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primary rights; the latter rejected Wolff's fiction of a civitas maxima as incompatible with the fundamental rights of internal sovereignty and independence of foreign control. In successive chapters Professor Reeves discusses the nature, tasks and obligations of international law; the theories of security and common interests; and the conceptions of international justice and its relation to public opinion. The notion of some authors that the end of international law is nothing more than the realization of international justice or international peace, or both together, he rejects. Neither is, he says, an end of international law; rather each represents an ensemble of conditions which alone renders possible the realization of certain ends.

On the whole, the author's conception of international society represents the moderate view. To him it is neither an aggregation of absolutely sovereign unities nor, as the late Alpheus H. Snow and others maintained, a society already juridically organized and governed by a régime of law imposed upon states from above without their consent and to which all municipal law must conform. His study is characterized by originality, keen thinking and, on the whole, by a rigorous juridical method of treatment.

J. W. G.

The United States and Mexico. By J. Fred Rippy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. pp. xii, 403.

The author informs us, in his preface to this volume, that it presents the first general survey of the diplomatic relations of the United States and Mexico that has appeared in any language. He also states, and this is confirmed by an examination of the contents, that the three decades subsequent to the Mexican War of 1846-1848 have been treated most fully, and that "except for the periods prior to 1848 and subsequent to 1910, and the administrations of Buchanan and Lincoln, the author has broken virgin soil." His reasons for not extending his survey of the diplomatic relations of the two countries beyond the Hayes Administration are stated to be that "the thirty years which followed the advent of Porforio Diaz were marked in general by a pacific intercourse yielding comparatively little for the historian to record."

The author has been eminently successful in achieving his avowed purpose, which was "to set forth in simple narrative designed to appeal to the public as well as to students of college and university rank, the difficulties which have arisen between the two countries, the factors which have produced them, and the spirit in which they have been met." He frankly concedes, however, that he has produced very little new material concerning the period prior to the war of 1846, because "the earlier period has already been written upon extensively by others." On the other hand, his contributions to the history of the three decades above mentioned are of notable interest and value, being based almost entirely on primary material

consisting of contemporary newspapers and periodicals and documents published by the two governments or drawn from their archives.

As to the period since 1910, following the overthrow of Diaz, the author contents himself with giving only his own brief interpretation of it, because "the most important of the sources necessary for the final history of the years following his overthrow are not yet available." This period covers the Wilson Administration, and the personal interpretation which the author has put forward in estimating the meaning and effect of the policies of that administration in dealing with Mexico discloses a strong partisan bias in favor of those policies, but his arguments in support of them are not convincing as to their usefulness in settling the so-called Mexican problems. President Wilson's Mexican policy, he says, consisted of "Moral assistance to a régime of constitutional order; steadfast refusal to place the interests of a few thousand Americans in Mexico above the interests of fifteen million Mexican people; championship of democracy, opposition to official economic imperialism-these principles were so often reiterated as to leave no room for doubt."

It does not as yet appear, however, that the Wilson policy, whatever it was, has produced the results designed, or is likely to produce them, so far as the Mexican Government is concerned. On the other hand, the disadvantages resulting from the Wilson policy are recognized by the author as calling for a qualified apology, for he says: “But it would be a mistake to assume that Wilson intended while insisting on such principles entirely to abandon American rights and interests. He attempted to save Americans from death and personal injury by repeatedly urging them to leave Mexico and assisting them to get out of the country."

In evaluating our Mexican policy since the end of the Diaz régime, what was done both before and after the Wilson Administration must also be taken into consideration, and the author is on safer ground in admitting that it is advisable for the historian to postpone the consideration of that period until he has access to sources necessary for its final history, which are not as yet available.

CHANDLER P. ANDERSON.

Les Allemands en Belgique, 1914-1918. Conclusions de l'Enquête officielle belge. Par Baron Alberic Rolin. Liege: Georges Thone, 1925. pp. 62. In 1916 the Belgian Government published a Livre Gris which embodied the results of an official investigation of German atrocities and violations of the law of nations in Belgium, which the Germans answered in a ponderous White Book issued in the same year. According to M. Rolin, the Belgian exhibit was not entirely complete or even accurate because of the difficulties experienced at the time in obtaining evidence regarding the conduct of the Germans. Five years after the close of the war the Belgian Government

appointed a new commission to conduct another inquiry, and it is the report of this commission which M. Rolin analyzes and summarizes in the booklet here reviewed.

The report of the commission embraces four volumes, of which the first and third are each divided into two parts, making six books altogether. The two parts of the first volume deal with the attentats committed by the German troops during the invasion and occupation of Belgium; the second volume describes the deportations of the Belgian civil population by the Germans; the two parts of volume three contain a recital of the German measures against Belgian industry; and the fourth volume is devoted to the legislative, judicial, administrative and political acts of the Germans during the period of occupation. At the end of each volume will be found the texts of numerous depositions and official German documents which tell their own story. M. Rolin's summary of the report is a recital of massacres of civilians, hostages and prisoners of war; of pillage, devastation and bombardments; of exorbitant exactions in the form of contributions, fines and requisitions; of measures against the liberty of Belgian citizens and against the independence of the judiciary; of attempts to set the Flemish part of the population against the Walloon element; of the destruction of Belgian industry, etc. His final conclusion is that there was not one of the provisions of the Hague Convention of 1907 respecting the laws and customs of war on land and not one of the prescriptions of humanity and justice which was not violated by the Germans in the invaded districts of Belgium. The invasion of Belgium he pronounces a flagrant violation of the most solemn treaty ever concluded, and he quotes an opinion to the same effect from Baron Von Schoen, German Ambassador to France at the outbreak of the War. Three different proposals in succession, he says, were made by Belgian bodies for an investigation of the charges against the Germans, by a mixed commission, all of which the Germans rejected. He emphasizes that the indictment of the Germans on many points is confirmed by their own official proclamations, orders, acts and other documents, which constitute an important part of the mass of evidence contained in the report of the commission.

The whole story is a sickening one, but the investigation was one which should have been made. It is to be hoped that charges so grave and supported by so great a mass of evidence may yet be answered by those against whom they are made.

J. W. G.

The International Government of the Saar. By Frank M. Russell. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1926. (Publications of the Bureau of International Relations, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 113-249.)

It is a relief to find a work which openly and honestly attempts to take an unbiased and impartial attitude on the Saar Government. Its success

cannot be judged until the present perspective has changed; but there is little doubt that a real contribution has been made in the present volume. It is divided, first, into a discussion of the treaty provisions and the success of their operation under the new régime. There follows a treatment of the 1935 plebiscite provision and the perennial difficulty caused by the presence of French troops. Chapter VIII, which deals with the inquiry of 1923, is a little more of the author than the preceding seven, and Chapter IX, which is named "Concluding Observations," is the author's own reactions and conclusions.

The documentation is excellent. The footnotes are not only suggestive, but contain a fund of information relative to the topics which are taken up. At times the grammatical construction might be improved, but the reader is apt to disregard this in view of the orderly arrangement of material. The bibliography is divided into sources, books and articles dealing with the Saar Question, and secondary works consulted in connection with the study. There are many who would have omitted the last because of the chance connection which it has to the topic. The author does well to draw distinctions as to the relative values of his authorities, but there seems to be too strong a tendency at times to lean for support on Haskin's section on the Saar in his Some Problems of the Peace Conference (p. 205 et passim).

Undoubtedly this relatively short, but exhaustive publication is the most able and thorough treatment of the Saar Question in English, and certainly the most unbiased of any work in print.

THORSTEN KALIJARVI.

Sociedad Cubana de Derecho Internacional. Anuario de 1925. Habana: Imprenta "El Siglo XX," 1925. pp. 533.

This well printed and edited volume contains the proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Cuban Society of International Law held at Habana, May 8-12, 1925. The volume contains a large number of interesting papers and discussions, among which may be especially mentioned the inaugural address by Dr. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the Cuban Secretary of State, entitled "International Responsibility;" the address of Dr. Herminio Rodríguez y Von Sobotker on "Disarmament and Security;" and the account of Dr. Fernando Sánchez de Fuentes of the conference on specifications held at the Third Pan American Scientific Congress at Lima. Dr. Pedro Martínez Fraga contributes an interesting paper in celebration of the 300th anniversary of Grotius' De Jure Belli ac Pacis. Among the resolutions adopted by the Society was one declaring that Cuba is not a "client state" of the United States. The adoption of this resolution was the result of a paper by Dr. Enrique Gay Calbó, who undertook to refute a statement which appears in Lawrence's Principles of International Law that Cuba occupies such a position toward the United States. Following the previous custom

of the Society, a session was held in the great hall of the University of Habana, at which papers were read by ten students of international law. The meeting of the Society closed with a banquet given to Dr. Cosme de la Torriente, former Ambassador at Washington, in appreciation of his services in connection with the ratification of the treaty relating to the sovereignty of the Isle of Pines.

GEO. A. FINCH.

El Imperialismo del Petróleo y la Paz Mundial. By Camilo Barcia Trelles. Valladolid: Talleres Tipográficos "Cuesta," 1925. pp. 253. Index.

The author, who is a professor of international law at the University of Valladolid, has made an interesting study of what he terms the imperialism of petroleum with reference to world peace. The volume is divided into three parts, the first treating of petroleum as a decisive factor in international order; the second showing the world-wide struggle for the acquisition of oil deposits; and the third discussing petroleum and its relation to American international policy.

Part one is divided into two chapters, the first dealing with petroleum and the dominion of the seas, and the second with petroleum and its use in the World War. The author contends that a struggle has begun between large trusts, whose power at times is greater than that of the states in which they are incorporated, and whose action threatens the independence of other

He says petroleum is today the determining cause of the most active and far-reaching diplomatic negotiations, and to such a point that the international policy of the great Powers is frequently determined by the desire to possess petroleum, which they may lack, or by the ambition to create a monopoly, by exercising a world petroleum dictatorship. The possession of fuel oil constitutes an element of life or death for the great sea Powers, especially those needing the submarine. He considers Petroleum has eliminated coal in navigation by reason of the advantages secured in its use. In time of war petroleum is essential for the operation of aëroplanes and automobiles, which have taken the place of slower methods of transportation.

Part two is divided into three chapters, the first dealing with the struggle between the large oil companies of different nations, and the last two with oil and the Far Eastern question, and oil and Soviet Russia. The "Standard Oil," "Royal-Dutch" and the latter's alliance with the "Shell," now known as the Royal-Dutch-Shell, and their struggle for control of the world oil fields, backed respectively by the American and British Governments, the case of ex-Secretary Fall and his relation to the Doheny and Sinclair companies, the Bagdad railroad with its oil concessions, and the struggle before the World War between Germany and Great Britain for the control of the oil fields of Asia Minor, form interesting subjects of discussion.

Part three is divided into four chapters, the first dealing with the pre

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