Writers on international law have relied upon these prize court decisions in dealing with the subject of neutrality, so that they have laid down rules formulated indirectly from a belligerent's point of view. In addition to these influences affecting a code to govern the conduct and treatment of neutrals, international conferences and congresses have generally confided the drafting of rules relating to belligerent and neutral rights to military and naval experts, who naturally approach the subject from the belligerent's standpoint. Thus judicial decisions, text-writers, and international agreements have given all the advantage to the belligerent and have shown little regard for the rights of neutrals.

It would appear that it is time to reverse this process of treatment of the subject of neutrality and to deal with it from the point of view of the neutral. I would, therefore, suggest that a committee be appointed to study the problem of neutral rights and neutral duties, seeking to formulate in terms the principle underlying the relations of belligerency to neutrality rather than the express rules governing the conduct of a nation at war to a nation at peace.

I would further suggest that the subject might be advantageously divided into two parts, namely, the rights of neutrals on the high seas, and the duties of neutrals dependent upon territorial jurisdiction.

In view of the past year and a half of war, the present time seems particularly opportune to study this question, and this Institute, being composed of members from neutral nations, is especially fitted to do this from the proper point of view and with the definite purpose of protecting the liberty of neutrals from unjustifiable restrictions on the high seas and from the imposition of needless burdens in preserving their neutrality on land.

5. Pan American Treaties for the Advancement of Peace.

a. HISTORICAL STATEMENT.

President Wilson on April 24, 1913, communicated to the diplomats accredited near the Government of the United States the following peace proposal:

The parties hereto agree that all questions of whatever character and nature, in dispute between them, shall, when diplomatic efforts fail, be submitted for investigation and report to an international commission (the composition to be agreed upon); and the contracting parties agree not to declare war or begin hostilities until such investigation is made and report submitted.

The investigation shall be conducted as a matter of course upon the initiative of the commission, without the formality of a request from either party; the report shall be submitted within (time to be agreed upon) from the date of the submission of the dispute, but the parties hereto reserve the right to act independently on the subject matter in dispute after the report is submitted.

A supplementary memorandum by the secretary of state was issued at the same time, outlining the terms of the proposed treaty. This was rapidly accepted in principle by the powers. Negotiation proceeded and the Pan American states showed themselves especially ready to make such treaties. By the beginning of 1915 the United States had 30 treaties of this type signed and on the way to ratification.'

The secretary of state of the United States announced on April 22, 1915, that a peace plan for the nations of the Western Hemisphere had been suggested by the Republic of Honduras, and submitted to the Governing Board by Alberto Membreño, minister from Honduras to the United States, and a little later president of that Republic. It was referred for consideration to the special Pan American committee, For a full statement of the antecedents, history and purpose of the principle involved in these treaties see Denys P. Myers, "The Commission of Inquiry: The Wilson-Bryan Peace Plan. Its Origin and Development," World Peace Foundation, Pamphlet Series, 1913.

appointed in the early stages of the war in Europe by the nations constituting the union. The memorandum was in reality an extension of the American peace plan.

b. SEÑOR ALBERTO MEMBREÑO TO THE GOVERNING BOARD OF THE PAN AMERICAN UNION, MARCH 8, 1915.

Mr. Chairman: While this committee was appointed only for the purpose of submitting its recommendations as to the means to be adopted to safeguard the rights of neutrals, in view of the European war, I do not deem it amiss to suggest that a rule be adopted tending to avoid armed conflicts. Before trying to forestall the evils of war we must endeavor to have such a scourge disappear forever from the face of the world.

Among the wise provisions contained in the first Hague Convention of 1907, there is one, in Article IX, creating an international commission of inquiry. Unfortunately, this provision excludes, from the remedy provided, disputes involving either the honor or the vital interests of nations; in other words, the very cases in which the services of impartial parties are most needed to study the issue calmly. Experience shows that duels are not fought-and duels are serious questions of honor among individuals-when the seconds obtain an explanation which is satisfactory to the one who claims that an offense has been committed and is demanding a blood satisfaction. Those who discharge executive functions in the government of states are, so to speak, more strictly under obligation to hear and consider reasons based on justice and expediency because, if it is true that in war they run a certain amount of personal risk, the greatest sacrifice is made by the people, and the damage, as in the present instance, extends to all nations.

The Government of the United States, representing the people of the United States-a people who believe that the prosperity of nations results from work and not from the extermination of those who in the struggle for life are battling for victory-has enhanced the principles set forth by the authors of the Hague Convention, in the sense that the commission of inquiry may take cognizance of all disputes of every nature whatsoever.

This doctrine as amended is a part of the treaties lately concluded between the United States and almost all the American nations, as well as many European countries. We may, therefore, embody it in international law.

I take the liberty of proposing that the members of the Governing Board of the Pan American Union present to their respective governments for their consideration the following rules:

1. All disputes of every nature whatsoever which it has not been possible to adjust through diplomatic methods shall be referred for investigation and report to an international commission, and, pending the full discharge of its duties by said commission, the nations engaged in the dispute cannot declare war or begin hostilities against each other.

2. This commission shall be a permanent one, and may act on its own initiative. In this case it behooves the commission to serve due notice to the parties in dispute, and to request their co-operation in order fully to discharge its duties.

3. The number of members of which the commission shall consist, their qualifications, manner of appointment, place where the commission shall sit, manner of procedure, and time for the submission of its report, shall be fixed by treaty or by any other method whereby the agreements reached by the governments may have full force and authority.'

ALBERTO MEMBREÑO.

WASHINGTON, March 8, 1915.

'In his message to the Congress of Honduras delivered in Tegucigalpa on January 1, 1916, President Membreño said in effect that the consideration shown by the American Government and "the deference with which that Government has received our initiatives of international interest, have brought closer our relations with the Great Republic of the North."-(New York Evening Post, January 21, 1916.)

C. TREATY BETWEEN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL, AND THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE TO FACILITATE THE PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES.1

The Governments of the Argentine Republic, the United States of Brazil, and the Republic of Chile, being desirous of affirming, at the present juncture, the cordial understanding which the community of ideals and interests has created between their respective countries and of consolidating the relations of close friendship which unite them, for the purpose of avoiding the possibility of violent conflicts in the future: and acting in accordance with the aims of concord and peace which inspire their international policy, and with the firm intention of co-operating in order that the fraternal relations of the American Republics may day by day rest upon a more solid basis; and having regard to the fact that, in the existing treaties of arbitration between Chile and Brazil, dated May 18, 1899, and in the treaty between the Argentine Republic and Chile of May 28, 1902, and that between the Argentine Republic and Brazil of September 7, 1905, which in each case established recourse to arbitration as the sole means of settling all disputes of whatsoever nature that might arise between those powers, exception is made, as far as the first of these treaties is concerned, of recourse to arbitration in respect to those questions which cannot be formulated juridically, and that the two last mentioned treaties excepted from arbitration all questions affecting the constitutional principles of the contracting countries: have resolved now to adopt a line of procedure that may facilitate the friendly solution of the questions that were excluded from arbitration by virtue of the said treaties, and for this purpose they have

1 This treaty in all essentials is a type of all the conventions referred to in this section. The English text here printed is a translation by William Heaford from a Spanish text furnished by the Argentine minister in London and published in the National Peace Council Monthly Circular, II, 327-328, October 15, 1915. The translation has been modified as a result of comparison with a Spanish copy published in La Prensa of Buenos Aires, May 26, 1915, the text of which has been furnished by the Bureau of the Pan American Union. The Union informs us that Brazil ratified the treaty on November 10, 1915, the ratification being published in the Diario Official for November 14.