RADIO CONVENTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 306, 28 November 1927, Page 7

RADIO CONVENTION.

MANY COUNTRIES SIGN. PROBLEMS SOLVED. WASHINGTON, Nov. 25. The signing of the International Radio Convention and supplementary regulations was commenced after more than three hour's spent by the Plenary Commission of the conference in final readings and minor modifications. Seventy-six countries, including colonies and mandatories, are entering into the Convention, which is designed to eliminate international interference in radio communications, through agreed location of wave-lengths between fixed stations, mobile services, broadcasters, and amateurs and other types of service. The Convention will take effect in January, 1929. The delegates, who had been in session nearly eight weeks, informally attached their signatures to documents totalling 26,000 words, while Mr Hoover, as chairman of the conference, delivered a speech felicitating them for reaching an agreement. The final edition of the Convention and accompanying regulations will be left to the ‘lnternational Telegraph Bureau at Berne. The Convention is the most comprehensive communications instrument ever' adopted. It is accompanied by regulations governing the technical handling of radio practice. The regulations were divided into two parts, one of which is nonobligatory on the United States, because the latter’s radio communications are handled by private companies. Important provisions of tl.y> new Convention are compulsory arbitration in radio disputes and the creation of an International Technical Advisory Committee. The Convention will be subject to revision at Madrid in 1932. Meanwhile the International Bureau at Berne will be the general international agency for radio information. The question of plural voting in radio matters was not settled at the present conference and not mentioned in the Convention, which also avoided mention of the Cortina report, which will be left to the Madrid Congress. The conference rejected proposals for a combination of International Telegraph and International Radio Conventions and into single documents, but expressed general hopefulness that this may be accomplished in future. Mr Hoover stated \ that there had not been a single important difference of opinion among the conferences, and that they. arrived unanimously at the solution of a problem of high technical difficulty. “This is not ‘ the only proof of the progressive capacity of the world to resolve its international problems, but a tribute to the character and spirit of all nations.” Count Hamilton, of Swedon, Dean of the Convention, replied appreciatively on behalf of the conference. —Australian and New Zealand Sun Cable.