No. 227.
Mr. Bartholdi to Mr. Fish.
Washington, November 23, 1874. (Received November 27.)
Mr. Secretary of State: The Marquis de Noailles had the honor to communicate to your excellency, on the 22d of December, 1873, a resolution of the standing committee of the international meter commission, the object of which was to bring about a diplomatic conference which should take the necessary measures to enable the committee to make the numerous verifications which it has been instructed to make. It would, moreover, be the duty of this conference to provide for the preservation of international standards, and for the making, hereafter, of such comparisons of meters and kilograms as might be desired by the various governments.
This proposition of the standing committee, which has been transmitted to all the countries represented in the international meter commission, has obtained the adhesion of a certain number of them, viz, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Spain, The Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and Switzerland.
Germany has given its consent, with only one proviso, viz, that the conference shall “fix conditions of strict neutrality for the organization of the custody, the control, and the use of the common standards by a permanent scientific institution.”
Russia, while declaring itself ready to take part in the conference, expresses the wish that the scientific questions may not be the only ones submitted to it, but that the utmost latitude may be granted to it for the examination of everything connected with the task which has been confided to the international meter commission.
These provisos are in no wise at variance with the desire expressed by the standing committee, and there will doubtless be no objection made to them by any of the governments.
England is the only power which has thought proper to decline the proposition of the standing committee. She has done so on the ground that the interest which she might have in adopting the metric system, and in recognizing an international standard, would not be sufficiently direct and immediate for her to feel authorized to ask Parliament for a special appropriation.
The other countries, that is to say, Austria, Hungary, the United States, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, and most of the South American governments, have not yet communicated their replies.
Such, Mr. Secretary of State, was the state of the question when, during the session of last month, the standing committee adopted and communicated to the French government the following resolution:
“In view of the large number of favorable replies from the countries interested in the success of the plan proposed last year to the French government for a diplomatic conference which should meet for the purpose of enabling the committee to perform all the labors intrusted to it, as well as of providing for the preservation of the international standards and for the comparisons to be made in future, the committee instructs its bureau to address the French government, requesting it to convoke the diplomatic conference with as little delay as possible.”
The French government cannot do otherwise than comply with this [Page 475] request. It seems to it important no longer to defer the convoking of the conference, the object of which is to conclude a convention which may secure an international organization to the labors of the meter commission, to the custody of the standards, to their preservation, and to their ulterior use. It has, therefore, been decided, Mr. Secretary or State, that this invitation should be officially addressed, not only to the governments which have already signified their adhesion, but also to those which have not yet communicated their replies to the proposition of the standing committee, in the conviction that these latter will not hesitate to take part in deliberations of such high importance and of such universal interest.
The object of this conference being to conclude a diplomatic convention touching matters most of which will require technical knowledge, it seems that it ought to be conducted in the same manner as was the international telegraphic conference that was held at Paris in 1865. Each government would then furnish its diplomatic representative accredited in France with the full powers necessary for the signing of the convention, appointing at the same time as adjuncts, if he should deem this desirable, one or more special delegates, in case the conference should think proper, according to the plan adopted in 1865, to confide to a commission composed in great part of such delegates the task of preparing the draught of a convention, which should afterward be submitted to its approval.
Not doubting that this mode of proceeding, which seems the one best calculated to secure a satisfactory result, will be approved by all the countries, the French government has already selected Mr. Dumas, perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences, formerly a minister, and General Morin, director of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, to represent it as special delegates to the conference.
As to the time for the meeting of the conference, the French government would suggest Monday, the 1st of February next, this delay seeming strictly necessary in order to enable all the governments which have taken part in the international meter commission to receive their notifications and to make their arrangements.
I should be happy, Mr. Secretary of State, to be able to announce to my government that the Government of the United States has favorably received this proposition, and in that case I should be grateful to your excellency if you would be pleased to communicate to me the names of the special delegates whom it might think proper to designate as assistants to its diplomatic representative at Paris.
Be pleased to accept, &c.,