Tonnage Measurement of Ships: Highlights of the International Conference, 1969

The Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) through the Subcommittee on Tonnage Measurement of its Maritime Safety Committee in 1959 undertook to determine if it could develop a universal system for the tonnage measurement of ships. It considered the matter for nine years in nine sessions of the Subcommittee and seven sessions of the Working Group of the Subcommittee. Most of the sessions dealt, almost exclusively with the problem of a universal system. In 1968 after the Subcommittee had completed its work the IMCO Secretariat distributed to governments three basic proposals, including draft Articles, Regulations, and a Tonnage Certificate in each case, which the Subcommittee had prepared for a universal system of tonnage measurement of ships. There was also distributed a modified version of one of the proposals suggested by Denmark. Governments were requested to consider the proposals as possible basic documents for an International Conference on Tonnage Measurement to be convened in London for a four-week period commencing May 27, 1969.