Note 955 — Chapter III · IMPORTANT GROUPS OF TREATIES

See details in Oppenheim, loc. cit. pp. 331-332, but it is of value to draw attention here to a French statute of April 2, 1889. Whereas a statute of April 9, 1866, had thrown open the trade between France and Algeria to vessels of all nations, article 1 of the statute of April 2, 1889, enacts: La navigation entre la France et l'Algérie ne pourra s'effectuer que sous pavillon français. This French statute does not, as is frequently maintained, declare the trade between France and Algeria to be coasting-trade, but it nevertheless reserves such trade exclusively for French vessels. The French Government, in bringing the bill before the French Parliament, explained that the statute could not come into force before February 1, 1892, because art. 2 of the treaty with Belgium of May 14, 1882, and art. 21 of the treaty with Spain of February 6, 1882—both treaties to expire on February 1, 1892—stipulated the same treatment for Belgian and Spanish as for French vessels, cabotage excepted. It is quite apparent that, if France had declared trade between French and Algerian ports to be coasting-trade in the meaning of her commercial treaties, the expiration of the treaties with Belgium and Spain need not have been awaited for putting the law of April 2, 1889, into force.