TREATY SIGNED.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17980, 25 January 1924, Page 9

TREATY SIGNED.

BY BRITAIN AND U.S.A.

LIQUOR LAW AGREEMENT

(3T CABLE—PEESS ASSOCIATION COFTP.IGITT.) (AUSTB-iLLSjf a:td k.z. cable association.)

(Received January 2-ith, 8.15 p.m.)

WASHINGTON, January 23

An official summary of the Liquor Treaty outlines the provisions, the principal of which have been cabled already, and indicates that the Treaty must be ratified in the usual manner, meaning that with the Senate's approval the Treaty remains in force for one year; but three months before its expiration either party can suggest modifications, and if no agreement be made thereon, tho Treaty lapses; but otherwise it continues from year to year.

The Treaty also lapses if cither party is prevented by judicial decision or Legislative action from giving full effect to its provisions.

Mr C. E. Hughes (Secretary of State), addressing tho Foreign Relations Council in New York to-night, expressed great satisfaction at tho conclusion of the Treaty, and confirmed the earlier intimation that the United States had begun negotiations with other Powers on similar lineg.

Mr Hughes added that Congress, by exempting vessels carrying liquor through the Panama Canal from the jurisdiction of the Volstead law, and by receiving the Supreme Court's approval of that exemption in recent decisions, had shown clearly that any treaty into which the United States entered exemi>ting foreign liners calling at" American ports would also be perfectly legal, since what Congress had done could be accomplished equally through the treaty-making power. CThe mm in provisions of the Treaty are that America obtains the right to seaeli suspicious vessels believed to be rum-running within an hour's steam of her shore, while British ships are to be permitted to carry stocks of liquor into American waters so long as tho stocks are under seal.}

SIGNATORIES NAMED. WASHINGTON, January 22. Sir Auckland Geddes (British Ambassador to Washington), and Mr Hughes (Secretary of State) havo signed the Ship Liquor Treaty. Negotiations for similar treaties with other maritimo nations have begun.

The Treaty provides tho right to search rum-runners within one hour's steam from American shores.