ing effect:--

"Belligerents are forbidden to move across the territory of a
neutral Power troops or convoys, whether of munitions or of
supplies."

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, August 12 (1914).

The true ground for objecting to the legality of the purchase by Turkey
of the German warships which have been forced to take refuge in her
waters is no doubt that stated by Sir William Scott in the _Minerva_, 6
C. Rob. at p. 400--viz. that it would enable the belligerent to whom
the ships belong "so far to rescue himself from the disadvantage into
which he has fallen as to have the value at least restored to him by a
neutral purchaser." The point is not touched upon in the (draft)
Declaration of London.

Even supposing the purchase to be unobjectionable, the duty of Turkey to
remove all belligerents from the ships would be unquestionable.

_Cf._ on the Declaration of Paris, _passim_, see Index; on the
misuse of Declarations, _infra_, p. 92; on privateering,
_supra_, pp. 80-84.

THE DECLARATION OF PARIS

Sir,--The resuscitation, a few days ago, in the House of Commons of an
old controversy reminds one of the mistaken procedure which made such a
controversy possible. It can hardly now be doubted that the rules set
forth in the Declaration of Paris of 1856, except possibly the
prohibition of privateering, have by general acceptance during sixty
years, strengthened by express accessions on the part of so many
Governments, become a portion of international law, and are thus binding
upon Great Britain, notwithstanding her omission to ratify the
Declaration. This omission is now seen to have been a mistake. So also
was the description of the document as a "declaration." Both mistakes
were repeated in 1868 with reference to the "Declaration" of St.
Petersburg (as to explosive bullets).

In those early attempts at legislation for the conduct of warfare it
seems to have been thought sufficient that the conclusions arrived at by
authorised delegates should be announced without being embodied in a
treaty. Surely, however, what purported to be international agreements
upon vastly important topics ought to have been accompanied by all the
formalities required for "conventions," and should have been so
entitled. In later times this has become the general rule for the
increasingly numerous agreements which bear upon the conduct of
hostilities. Thus we have The Hague "c