(14) Declaration prohibiting the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons. Only twenty-seven of the forty-four States represented at the Conference signed. Germany, Chili, Denmark, Spain, France, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Sweden, and Venezuela refused to sign, but Nicaragua acceded later.
The Declaration of London.
§ 568b. The Declaration of London[933] of February 26, 1909, concerning the Laws of Naval War, is a pure law-making treaty of the greatest importance. All the ten Powers represented at the Conference of London which produced this Declaration signed[934] it—namely, Great Britain, Germany, the United States of America, Austria-Hungary, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Holland, and Russia, but it is not yet ratified.
[933] On account of the opposition to the Ratification of the Declaration of London which arose in England, the English literature on the Declaration is already very great. The more important books are the following:—Bowles, "Sea Law and Sea Power" (1910); Baty, "Britain and Sea Law" (1911); Bentwich, "The Declaration of London" (1911); Bray, "British Rights at Sea" (1911); Bate, "An Elementary Account of the Declaration of London" (1911); Civis, "Cargoes and Cruisers" (1911); Holland, "Proposed Changes in Naval Prize Law" (1911); Cohen, "The Declaration of London" (1911). See also Baty and Macdonell in the Twenty-sixth Report (1911) of the International Law Association. There are also innumerable articles in periodicals.
[934] There is no doubt that the majority, if not all, of the States concerned will in time accede to the Declaration of London.
II ALLIANCES
Grotius, II. c. 15—Vattel, III. §§ 78-102—Twiss, I. § 246—Taylor, §§ 347-349—Wheaton, §§ 278-285—Bluntschli, §§ 446-449—Heffter, § 92—Geffcken in Holtzendorff, III. pp. 115-139—Ullmann, § 82—Bonfils, Nos. 871-881—Despagnet, No. 459—Mérignhac, II. p. 683—Nys, III. pp. 554-557—Pradier-Fodéré, II. Nos. 934-967—Rivier, II. pp. 111-116—Calvo, III. §§ 1587-1588—Fiore, II. No. 1094, and Code, Nos. 893-899—Martens, I. § 113—Rolin-Jaequemyns in R.I. XX. (1888), pp. 5-35—Erich, "Ueber Allianzen und Allianzverhältnisse nach heutigem Völkerrecht" (1907).
Conception of Alliances.
§ 569. Alliances in the strict sense of the term are treaties of union between two or more States for the purpose of defending each other against an attack in war, or of jointly attacking third States, or for both purposes. The term "alliance" is, however, often made use of in a wider sense, and it comprises in such cases treaties of union for various purposes. Thus, the so-called "Holy Alliance," concluded in 1815 between the Emperors of Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia, and afterwards joined by almost all of the Sovereigns of Europe, was a union for such vague purposes that it cannot be called an alliance in the strict sense of the term.
History relates innumerable alliances between the several States. They have always played, and still play, an important part in politics. At the present time the triple alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy since 1879 and 1882, the alliance between Russia and France since 1899, and that between Great Britain and Japan since 1902, renewed in 1905 and 1911, are illustrative examples.[935]