In 1944 this committee became renamed the Commonwealth Communications Council, and in 1949 it became the Commonwealth Telecommunications Board . This coincided with the "'London Declaration "'of 1949 which paved the way for a new kind of Commonwealth, based upon membership of the newly independent countries that had once been part of the British Empire.
32.
The London Declaration states that " The King [ acts ] as the symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and as such the Head of the Commonwealth ", whereby both republics and kingdoms that are not Commonwealth realms can recognise the monarch as Head of the Commonwealth without accepting the person as the country's head of state.
33.
It also agreed to provide more than $ 8 million in gold to make up for that amount of Belgian monetary gold sold to Sweden during the War, but negotiations regarding 8, 600 kilograms of Dutch gold ( $ 9.7 million ) stalled when Sweden argued that the gold had been acquired before the January 1943 London Declaration on looted gold.
34.
Philip Roche, a partner in the shipping disputes and risk management team with the London-headquartered international law firm Norton Rose, also said : " On the basis that Hamas is the ruling entity of Gaza, and Israel is in the midst of an armed struggle against that ruling entity, the blockade is legal . " The basis for that is the law of blockade, derived from international law that was codified in the 1909 London Declaration concerning the Laws of Naval War, and which was then updated in 1994 in the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea-- " a legally recognized document ".
35.
Of key importance was overcoming Soviet objections to a united Germany's membership in NATO . This was accomplished in July when the alliance, led by President George H . W . Bush, issued the London Declaration on a transformed NATO . On 16 July, President Gorbachev and Chancellor Kohl announced agreement in principle on a united Germany in NATO . This cleared the way for the signing in Moscow, on 12 September, of the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in effect the peace treaty that was anticipated at the end of World War II . In addition to terminating Four Power rights, the treaty mandated the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Germany by the end of 1994, made clear that the current borders ( especially the Oder-Neisse line ) were viewed as final and definitive, and specified the right of a united Germany to belong to NATO . It also provided for the continued presence of British, French, and American troops in Berlin during the interim period of the Soviet withdrawal.
