The President. In order to meet the views expressed by Mr. Valera, the Delegate of Spain, Mr. Pastorin will withdraw his amendment, and the Delegate of Sweden, Count Lewenhaupt, will propose the substance of his original resolution so modified in form that its details may be considered separately.
Mr. Juan Pastorin, Delegate of Spain. In conformity with the statement of the President, I now withdraw my amendment.
Count Lewenhaupt, Delegate of Sweden. I beg to offer the following propositions in the form of amendments to the original resolution offered by the Delegate of the United States; these may be discussed in succession:
"1. That from this prime meridian (the Greenwich meridian) longitude shall be counted in one direction."
"2. That such longitude shall be counted from west to east." Or, in place of No. 2—
"3. That such longitude shall be counted from east to west."
The President. The Delegates from Sweden and Spain have agreed as to the first part of the resolution, that longitude shall be counted in one direction—that is, from zero to 360 degrees. The question before the Conference is now upon the first clause of the resolution, and the other two will be subsequently discussed.
General Strachey, Delegate of Great Britain. I think it is impossible to proceed to a vote upon these propositions without bearing in mind what is to be decided as to the universal day. That day, as it appears to me, will have to be determined with reference to the initial meridian in such manner as to prevent, as far as possible, inconvenience from discontinuity of local time and date in passing around the world.
No matter how longitude is calculated, you must necessarily arrive at discontinuity at some point in passing around the great circle of the earth. It seems to me that the most convenient way of counting both longitude and time is that the discontinuity in both shall take place on the same point on the earth. Now, certainly, as was observed at Rome, it will be far less inconvenient if the discontinuity of date takes place on the meridian of 180 degrees from Greenwich. Then the reckoning of local time all around the world, going from west to east in the direction of the earth's rotation, will be continuous.
In any other way, as far as I can see, there will be a discontinuity at some point on the inhabited part of the earth. If the discontinuity were to take place on the meridian of Greenwich, as has been proposed by the Conference at Rome, the dates will change there during the daytime. That, as it appears to me, will be extremely inconvenient.
In order to harmonize what I have called the discontinuity of date with the discontinuity in the reckoning of longitude, it appears to me that it will be best to reckon the longitude in both directions. There will be no discontinuity then except on the 180th meridian. It would be very inconvenient for a great part of the civilized world if the resolution which has been offered should be adopted, if, as I presume it would do, it caused discontinuity both in longitude and local time in Europe.
After all, what are we here to endeavor to do? Notwithstanding what has been said in the other direction, for my part I must say that the great object before us is to secure the greatest convenience of the whole civilized world, and it seems to me that we should try to obtain it.