The annual budget of the bureau may be modified by the international committee as necessity may require at the suggestion of the director, but it shall in no case exceed the sum of 100,000 francs.

The contracting governments shall be notified of any modifications that the committee may think proper to make within these limits, in the annual budget fixed by the present regulations.

The committee may authorize the director, at his request, to make transfers from one subdivision of the allotted budget to another.

B. For the period subsequent to the distribution of the prototypes:

(a) Salary of the director

Salary of one adjunct

Pay of a doorkeeper (mechanic)

Wages of an office boy.

(b) Office expenses

(c) Compensation of secretary, international committee.

Total

15,000 fr.

6,000

3,000

1,500

25,500

18,500

6,000

50,000

ART. 7. The general conference mentioned in Article 3 of this convention shall be at Paris, upon the summons of the international committee, at least once every six years.

It shall be its duty to discuss and initiate measures necessary for the dissemination and improvement of the metrical system, and to pass upon such new fundamental metrological determinations as may have been made during the time when it was not in session. It shall receive the report of the international committee concerning the work that has been accomplished, and shall replace one half of the international committee by secret ballot.

The voting in the general conference shall be by states; each state shall be entitled to one vote.

Each of the members of the international committee shall be entitled to a seat at the meetings of the conference. They may at the same time be delegates of their governments.

ART. 8. The international committee mentioned in Article 3 of the convention shall be composed of fourteen members, who shall belong to different states.

It shall consist, at first, of the twelve members of the former permanent committee of the international commission of 1872, and of the two delegates who, at the time of the appointment of that permanent committee, received the largest number of votes next to the members who were elected.

At the time of the renewal of one half of the international committee, the retiring members shall be, first, those who, in cases of vacancy, may have been elected provisionally during the interval occurring between two sessions of the conference. The others shall be designated by lot.

The retiring members shall be reëligible.

ART. 9. The international committee shall direct the work connected with the verification of the new prototypes, and, in general, all the metrological labors,

as the high contracting parties may decide to have performed at the common expense. It shall, moreover, exercise supervision over the safe keeping of the international prototype.

ART. 10. The international committee shall choose its chairman and secretary by secret ballot. The governments of the high contracting parties shall be notified of the result of such elections.

The chairman and secretary of the committee, and the director of the bureau, must belong to different countries.

After having been formed, the committee shall hold no new elections and make no new appointments until three months after notice thereof shall have been given to all the members by the bureau of the committee.

ART. 11. Until the new prototypes shall have been finished and distributed, the committee shall meet at least once a year. After that time its meetings shall be held at least biennially.

ART. 12. Questions upon which a vote is taken in the committee shall be decided by a majority of the votes cast. In case of a tie, the vote of the chairman shall decide. No resolution shall be considered to have been duly adopted unless the number of members present be at least equal to a majority of the members composing the committee.

This condition being fulfilled, absent members shall have the right to authorize members who are present to vote for them, and the members thus authorized shall furnish proper evidence of their authorization. The same shall be the case in elections by secret ballot.

ART. 13. During the interval occurring between two sessions, the committee shall have the right to discuss questions by correspondence.

In such cases, in order that its resolutions may be considered to have been adopted in due form, it shall be necessary for all the members of the committee to have been called upon to express their opinions.

ART. 14. The international committee for weights and measures shall provisionally fill such vacancies as may occur in it; these elections shall take place by correspondence, each of the members being called upon to take part therein.

ART. 15. The international committee shall prepare detailed regulations for the organization and the labors of the bureau, and shall fix the amounts to be paid for the performance of the extraordinary duties provided for in Article 6 of this convention.

Such amounts shall be applied to the improvement of the scientific apparatus of the bureau.

ART. 16. All communications from the international committee to the governments of the high contracting parties shall take place through the diplomatic representatives of such countries at Paris.

For all matters requiring the attention of the French authorities, the committees shall have recourse to the ministry of foreign affairs of France.

ART. 17. The director of the bureau and the adjuncts shall be chosen by the international committee by secret ballot.

The employees shall be appointed by the director.

The director shall have a right to take part in the deliberations of the committee.

ART. 18. The director of the bureau shall have access to the place of deposit of the international prototypes of the meter and the kilogram only in pursuance of a resolution of the committee and in the presence of two of its members.

The place of deposit of the prototypes shall be opened only by means of three keys, one of which shall be in possession of the director of the archives of France, the second in that of the chairman of the committee, and the third in that of the director of the bureau.

The standards of the class of national prototypes alone shall be used for the ordinary comparing work of the bureau.

ART. 19. The director of the bureau shall annually furnish to the committee: Ist, a financial report concerning the accounts of the preceding year, which shall be examined, and, if found correct, a certificate to that effect shall be given him; 2d, a report on the condition of the apparatus; 3d, a general report concerning the work accomplished during the course of the year just closed.

The international committee shall make to each of the governments of the high contracting parties an annual report concerning all its scientific, technical, and administrative operations, and concerning those of the bureau. The chairman of the committee shall make a report to the general conference concerning the work that has been accomplished since its last session.

The reports and publications of the committee shall be in the French language. They shall be printed and furnished to the governments of the high contracting parties.

ART. 20. The contributions referred to in Article 9 of the convention shall be paid according to the following scale:

The number representing the population, expressed in millions, shall be multiplied by the coefficient three for states in which the use of the metrical system is obligatory;

by the coefficient two for those in which it is optional;

by the coefficient one for other states.

The sum of the products thus obtained will furnish the number of units by which the total expense is to be divided. The quotient will give the amount of the unit of expense.

ART. 21. The expense of constructing the international prototypes, and the standards and test copies which are to accompany them, shall be defrayed by the high contracting parties in accordance with the scale fixed in the foregoing article. The amounts to be paid for the comparison and verification of standards required by states not represented at this convention shall be regulated by the committee in conformity with the rates fixed in virtue of Article 15 of the regulations.

ART. 22. These regulations shall have the same force and value as the convention to which they are annexed.

[Signatures follow]

APPENDIX NO. 2

TRANSIENT PROVISIONS

ART. 1. All states which were represented at the international meter commission which met at Paris in 1872, whether they are contracting parties to the present convention or not, shall receive the prototypes that they may have ordered, which shall be delivered to them in the condition guaranteed by the said international commission.

ART. 2. The principal object of the first meeting of the general conference of weights and measures shall be to sanction these new prototypes, and to distribute them among the states which shall have expressed a desire to receive them.

In consequence, the delegates of all the governments which were represented in the international commission of 1872, as likewise the members of the French section, shall, of right, form part of this first meeting for the sanction of the prototypes.

ART. 3. It shall be the duty of the international committee mentioned in Article 3 of the convention, and composed as provided in Article 8 of the regulations, to receive and compare the new prototypes one with the other, in accordance with the scientific decisions of the international commission of 1872, and of its permanent committee. Such modifications may, however, be made as may in future be suggested by experience.

ART. 4. The French section of the international commission of 1872 shall continue to have charge of the labors intrusted to it in the construction of the new prototypes, with the coöperation of the international committee.

ART. 5. The cost of manufacturing the metrical standards prepared by the French section shall be reimbursed by the governments interested, according to the cost price per unit which shall be fixed by the said section.

ART. 6. The immediate formation of the international committee is authorized, and that body, when formed, is hereby empowered to make all necessary preparatory examinations for the carrying into effect of the convention, without, however, incurring any expense before the exchange of the ratifications of the said convention.

[Signatures follow]

CHAPTER XVIII

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY

On November 3, 1906, there was concluded between nearly all of the nations of the world a convention in regard to the use and management of wireless telegraphy. In the order in which the signatures of their delegates are printed, the nations were the following: Germany, the United States, Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Monaco, Norway, the Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, and Uruguay. Their convention, which may properly be added to the code of world law, on the assumption that, in due time, it will be ratified by a sufficient number of nations, is as follows:

The undersigned, plenipotentiaries of the governments of the countries enumerated above, having met in conference at Berlin, have agreed on the following convention, subject to ratification:

ART. 1. The high contracting parties bind themselves to apply the provisions of the present convention to all wireless telegraph stations open to public service between the coast and vessels at sea — both coastal stations and stations on shipboard - which are established or worked by the contracting parties.

They further bind themselves to make the observance of these provisions obligatory upon private enterprises authorized either to establish or work coastal stations for wireless telegraphy open to public service between the coast and vessels at sea, or to establish or work wireless telegraph stations, whether open to general public service or not, on board of vessels flying their flag.

ART. 2. By "coastal stations" is to be understood every wireless telegraph station established on shore or on board a permanently moored vessel used for the exchange of correspondence with ships at sea.

Every wireless telegraph station established on board any vessel not permanently moored is called a "station on shipboard."

ART. 3. The coastal stations and the stations on shipboard shall be bound to exchange wireless telegrams without distinction of the wireless telegraph system adopted by such stations.

ART. 4. Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 3, a station may be reserved for a limited public service determined by the object of the correspondence or by other circumstances independent of the system employed.