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PART II - INTRODUCTION 83The alternative between a model bill of lading and uniform legislationattention to the position in which we find ourselves. I see details of the Hague Rulesbeing discussed; I see this or that other point being objected to; but surely you realisethat, if you are going to interfere with the Hague Rules, if you are going to [395]amend this point and that other point, if you are going to interfere with the Limitationclause or any other clauses, it is quite out of question that a new text with a new draftshould be ready before the end of this Conference. (Hear, hear).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[397]But in any case the Sub-Committee may improve on that document, and I shall gofurther and say that, if you want an International Convention, the drafting will have tobe interfered with. When you had the Hague Rules simply as Rules to be included inBills of Lading, they could very well stay as they were. Such has been the fate of theYork-Antwerp Rules which were also drafted upon the English methods and whichhave gone into all the Bills of Lading whether of the Continent or of England. But ifyou ask the various countries to sign a Diplomatic Convention surely they will say:Well, that is not worded in the way in which we are accustomed to frame and wordConventions which are signed by all the States of Europe or the world; and you willhave therefore to come to a compromise between the English drafting of the HagueRules as they stand, even after being [398] amended, and what I should call broadlythe French way of drafting Codes or such Rules as these.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[400]Well, at The Hague we did come to something, and I entreat you not to postponefurther the practical application of a solution which after all gives satisfaction to theprincipal interests concerned. Therefore, as far as I am personally concerned, and Imake it quite clear that I speak here on behalf of nobody, I speak simply as one whotook a small share in the drafting of the Hague Rules, I think that the only propercourse would be to refer the Hague Rules, as they are after their amendment whichevery one accepts, to the Brussels Conference recommending that the BrusselsConference should take them as the basis for an International Convention. (Applause).* * *A mon avis on ne peut toucher à la rédaction existante, qui est le résultat de longstravaux et d’une transaction conclue entre des intérêts divergents, car dans ce cas, cesrègles s’effondreraient complètement. Parlant en mon nom personnel, je pense que leseul moyen pratique serait de déférer les Règles ainsi élaborées à la Conférence deBruxells en lui recommandant de les prendre comme base d’une conventioninternationale.M. Fr. Berlingieri (Gênes): J’ajouterai volontiers quelques mots à ce qui vientd’être dit, parce que [401] je ne voudrais pas que l’Association italienne de DroitMaritime eût l’air de s’abstenir sur une question aussi importante que celle dont ils’agit ici.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .