The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-13
Reservations
Nv ARTHUR KROCK

| BY ARTHUR KROCK
WASHINGTON, - The water treaty with
Mexico, which the Senate will take up soon IN
its final stage is an important compact IN
many ways. California and Nevada officially,
and many Colorado River water users lnoi-
vidually, are opposed. But the advocates nave
made out good case both from the factual
and diplomatic standponts. And the States
through or beside which the Colorado River
and the Rio Grande flow have demonstrated
a very large measure OF approval.
The treaty is important for another reason
however, and that is because-as in the in
stance of the Treaty of Versailles in 1873
an effort is to be made to attach reservations
which supporters of the compact say would
change the terms and amount to rejection
These proposed reservations were originally
submitted a amendments by Senator DoWney
| of California, and in their new form, the test
will be whether they have the force of amend
ments or are merely the Senates "interpre-
tations" of certain sections of the treaty.
! The decision the Senate will make may
well serve as a guide to its attitude toward
the treaties of peace which will follow the
end of World War II. If the Senate accepts
what the sponsors call reservations" but
actually amendments" that will require
negotiation, efforts to apply the same tech
nique to the peace compacts may be expected
from Senators opposed to them, or to any
substantial parts of them.
| The Covenant of the League of Nations was
submitted to the Senate in 1919 an in
separable portion of the Treaty of Versailles.
After much debate over reservations President
! Wilson gave his approval to a set offered
by Senator Hitchcock, then chairman of the
committee Foreign Relations, holding
them to be nterpretative and not amendatory
By the same definition he opposed set of
reservations offered by Senator Lodge. The
end of the skirmishing was rejection of the
treaty as a whole and the Covenant along
with it.
This Senate has argued for several days
over procedure with a treaty under heavy
fire from those who would amend it directly or
in the form Of reservations. Senator La Fol
lette brought out the fact that all treaty amend
ments accepted or rejected while the Senate
is sitting "the committee of the whole
a parliamentary fction-may be proposed all
over again when the COMMITTEE of the whole"
has dissolved into the Senate it really was
all the time. But after these have been dis
posed of once more, and resolution Of
ratification is offered (of the treaty as it was
or as amended, only reservations may
then be proposed. 'In other words,'' said the
Vice President, "a reservation is not an
amendment" But, Senator Barley point
ed out, it can have the effect of one. And he
said this will certainly be the case if Senator
ment increasing the number of the Interna-
tional Boundary Commissioners from two to
six.
We cannot (said Mr.. Barkley) change the
size of this commission which has been created
by the governments of the United States and
Mexico. either by amendment or reServa-
ton, without going back to Mexico to renego-
tate the treaty or to have action on the
part of Mexico in order to agree to the change.
. There is difference between a reserva-
ton merely interpreting treaty, or an article
of treaty and a reservation changing the
i When we say we will not ratify the treaty
unless the membership of the commission IS
increased to Six in effect we reject the
treaty unless Mexico, by legislation or other
wise, or through negotiation should agree.
There are other DoWney amendments now
to take form as reservations, to which the
same objection will be made by those who
favor the treaty in the form negotiated plus
the interpretative additions which the COM
mittee on Foreign Relations has agreed to
make. The Senate, when the ratification resolu-
I ton comes before it, will be asked to reject
all reservations which the treaty supporters
analyze as amendments requiring renegotia-
ton OF the pact and, for the time being, con-
shutting rejection of the treaty
But Senator DoWney's tactics present anoth-
err difficulty to those who are seeking ratifica-
ton. reservation can be adopted by ma
ljorlty vote OF those present. But the TeSQlu-
ton of final approval can pass only by the
vote of two thirds of those present If,
therefore, reservation" should be adopted
which is opposed as requiring renegotation OF
the compact, those in favor of the treaty would
face the unpleasant alternative OF voting for it
in that form or marshaling two thirds for
the only other possible motion to postpone
it's consideration indefinitely Either event
y would be a defeat for the agreement in the
form and substance negotiated.
The Importance of the issue, and its pos
sible bearing tactics when the peace treaties
are considered are not easily visible in these
dusty parliamentary maneuvers. But t h y
are there And if the Senate rejects all res
ervations'' to the Mexican water treaty which
: the Treatys friends reasonably construe as
: amendments and not interpretations, it will
be a hopeful sign for future, and vastly
: more grave, compacts between the United
r States and other nations-New York Times.
o -V
We shall have our differences with each
: other cat San Francisco, but we shall hold
, these in place if remember that in a
(. large and complicated partnership like ours
no single partner is going always to have
his own way about verything.-Britsh Am.
bass ador Lord Halifax,