reasons declined to accede to the
Declaration, described, in 1898, all the articles except that dealing
with privateering as "recognised rules of International Law."

It may, however, be worth while to point out why it was that no
provision was made for the ratification of the Declaration of 1856, or
for that of 1868 relating to the use of explosive bullets. At those
dates, when the first steps were being taken towards the general
adoption of written rules for the conduct of warfare, it was, curiously
enough, supposed that agreement upon such rules might be sufficiently
recorded without the solemnity of a treaty. This was, in my opinion, a
mistake, which has been avoided in more recent times, in which the
written law of war has been developed with such marvellous rapidity. Not
only have codes of such rules been promulgated in regular "Conventions,"
made in 1899, 1906, and 1907, but the so-called "Declarations," dealing
with the same topic, of 1899, 1907, and 1909 have been as fully equipped
as were those Conventions with provisions for ratification. The
distinction between a "Convention" and a "Declaration" is therefore now
one without a difference, and should no longer be drawn. Nothing in the
nature of rules for the conduct of warfare can prevent their expression
in Conventions, and the reason which seems to have promoted the
misdescription of the work of the London Conference of 1908-9 as a
"Declaration"--viz. an imaginary difference between rules for the
application of accepted principles and wholly new rules--is founded in
error. Much of the contents of The Hague "Conventions" is as old as the
hills while much of the "Declaration" of London is revolutionary.

This by the way. It is not very clear whether Mr. Gibson Bowles, in
exhorting us to denounce the Declaration, relies upon its original lack
of ratification, or upon some alleged "privateering" on the part of the
Germans. Nothing of the kind has been reported. The commissioning of
warships on the high seas is a different thing, which may possibly be
regarded as an offence of a graver nature. Great Britain is not going to
imitate the cynical contempt for treaties, evidenced by the action of
Germany in Belgium and Luxemburg, in disregard not only of the
well-known treaties of 1889 and 1867, but of a quite recent solemn
undertaking, to which I have not noticed any reference. Art. 2 of The
Hague Convention No. v. of 1907, ratified by her in 1909, is to the
follow