Government would decide afterwards whether it would accept what this
Conference should recommend.

Dr. CRULS, Delegate of Brazil, stated that his Government authorized
him to take part in the discussion, but not to commit his Government
to the adoption of any particular proposition.

Mr. FLEMING, Delegate of Great Britain, said that he would like to
call the attention of the Conference to the language of the act of
Congress calling this Conference together, and that language runs as
follows:

"That the President of the United States be authorized and
requested to extend to the Governments of all nations in
diplomatic relations with our own an invitation to appoint
delegates to meet delegates from the United States in the
city of Washington, at such time as he may see fit to
designate, for the purpose of fixing upon a meridian proper
to be employed as a common zero of longitude and standard of
time-reckoning throughout the globe."

He added that he thought the object of the Conference clearly was to
determine and to recommend; that although the word "recommend" was not
used in the body of the resolution, it was certainly understood, and,
as a matter of fact, the title of the joint resolution passed by
Congress contains the word "recommend." It reads as follows:

"An act to authorize the President of the United States to
call an international conference to fix on and recommend for
universal adoption a common prime meridian, to be used in