particular case", it is evident that any pronouncement of the Court as to the status of the 1928Act, whether it were found to be a convention in force or to be no longer in force, may have implications in the relations between States other than Greece and Turkey. Moreover, in the present proceedings the question has also been raised of the actual relevance of the General Act as a potential source of the Court's jurisdiction with respect to the subject-matter of the present dispute. In paragraph 32 (1) of the Application, the text of which has already been set out in paragraph 33 above, the Greek Government itself, when invoking the General Act, drew attention to the fact that both the Greek and Turkish instruments of accession to the Act were accompanied by declarations, and categorically affirmed that these declarations "are irrelevant to the present case". These declarations contained reservations to the Act made respectivelyby Greece and Turkey, which are for the most part without relevance to the present dispute. But this is not the case in regard to reservation (b) contained in the declaration which accompanied Greece's instrument of accession; for in its observations of 25 August 1976 the Turkish Government unequivocally took the position that, whether or not the General Act is assumed to be still in force, it is subject to a clause, i.e., reservation (b), which would exclude the Court's competence with respect to the present dispute. The Turkish Government there declared that in conforrnity with Article 39, paragraph 3, of the Act, "Turkey opposes reservation (b) to the Greek Application". In its further letter to the Registrar of 24 April 1978 the Turkish Government informed the Court that it maintained its view that the Court has no jurisdiction to entertain the Greek Application for the reasons which it had explained in its earlier letter of 25 August 1976. 40. The Court is thus confronted with a situation in which, even if the General Act is to be considered a convention in force, its whole relevance as a potential source of the Court's jurisdiction in a matter concerning a coastal State's sovereign rights over the continental shelf is contested by the Turkish Government. Clearly, if the Turkish Government's view of the effect of reservation (b) on the applicability of the Act as between Greece and Turkey with respect to the subject-matter of the present dispute is found by the Court to be justified, a finding on the question whether the Act is or is not a convention in force today ceases to be essential for the Court's decision regarding its jurisdiction to entertain the present Application. As was pointed out by the Court in the Certain Norwegian Loans case, when its competence is challenged on two separate grounds, "the Court is free to base its decision on the ground which in its judgment is more direct and conclusive" (I.C.J. Reports 1957, p. 25). Accordingly, taking account of the nature of the issue raised in the present proceedings concerning the General Act, the Court will at once address itself to the effect of reservation (b) on the applicability of the Act with respect to the subject-matter of the present dispute.