CONVENTION AND STATUTE ON THE INTERNATIONAL REGIME OF MARITIME PORTS, 1923 (Geneva, 9 December 1923)
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 26 JULY 1926, in accordance with article 6 Depository: Secretary-General of the League of Nations
PREAMBLE DESIROUS of ensuring in the fullest measure possible the freedom of communications mentioned in Article 23 (e) of the Covenant by guaranteeing in the maritime ports situated under their sovereignty or authority and for purposes of international trade equality of treatment between the ships of all the Contracting States, their cargoes and passengers;
CONSIDERING that the best method of achieving their present purpose is by means of a general convention to which the greatest possible number of States can later accede; And whereas the conference which met at Genoa on April 10, 1922, requested, in a resolution which was transmitted to the competent organisations of the League of Nations with the approval of the Council and the Assembly of the League, that the international conventions relating to the regime of communications provided for in the Treaties of Peace should be concluded and put into operation as soon as possible, and whereas, Article 379 of the Treaty of Versailles and the corresponding articles of the other treaties provide for the preparation of a general convention on the international regime of ports;