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of persons who can enter the service will justify the expense and labor of its establishment and of the smaller number of students likely to take such a course. At present the only places open to competitive examination are the secretaries of embassies and legations and the consuls general and consuls, with a few student interpreters. The posts of ambassadors and ministers are now and are likely to be for years to come, filled by selection from public life, although we may hope that our Presidents may see the wisdom of making promotions of secretaries of legation to ministers, as has already been done in some instances. If you will examine the list of secretaries, consuls general, and consuls you will find the number is small.

Another deterrent to attendance on such a course is that the student who stands highest or passes the State Department examination is not sure of an appointment to the service. Political or personal influence too often controls the selection by the President and Secretary of State. But there has been some improvement in this respect, and it is hoped that public sentiment will control in a greater degree in the future.

Such a course as you are considering might be useful in other respects than in fitting young men for a State Department examination. In my intercourse with my countrymen I have been surprised at the ignorance among intelligent persons respecting the functions and usefulness of the diplomatic and consular services, and the relations and difference between the two. The course suggested would furnish our young people with a better knowledge of these matters, even though they do not contemplate entering the service.

FROM HON. WALTER H. PAGE

I think that one good school with a course looking towards service in our consular and diplomatic work might be useful in the United States, but the service is not large enough, I fear, to warrant the establishment of many such courses; for the number of vacancies in the service in any one year is not large.

Nor am I thoroughly convinced that any elaborate special courses would be justified even in one school, further than I should say a two years' post-graduate course in such subjects as international law and usage, and for the consular service in economic geography, in the shipping laws and courses of trade. Some knowledge of these subjects would be a great help, of course, in encouraging candidates to pass the examinations of the government and they would be better equipped then for such work.

I should say that the best preparation for the service would be a good college course in economics and in as many modern languages as possible and then such a special course as I have just indicated, but when you consider the practicability of establishing a number of such schools you are met at the beginning with the small number of men who could obtain positions.

FROM SENATOR ELIHU ROOT

The number of persons employed in the diplomatic and consular service of the United States is so small that it would hardly be justifiable to propose to educate young men exclusively for that service as one is educated for law or medicine or engineering. A separate course, however, which contains the elements of the knowledge and training necessary to be a diplomat or a consul would give a young man a chance for appointment to the service and would be of very great value to him even if he were not appointed. It would be useful in the many branches of business and in the professions which in the United States are coming more and more into contact with foreign affairs, and it would be useful to every one who is fitted by his natural abilities to be a leader of opinion as a citizen regarding the political duties of citizens in their dealing with the subjects to which the diplomatic and consular service relates. The direction which such a course should take can, I think, be best ascertained from the rules and the examination papers which have been prescribed for appointment as consul or diplomatic secretary. The scope and character of these examinations have been carefully worked out and determined by very competent men familiar with the business that diplomats and consuls have to do, and I know of no better way to determine what such a course as you have in mind should be than by making the examination papers the basis upon which to proceed. I think the establishment of such courses in our State universities would be of very great value upon grounds of general public policy, because, however few of the students in them may receive appointment to office, they will serve as an introduction to a knowledge of foreign affairs which is very much needed on the part of our educated and thoughtful people. One very serious difficulty in the international relations of the present day arises from the fact that while modern democracies are taking into their own hands more and more directly the powers of government, and more and more directly control the conduct of government in foreign affairs, a sense of responsibility in foreign affairs has not kept pace with the exercise of power. The voters who exercise the power to determine upon peace or war, upon limitation or freedom of intercourse, upon friendly or unfriendly conduct, thereby assume the responsibility of keeping the peace of the world, of maintaining friendly relations, of seeing to it that their country does justice, and of promoting the universal good understanding which is necessary to the general progress of civilization. Our voters and public men generally do not realize that responsibility. They do not regulate their own conduct by a feeling of responsibility. They do not strive to ascertain and form an intelligent judgment upon what may be the consequence of their action and words. All over the world we can see foreign offices trying to keep the peace, to reach good understanding with other countries, and to be fair toward other countries, and at the same time popular outcry trying to break the peace, to promote misunderstanding, and to insist upon injustice.

It is of great importance that the people of ruling democracies shall realize the responsibilities of their power. As a means towards that end I think such courses as you have in mind would be of very great value.

FROM EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. TAFT

I have no doubt that courses could be framed which would be useful for those who are preparing for the consular and diplomatic service, and that it would be a good thing to have such courses in a State university. The tenure of office, however, in the diplomatic career is so uncertain that I doubt if any university except one near the seat of government at Washington, would be justified in spending much time or money in furnishing such a course.

FROM HON. ANDREW D. WHITE

As to your question, the number of persons appointed to the diplomatic service is, of course, not very large. The number appointed to the consular service is, naturally, larger and has a tendency to increase.

As to the first named, the preparation that is given in some foreign countries, especially in France at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, is very full,-much more so than anything which any of our universities dreams of giving. E. g., this French institution has special courses in the preparation of diplomatic documents, and also of précis, or analyses of State papers, the draughting of notes, treaties, and the like. All, I think, that our universities can do at present to prepare men for the diplomatic service would be to give them thorough studies in modern history and in modern languages, especially French, which is the most practical and really the most important, since it "goes" everywhere,and in the elements of general law, American law and international law. I lay great stress on a certain amount of legal study of the sort usual in our law colleges,-in the preparation of young men for entering the legal profession, and then upon general international law. Of course, the more additional study candidates for entrance into the diplomatic profession can give to literature and general history, the better.

* * *

If anything were added to your general courses in law, literature and the like, taken by candidates, I should say that a course of lectures on the history of treaties, with some exercises in drawing diplomatic papers, might be useful.

I greatly prize a good course of lectures on international law, for ALL students who have any taste for law, sociology and the like, and there should be a course of lectures on the development of the history of international law, * * *

more,

Candidates for the consular service ought to know something, and the the better, of ordinary business matters and of the commerce of our country, and this could be given them by means of courses of lectures with supplementary text books. As to their knowledge of inter

national law, they ought to have very much the same knowledge as that required for the diplomatic service. There is a Manual for the use of our consuls, issued by our State Department, which, I think, will give you the best guidance regarding this branch of the service.

I attach great importance, both in the preparation for the diplomatic and for the consular service, to a knowledge of the principles of general, or, as John N. Pomeroy calls it, of "municipal law," and, indeed, if I were in control of the State Department, I should give preference to candidates, who, in addition to the general preparation above named, had had one or two years of actual practice in a law office.

BOARD OF EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN JOURNAL

OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

CHANDLER P. ANDERSON, New York, N. Y.
CHARLES NOBLE GREGORY, Washington, D. C.
AMOS S. HERSHEY, Indiana University.

CHARLES CHENEY HYDE, Northwestern University.
GEORGE W. KIRCHWEY, Columbia University.
ROBERT LANSING, Washington, D. C.

JOHN BASSETT MOORE, Columbia University.
GEORGE G. WILSON, Harvard University.
THEODORE S. WOOLSEY, Yale University.

Editor in Chief

JAMES BROWN SCOTT, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D. C.

Secretary of the Board of Editors and Business Manager of the Journal GEORGE A. FINCH, 2 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C.

EDITORIAL COMMENT

THE REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE USE OF THE PANAMA CANAL BY BELLIGERENTS

On November 13, 1914, the President of the United States issued a proclamation 1 containing Rules and Regulations Governing the Use of the Panama Canal by Vessels of Belligerents and the Maintenance of Neutrality by the United States in the Canal Zone. These rules are of much interest from two points of view, as indicating the attitude of the United States toward the use of the Canal by belligerents and as a practical construction of what the United States Government conceives to be its rights and duties with respect to the Canal in a war, to which it is not a party, under the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty and the treaty of

1 The proclamation is printed in full in the SUPPLEMENT, p. 126.

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