IN PREFACE N 1904 I published translations of the Declarations of Paris and St Petersburg, the Convention of Geneva, 1864, the draft Brussels Declaration, 1874, and the Conventions signed at the First Peace Conference, together with a short introduction and a few notes. I did so chiefly for the sake of students attending my lectures in Cambridge, as, at that time, there was not to my knowledge any one book in which the English texts of these important international documents could be found. The present work contains in addition to the French texts of the foregoing (except the Brussels Declaration) the French and English versions of the Geneva Convention of 1906, the Final Act and Conventions of the Second Peace Conference, 1907, and the London Naval Conference of 1909. I have also included in my commentary on Convention No. 10 of the Hague Conference, 1907 (10 H. C. 1907), a translation of the Convention signed at the Hague on the 21st Dec. 1904, exempting hospital ships from state port dues and taxes in the ports of the signatory Powers. Great Britain is not a party to this Convention. The Conventions of the First Conference as amended by the Second are printed in parallel columns, the changes being shown in italics, and cross-references occur throughout. The French texts have been taken from the official sources, and in the case of the Hague Conventions of 1907 they have throughout been carefully compared with the texts contained in La Deuxième Conférence Internationale de la Paix published by the Dutch Government. As regards the translations, I have made the British official translations the basis of my work1: I have however in nearly all cases compared them with those contained either in Mr E. A. Whittuck's International Documents, Professor James Brown Scott's Texts of the Peace Conferences at the Hague, 1899 and 1907 (which contains the official United States translations), Professor T. E. Holland's Laws of war on land, Dr Westlake's International Law, War, or General G. B. Davis's Elements of International Law. In the case of the Declaration of London, I have adhered to the official translation with a few exceptions. To each of the Conventions I have appended a commentary 1 In the case of the Conventions of 1899 which were revised in 1907 the translations of the portions common to both Conventions as given in Parl. Papers, Misc. No. 1 (1899), Misc. Nos. 1 and 6 (1908) show considerable variations; similarly the translations of all the Hague Conventions of 1907, contained in the last two Parliamentary Papers, differ considerably. 276615 in which I have given an account of its origin, and its relation to the general rules of law on the subject with which it deals. In the case of the Hague Conventions, which form the greater portion of this volume, I have endeavoured from the official records, and more particularly from the Reports presented to the Conferences by the various Committees, to ascertain the meaning which their framers intended them to have. In the case of the Conventions of 1899 I have generally limited myself to the changes made by the Conference of 1907, as those Conventions have already been fully dealt with by various writers. In the case of the Geneva Convention of 1906 I have confined myself to calling attention to the chief changes made in that of 1864, referring students for a fuller explanation of the Convention to the work of Professor Holland cited above. In the case of the Declaration of London the commentary is supplied by the official translation of the General Report presented to the Naval Conference prepared by M. Renault on behalf of the drafting Committee, to which I have added a few footnotes. I have in each case appended a list of books and articles dealing with the subject under discussion: the lists are in no case exhaustive, but are intended to assist students, for whom this work is primarily intended, in following up their examination of the questions dealt with. The two final volumes of the official account of the Second Peace Conference, La Deuxième Conférence Internationale de la Paix (cited throughout this work as La Deux. Confér.), were not published until a large part of this book was in the press; I therefore relied chiefly in the early portions on the excellent Reports to the Conference contained in the first volume, and in Parliamentary Papers, Miscellaneous, No. 4 (1908) [Cd. 4081]. I also derived considerable assistance from the valuable work of M. Ernest Lémonon, La seconde Conférence de la Paix, and the reports of the proceedings of the Conference in The Times. Professor J. B. Scott's lectures on The Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 were published too late to be of any use to me except in regard to the last two Conventions. Sir Thomas Barclay's Problems of International Practice and Diplomacy (cited as Problems, etc.) has afforded me assistance on nearly all the subjects dealt with. I have endeavoured to acknowledge the sources of my information in all cases. In the Chapter on the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 (pp. 3959) I have traced the working of the Conventions of 1899 and given an account of the cases which have come before the Permanent Arbitration Court; in the commentary on the Final Acts of the Conferences I have discussed the Vœux adopted and in the Chapter on the Results of the Second Peace Conference (pp. 518-526) I have summarised the work of the Second Peace Conference. I have appended a list of the signatory States at the conclusion of the commentary on each Convention as well as Tables of signatory States of the Conventions of both Conferences. It is important to remember that none of the Conventions of the Second Peace Conference have up to the present been ratified, the United States of America and San Salvador being the only Powers which have notified the Netherland Government that they are ready to ratify the Conventions: the Declaration of London also has not at present been ratified by any of the signatory Powers. The delay in publication has been due largely to personal causes, but also to the desire to include the results of the London Naval Conference, which complete in many important points work which the Hague Conference of 1907 found itself unable to bring to a conclusion. I have to thank His Majesty's Controller of the Stationery Department and the British Foreign Office for allowing me to make use of their translations, and to make quotations from the various Government publications referred to in the notes, particularly for permission to reproduce the Instructions to the British Delegates at the Second Peace Conference and the translations of the Declaration of London and M. Renault's Report, and for affording me other assistance. I have also to thank the Foreign Offices of the Netherlands and Switzerland, and the Secretary-General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague for courteously furnishing me with information and official lists of signatory Powers, and in the case of the last-named for copies of the Minutes of the cases heard before the Permanent Court. To my friend Mr A. H. Charteris, M.A., LL.B., Lecturer in International Law in the University of Glasgow, I am under special obligation, as not only has he kindly read the whole of the proof sheets, but he has also made many valuable suggestions both as regards the translations and commentary. I have to thank the staff, readers and printers of the University Press for their careful and courteous co-operation. A. PEARCE HIGGINS. CAMBRIDGE, September, 1909. VIII. Convention relative to the laying of automatic submarine contact mines IX. Convention respecting bombardment by naval forces in time of war ✔x. Conventions for the adaptation of the principles of the Geneva Con- Convention relating to hospital ships of 21 December, 1904 XI. Convention relative to certain restrictions on the exercise of the right 346 395 |