sions respecting them are contained in the treaty concerning "Rights in the Canal Zone," which was signed on December 9, 1926, and is now pending before the United States Senate.

Service with Italy.

A protocol relative to the establishment of radio service with Italy was signed at Washington, March 27, 1918.1

Transmission over Foreign Territory.

The right of a state to forbid the passage over its territory of waves emanating from a foreign radio station has been asserted.2

The right is of questionable value, there being no known method by which the complaining state can prevent signals entering and crossing it, although it might destroy their communication value, and it being equally beyond the power of the transmitting station to restrain them from traveling beyond national boundaries and in all directions, though the development of beam or directional transmission may change the situation in the latter respect. Certainly, however, the sending from one country of impulses or communications harmful to another would be an invasion of the sovereignty of the latter of which it might justly complain, as in the case of other international injuries.

Call Letters.

Since the 1912 convention, call letters for use in the various countries adhering to it have been assigned by the Berne Bureau, the United States receiving all combinations beginning with N and W, and those with K from KDA to KZZ.

Allocation of Wavelengths.

So far as concerns the efficiency of station operation of the non-marine services, the only problem which may merit international attention is that of interference resulting from the fact that the number of available channels is limited. In the past, this has caused little difficulty. There have been wavelengths sufficient to meet all demands. Each station operating point-to-point international service has been able to find unused wavelengths and has proceeded to preempt them. Newcomers have respected the possession of their predecessors. Whether this peaceful condition will continue or whether there will be ultimate conflict and confusion depends upon many factors still unknown, including the growth in the number of such stations, the rendering useful of the high frequencies and the development of beam or directional transmission. In a draft for an international convention made in 1920 at what is known as the Washington Conference on Electrical Communications an attempt was made at a general allocation dividing wavelengths among the countries of the world. It has never become effective. The consensus of present informed sentiment seems to be that the time has not yet come when such a division is required.

Broadcasting has developed in this country without international complications of consequence. European stations do not reach us, nor do ours disturb the reception of those across the ocean. Difference in time is an important factor.

Relations with Canada.

Until very recently, so long indeed as the use of wavelengths was governmentally controlled in the United States, there was no interference between American and Canadian transmission. Since the cessation of that control, several American stations have seized upon channels in use in Canada, thus causing interference in that country. If Canada should retaliate by adopting the same course toward American wavelengths, an aerial radio war might result whose only solution would be either the final survival of the strongest or the adoption of an equitable agreement. The latter course is strongly indicated and quite probable in the near future.

Mexico and Cuba sent representatives to the Fourth Radio Conference at Washington at which the allocation of wavelengths was discussed.

European Agreement.

A similar situation in Europe has resulted in a working understanding among the administrations of the various nations for an allocation of broadcasting wavelengths among them. Since the range of most European stations is much greater than the area of the country in which they are located, such an agreement was essential if simultaneous broadcasting was to continue. It is understood that Russia alone has refused to enter the arrangement, asserting its intention to exercise its absolute right to transmit on whatever frequency it pleases, irrespective of the effect upon its neighbors.

International Rights in Wavelengths.

There has been little discussion and no determination of the rights to the use of radio waves as between stations in different countries. There is neither precedent nor analogy by which to decide. The appropriation of a physical thing is not involved. Certainly each sovereignty is free to allow its nationals to operate radio apparatus at such frequencies as may be most expedient. The fact that a station in some other country may already be doing the same thing does not militate against the right. Yet, on the other hand, every nation may well resent, as an invasion of its sovereignty, the sending within its territories of harmful electrical impulses, on the same principle, though of course not in the same degree, that it would protest the shooting of projectiles across its borders. There would seem to be equal sovereign rights on each side, which can be accommodated and reconciled only by agreement. If and when the time comes that conditions make such an agreement necessary, which so far as the United States is concerned is not yet, excepting probably with Canada, full consideration will doubtless be given to established circuits and services and to the equities arising from priority of appropriation and use.

Washington Conference, 1927.

The government of the United States has invited the nations of the world to a radio conference at Washington which will presumably be held during October, 1927. Its scope will include not only the revision of the 1912 London Conventions and its regulations, but also the consideration of the extension of international regulation to services other than marine.

1

APPENDIX

[PUBLIC-No. 632-69тн CONGRESS]

[H. R. 9971]

An Act For the regulation of radio communications, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act is intended to regulate all forms of interstate and foreign radio transmissions and communications within the United States, its Territories and possessions; to maintain the control of the United States over all the channels of interstate and foreign radio transmission; and to provide for the use of such channels, but not the ownership thereof, by individuals, firms, or corporations, for limited periods of time, under licenses granted by Federal authority, and no such license shall be construed to create any right, beyond the terms, conditions, and periods of the license. That no person, firm, company, or corporation shall use or operate any apparatus for the transmission of energy or communications or signals by radio (a) from one place in any Territory or possession of the United States or in the District of Columbia to another place in the same Territory, possession, or District; or (b) from any State, Territory, or possession of the United States, or from the District of Columbia to any other State, Territory, or possession of the United States; or (c) from any place in any State, Territory, or possession of the United States, or in the District of Columbia, to any place in any foreign country or to any vessel; or (d) within any State when the effects of such use extend beyond the borders of said State, or when interference is caused by such use or operation with the transmission of such energy, communications, or signals from within said State to any place beyond its borders, or from any place beyond its borders to any place within said State, or with the transmission or reception of such energy, communications, or signals from and/or to places beyond the borders of said State; or (e) upon any vessel of the United States; or (f) upon any aircraft or other mobile stations within the United States, except under and in accordance with this Act and with a license in that behalf granted under the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 2. For the purposes of this Act, the United States is divided into five zones, as follows: The first zone shall embrace the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Porto Rico, and the Virgin Islands; the second zone shall embrace the States of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky; the third zone shall embrace the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas,