In view of the memorandum of March 3, 1917, registered in the Office of the Secretary of the Prize Council on the 22nd of the same month, by the Minister of Marine Affairs, transmitting the report relative to the seizure at Havre of three boxes of woolen fabrics;

In view of the official report of February 23, 1917, according to which an officer, designated for that purpose by the Commandant of the Navy at Havre, declares that he seized in the railroad station at Havre three boxes of woolen fabrics shipped by the "United Combed Wool Spinning Mills at Schaffhausen and Derendingen," to wit

Two boxes marked L. and C. Numbers 7879-80. Net weight-548 K., containing 1,460 meters;

413 K.

con

One box marked L. and C. Number 7875. Net weight961 K. 1157 taining meters; said cases addressed to Havre to the forwarding 2617 agency Marzolff and Co., to be loaded on the Dutch steamer Ary Scheffer and consigned to the firm Lichtenstein and Co., at Amsterdam:

In view of the telegram of February 6, 1917, from the Naval Attaché of the French Legation at The Hague conveying the information that the firm Lichtenstein is German :

Together with the documents of the report:

In view of the notice inserted in the Official Journal of March 23, 1917; Having heard M. Rouchon Mazerat, member of the Council, JudgeAdvocate, and M. Chardenet, Commissary of the Government, in his motions;

Considering that if, according to the terms of Article 7 of the decree of March 13, 1915, "the question of ascertaining whether the intercepted merchandise is merchandise belonging to German subjects or coming from Germany or shipped over Germany, is brought before the Prize Council," it appears from the provisions of said act that it can refer only to merchandise that has been loaded and seized on a vessel or in a warehouse detaining it:

Considering that the three aforementioned cases have on the contrary been seized, coming from Switzerland, in the railroad station of Havre before their embarkation on the Dutch steamer Ary Scheffer;

Decides:

The Prize Council is incompetent to render decision on the seizure in the railroad station of Havre of three boxes of woolen fabrics of Swiss provenience before they are sent on to a firm at Amsterdam which is reputed to be German.

BOOK REVIEWS*

America and the Race for World Dominion. By A. Demangeon. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1921. xiv+234 pp. $2.00.

Sensational enough in the principal thesis which it supported in the original European edition, and brilliant as was its style in the original French, this little volume has been made still more sensational in translation. Its title has been materially altered and a phrasing and diction have been adopted by the translator which are skillfully calculated to accentuate all of the startling ideas, or all phases of the one startling idea, which the author presents. This is a rather unusual thing to do, it may be supposed. To present a work originally conceived as dealing with "the decline of Europe" as a treatise on "America and the race for world dominion" may be good tactics in the publishing world; it is hardly good science.

For the author is primarily interested in, and he discusses, primarily, the former subject. Europe has, he believes, for some half a century now, but mainly as a result of the War, been losing her pre-eminence in the manufacturing world and, what is more important, her control of world commerce and world finance. Man-power has been lost by emigration and by war; credit has been squandered in the purchase of food and raw materials which could not be had in Europe, and even manufactured products began to be imported while all European production and finance were concentrated on war. No longer is Europe in a position to supply the world with capital, with colonists, with manufactured products. Her subject peoples are rising to throw off European domination. The nonEuropean countries are preparing "to do without Europe." They dispute the idea that the world is to be unified with Europe as a centre; they hope for destruction of the European centralization and monopoly; they are bringing about "the dismembering of the European Empire."

Such a thesis, if true, means that we are witnessing, in our own day, and in the space of a half-century or a little more, a shifting of the centre of civilization in the world comparable only with that which worked itself out from the fourth century to the fourteenth in Europe itself, when the Mediterranean gave place to Northern and Central Europe as the centre of the world's life. And the thesis is convincingly presented by the Pro*The JOURNAL assumes no responsibility for the views expressed in signed book reviews.-ED.

fessor of Geography at the Sorbonne, with a wealth of statistical evidence which seems to leave in the mind of the American reader, at least, no room for doubt.

What, then, is to become of the predominance heretofore held by Europe? The title of the American edition implies that "world dominion" is to pass to America. One or two sentences in the book encourage this inference. "Financiers, manufacturers, and merchants (of the United States) work in unity, preparing the way for one another in all corners of the world where there is a part to play, or a market to conquer. "It is an economic offensive that has as its aim the chaining to the chariot of America of vast groups of human beings that until recently followed the fortunes of Europe."

Yet, on the whole, the author does not mean to say either that there is a deliberate "race" for dominion on the part of America and Europe, or that the "dominion" for which there exists, in the very nature of the situation, an unconscious competition, is that sharp type of legal or political dominion which we call imperialism. The "dominion" at stake is general economic power and cultural authority. Even such power, moreover, is not to pass to the United States intact. Japan receives almost as much attention from the author as does America. If the man-power, the financial power, the industry, the sea-power, and the commerce of America have increased in stupendous leaps in the last generation, and especially since 1914, so have the powers of Japan developed, until she dominates the Asiatic scene as the United States dominates the American. What is happening, in reality, is that America and Asia are each rising to assert their independence from Europe. Europe need not, and will not, go under the yoke, but will merely lose her hegemony of other years. The world is to be decentralized, to be "regionalized"; the Pacific will be "a new Mediterranean"; certain parts of the earth will centre about Japan, others about America, and, presumably, others about old Europe. "There will be no longer unity, but a plurality, of influences." (This is very far from American dominion.)

This volume thus registers a turning point in world history as important as the Renaissance and the downfall of Rome together. It is the story in miniature of the decline and fall of the Empire of Europe, of the birth of Asia and America as distinct centres of the world's life.

PITMAN B. POTTER.

Le Droit des Gens et les Rapports des Grandes Puissances avec les autres États avant le Pacte de la Société des Nations. By Charles Dupuis. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1921, pp. 544.

The author tells us in his Preface to this interesting volume, that he wrote most of it at the request of the Nobel Committee of Peace (of the

Norwegian Parliament); but the state of war prevented its publication in due time and the author was forced, adding a few chapters, to publish it himself two years later. His main object, in writing this book, was to describe the history of the growth and strength of the great powers and of the parallel development of international law and organizations, curbing and limiting that strength and gradually creating a whole system of guarantees for the smaller and weaker nations; he gives us an excellent picture of the curtailments and restrictions imposed upon the State Sovereignty, which formerly was the expression of state selfishness only. The crowning success of this movement the author sees in the establishment of the League of Nations.

The first chapter deals with the difficult question of the equality of states, their natural inequalities, the political strife between might and right, and the real meaning of sovereignty and independence, as they developed among the European states. Chapters II and IV are devoted to the history of the great powers; the author eloquently tells the story of the amazing growth of a few states, who played a leading part mostly on account of their tremendous strength; perhaps even too many details are given in these chapters, as much of the ground has been so thoroughly covered by other historians. Chapter III deals with the ideas of sovereignty and independence in their international aspects and was probably meant to be the center of his investigation; a trifle more precision would not have harmed. In Chapter V we find the discussion of the old question of federations and confederations, with reference mostly to Germany and to the fate of the smaller nations. Then follows (Ch. VI-VII) the history of permanent neutrality and of the protectorates; this last chapter has much valuable information, as well as the following one (VIII) on international finance and the Drago Doctrine.

The treatment of the difficult questions concerning international finance leaves much to be desired; the time has not yet come for a detailed investigation and it will take probably many volumes devoted entirely to the subject. Chapter IX deals with the Monroe Doctrine and might be of some interest, as it reflects an impartial European view of the matter. The author's views of the subject are further developed in Chapter XI, dealing with "Pan-Americanism and the Bryan Treaties;" these two chapters contain interesting information for European readers. Chapter X, devoted to the Hague Peace Conferences, on the contrary, re-states well known facts and conclusions. Finally in Chapter XII are enumerated the projects of international organizations that might have a direct bearing on contemporary events and policies. The last Chapter (XIII), dealing with the existing and possible guarantees of the rights and interests of the smaller and weaker nations, seems rather vague and perhaps even a little incoherent; it makes the impression that the writer was in a great hurry and did not quite digest his own conclusions. He discusses at length the

"International Spirit" of the great powers, not always drawing the necessary line between theories and questions of fact, personal postulates and historical events; the reader does not get any definite idea of the author's own point of view; neither do we find here any clear formulæ of international law; maybe, however, in this latter case, it is not quite the fault of the author; contemporary history is not conducive to such indisputable definitions and no one can yet predict the future fate of the League of Nations. The author, at least, seems to believe in its future and final

success.

S. A. KORFF.

Letters to "The Times" upon War and Neutrality, 1881-1920, with some commentary. By Sir Thomas Erskine Holland, K.C., D.C.L., F.B.A. Third edition. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1921. pp. xv+215. $4.00.

Sir Erskine, as I believe he prefers to be known, there being another Sir Thomas Holland, may perhaps be considered the dean of British students of international law. He was born in 1835 and is now therefore eighty-six years of age. From 1874 to 1910, a period of thirty-six years, he served with great distinction as professor of International Law at Oxford. He has, in full vigor of mind, survived his eminent and gifted contemporaries, Westlake and Oppenheim, of Cambridge. He has well earned and won the blue ribbon of international law, the presidency of the Institut de Droit International and received honors from his own and many sovereigns and from universities and learned societies the world over, including honorary membership in the American Society of International Law. Today he stands facile princeps among English scholars in this great and useful branch of learning. His publications are many and their authority beyond question.

Therefore this little book of 215 pages from his hand deserves our especial attention.

The first edition appeared in 1909, and in the preface he said:

For a good many years past I have been allowed to comment, in letters to "The Times," upon points of International Law as they have been raised by the events of the day. These letters have been fortunate enough to attract some attention both at home and abroad, and requests have frequently reached me that they should be rendered more easily accessible.

He accordingly selected from a greater number those on "questions of War and Neutrality," and published them. He published a second edition with many new letters in 1914, saying in the preface:

I have no reason to complain of the reception which has so far been accorded to the views I have thought it my duty to put forward.