§ 565. The Treaty of Constantinople[925] of October 29, 1888, signed by Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Russia, Spain, and Turkey, is a pure law-making treaty stipulating the permanent neutralisation of the Suez Canal and the freedom of navigation thereon for vessels of all nations.
[925] Martens, N.R.G. 2nd Ser. XV. p. 557. See above, § [183].
General Act of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference.
§ 566. The General Act of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference,[926] signed on July 2, 1890, by Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, the Congo Free State, Denmark, France,[927] Germany, Holland, Italy, Persia, Portugal, Russia, Sweden-Norway, Spain, Turkey, the United States of America, and Zanzibar, is a law-making treaty of great importance which stipulates a system of measures for the suppression of the slave-trade in Africa, and, incidentally, restrictive measures concerning the spirit-trade in certain parts of Africa. To revise the stipulations concerning this spirit-trade the Convention of Brussels[928] of November 3, 1906, was signed by Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Congo Free State, France, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Russia, and Sweden.
[926] Martens, N.R.G. 2nd Ser. XVI. p. 3, and XXV. p. 543. See Lentner, "Der afrikanische Sklavenhandel und die Brüsseler Conferenzen" (1891).
[927] But France only ratified this General Act with the exclusion of certain articles.
[928] Martens, N.R.G. 3rd Ser. I. p. 722.
Two Declarations of the First Hague Peace Conference.
§ 567. The Final Act of the Hague Peace Conference[929] of July 29, 1899, was a pure law-making treaty comprising three separate conventions—namely, a convention for the peaceful adjustment of international differences, a convention concerning the law of land warfare, and a convention for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention of 1864,—and three Declarations—namely, a Declaration prohibiting, for a term of five years, the discharge of projectiles and explosives from balloons, a Declaration concerning the prohibition of the use of projectiles the only object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases, and a Declaration concerning the prohibition of so-called dum-dum bullets. All these conventions, however, and the first of these declarations have been replaced by the General Act of the Second Hague Peace Conference, and only the last two declarations are still in force. All the States which were represented at the Conference are now parties to these declarations except the United States of America.
[929] Martens, N.R.G. 2nd Ser. XXVI. p. 920. See Holls, "The Peace Conference at the Hague" (1900), and Mérignhac, "La Conférence internationale de la Paix" (1900).