you say here in England, we, the Danishdelegates, approve the idea, we are in sympathy with the idea, of embodying theseRules in an International Convention; but at the same time we would suggest that forthe time being you should not say too much about the tramp vessels with bulk cargoes,and, secondly, that it is allowed to the signatory powers to take some reservation whenthey sign, to say that they are not prevented by this Convention from deeming a carrierliable also to the bona fide purchaser of the [330] bills of lading for the accuracy of thedescription of the goods in the bill of lading. In this way we should have no need tochange our law on fundamental principles; and on the other hand we believe that weshall get hold of the most eminent provisions of the Hague Rules. (Applause).