Oxford, December 26 (1908).
The operations against Venezuela which were closed by the protocol of February 13, 1903, had given rise to the enunciation of the so-called "Drago doctrine," in a despatch, addressed on December 29 of the preceding year, by the Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Government of the United States, which asserts that "public indebtedness cannot justify armed intervention by a European Power, much less material occupation by it of territory belonging to any American nation." The reply of the United States declined to carry the "Monroe doctrine" to this length, citing the passage in President Roosevelt's message in which he says: "We do not guarantee any State against punishment, if it misconducts itself, provided such [021]punishment does not take the form of the acquisition of territory by any non-American Power."
It is, however, now provided by The Hague Convention, No. ii. of 1907, ratified by Great Britain on November 27, 1909, that "the contracting Powers have agreed not to have recourse to armed force for the recovery of contractual debts, claimed from the Government of a country by the Government of another country, as being due to its subjects. This stipulation shall have no application when the debtor State declines, or leaves unanswered, an offer of arbitration, or, having accepted it, renders impossible the conclusion of the terms of reference (compromis), or, after the arbitration, fails to comply with the arbitral decision."[022]
CHAPTER II
STEPS TOWARDS A WRITTEN LAW OF WAR
A large body of written International Law, with reference to the conduct of warfare, has been, in the course of the last half-century, and, more especially, in quite recent years, called into existence by means of General Conventions, or Declarations, of which mention must frequently be made in the following pages. Such are:—
(i.) With reference to war, whether on land or at sea: the Declaration of St. Petersburg, of 1868, as to explosive bullets; the three Hague Declarations of 1899 (of which the first was repeated in 1907), as to projectiles from balloons, projectiles spreading dangerous gases, and expanding bullets; The Hague Convention, No. iii. of 1907 as to Declaration of War; all ratified by Great Britain, except the Declaration of St. Petersburg, which was thought to need no ratification.
(ii.) With reference only to war on land: the Geneva Convention of 1906 (superseding that of 1864) as to the sick and wounded, which was generally ratified, though by Great Britain only in 1911 (it was extended to maritime warfare by Conventions iii. of 1899 and x. of 1907, both ratified by Great Britain, cf. infra, [Ch. VI. Section 10]); the Hague Conventions of 1907, No. iv. (superseding the Convention of 1899) as to the conduct of warfare, and No. v. as to neutrals, of which only the former has as yet been ratified by Great Britain.
(iii.) With reference only to war at sea: the Declaration of Paris, of 1856, supposed apparently to need no ratification (to which the United States is now the only important Power which has not become a party), as to privateering, combination of enemy and neutral property and blockades; The Hague Conventions of 1907, No. vi. as to enemy merchant vessels at outbreak, No. vii. as to conversion of merchantmen into warships, No. viii. as to mines, No. ix. as to naval bombardments, No. x. as to the sick and wounded, No. xi. as to captures, No. xii. as to an International Prize Court, supplemented by the Convention of 1910, No. xiii. as to neutrals. It must be observed that, of these Conventions, Great Britain has ratified only vi., vii., viii., ix., and x., the three last subject to reservations. The Declaration of London of 1909, purporting to codify the laws of naval warfare as to blockade, contraband, hostile assistance, destruction of prizes, change of flag, [023]enemy character, convoy, resistance and compensation, and so to facilitate the working of the proposed International Prize Court, if, and when, this Court should come into existence, has failed to obtain ratification, as will be hereafter explained.