§ Mr. BUTCHERasked the Prime Minister whether the Powers represented at the Naval Conference In London have agreed to regard the General Report of the Drafting Committee, known as M. Renault's Report, as an authoritative exposition of the meaning of the Declaration of London which would be binding on the International Prize Court when established; and, if so, whether there is any written record of such agreement?
Mr. McKINNON WOODIt is the well-recognised practice of international conferences to entrust to a special committee the drafting of a General Act, and of any conventions to be adopted and signed by the plenipotentiaries. Where the report, in which the Drafting Committee submits to the conference the result of its labours, contains a reasoned commentary elucidating the provisions of such conventions, it becomes, if formally accepted by the conference, an authoritative interpretation 1705W of the instruments, and the conventions must thereafter be construed by the signatory Powers with reference to the commentary where necessary. The general report of the Drafting Committee of the Naval Conference was adopted by the Conference at its eleventh plenary meeting on the 25th February, 1909, and the written record thereof will be found on page 223 of Blue-book Cd. 4555. If, therefore, the proposed International Prize Court is set up at The Hague it will be bound, when applying the provisions of the Declaration of London as between the signatories, to construe the text in comformity with the terms of the report.