Durham, Tuesday (R. By) Easingwold, Thursday, at 10 Exeter, Monday, Wednesday, and Gainsborough, Wednesday, at 10 Gravesend, Saturday, at 10 Great Grimsby, Saturday, at 10 Hertford, Wednesday, at 10.30 High Wycombe, Thursday, at 10 Horncastle, Monday, at 10 Tuesday Pershore, Thursday, at 10 Petworth, Monday, at 11.30 Pontypool, Wednesday, at 10.30 day, and Saturday Poole, Monday. at 10 Porth, Monday Portsmouth, Thursday (By at 12), at 10.30 Preston, Tuesday, at 10 Saddleworth, Friday St. Helens, Wednesday Sevenoaks, Thursday, at 10 Skipton, Wednesday, at 9.45 Southampton, Tuesday (By at 11), at 10 Southport, Tuesday, at 10 South Shields, Thursday, at 10 Stoke, Wednesday, at 9.30 West Hartlepool, Friday, at 9.30 Whitechapel, Tuesday, Wednesday, Wigan, Tuesday (J.S.), at 9 and Thursday Monday (J.S.) Woolwich, Wednesday, at 10.30 Worcester, Wednesday and Friday, at 10 Workington, Thursday, at 9.30 Wymondham, Friday, at 10 Other sittings are specially fixed if necessary. LEGISLATION. The Army Annual Bill. THE new Army (Annual) Bill is in almost every detail a cold and formal draft effecting with a minimum of verbiage the continuation of a standing army for another year. Except in so far as it is sanctioned by Parliament, such an army is against the law. The Bill has only two points worth notice. The first arises in the preamble, in which there is the unprecedented statement that it is adjudged necessary by His Majesty and this present Parliament that a body of forces should be continued for the safety of the United Kingdom and the defence of the possessions of His Majesty's Crown, and that the whole number should consist of three millions, exclusive of the forces serving in India. The second charge appears in the other extreme of the Bill, in the schedule which sets out the sums payable to keepers of victualling houses, and it reflects the additional expenses incurred at the present juncture in the provision of food for horses. The rate now scheduled has risen per day from 1s. 9d. to 23., which represents a considerable advance. It will be interesting to note whether this sum will be reconsidered in the light of the probable results of the recent successes in the Dardanelles. It is worth considering whether it would not be convenient to schedule also the rates payable to private occupiers of public buildings, dwelling-houses, warehouses, barns, and stables. The Army (Annual) Act 1909 for the first time rendered them liable to billeting, but there is much confusion, even among the military themselves, as to the rates to be paid, and the making of agreements ad hoc with an occupier, who has already been compelled to shelter man or beast, is not altogether conducive to fairness. Sect. 7 (3) (c) of the Act of 1909 inserts in the Army Act a new section, denoted sect. 108a thereof, in which it appears that "the prices to be paid to an occupier other than the keeper of a victualling house for accommodation furnished and food and fodder supplied by him shall be such as may be fixed by regulations made by the Army Council with the consent of the Treasury." It would be to the general convenience if these prices applicable to private persons were as accessible as those scheduled in regard to victualling houses. Universities and Colleges. THE Government Bill on this subject shows that the academical calm of these institutions has been greatly disturbed, and that drastic statutory changes are necessary to enable them to meet the situation with adequacy. Their revenues have been greatly hit by circumstances attributable directly or indirectly to the war, and consequently the Attorney-General by his Universities and Colleges (Emergency Powers) Bill amends the University and College Estates Act 1858 and the amending Acts of 1880 and 1898 by extending the purposes for which money can be borrowed or applied. It would be possible under this Bill to borrow or to apply purchase or other capital money for making good these deficiencies in revenue in any financial year expiring at or before the end of the emergency period which in the opinion of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries are due to such circumstances, and no certificate from a surveyor is to be necessary. The money borrowed or applied is to be repaid or replaced within such period not exceeding fifty years from the end of the emergency period as the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries may determine. The phrase "the end of the emergency period" signifies the end of the calendar year in which the present war terminates, or, if it terminates after the 30th June in any year, then the end of the next succeeding calendar year. A general power is given to the said board, when it thinks it expedient so to do (and where the lender consents in cases of money being borrowed), to extend the period of repayment or replacement, where money has been borrowed or applied before this measure becomes law, for a maximum period of ten years. It can also suspend the obligation to make such repayment or replacement for such period not extending beyond one calendar year from the end of the emergency period as the board may determine, with a corresponding extension of the period of repayment or replacement. The ROYAL EARLSWOOD INSTITUTION REDHILL, FOR SURREY. MENTAL DEFECTIVES E. C. P. HULL, Esq., J.P., Treasurer and Chairman. An ideal home for those requiring control with expert supervision, and needing Special Training in Useful Occupations. SCHOOLS, FARMING, TRADE-WORKSHOPS. Trust Funds available for the Children of Barristers, Solicitors, and Clergy of Church of England. Selected Cases admitted on Reduced Inclusive Fees at the rate of One Guinea a Week. Those Unable to Pay admitted by votes of Subscribers, either free or with part-payment. Life Maintenance of Patients can be purchased at less than usual Annuity Rates. Legacies as Endowments, or towards Sustentation Fund create lasting benefits for special needs. Full information of Mr. H. HOWARD, Secretary. 14-16, Ludgate-hill, E.C. Telephone: 5297 City. Emergency Statutes. IN other respects universities and colleges find their arrangements involved in some confusion, and, to give power to deal with the difficulties involved, the Attorney-General proposes that, notwithstanding the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act 1877 or any other enactment, it is to be lawful for these universities or any college in them to make emergency statutes, and these are to be binding notwithstanding any instrument of foundation, or any Act of Parliament, Order in Council, decree, order, statute, or other instrument or thing. Such a statute made before the 31st Dec. of this year can, if so expressed, be given retrospective effect so as to relate back to any date not later than the 4th Aug. 1914. The objects of such statutes are, however, subject to a series of limitations. They are set out in fourteen sub-sections, and it is unnecessary to enter into these at length. Roughly, they may be said to deal with postponing elections to fellowships and offices, suspending vacancies of such offices, disposing of money undisposed of by these postponements and suspensions, modifying conditions as to residence or duties, enabling colleges to take into account in electing to scholarships, &c., that a person offering himself as a candidate has been engaged during this war in the navy or army or other Crown service or in work abroad connected with the British Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, or any other like body, or has been a prisoner of war. Such statutes can also extend the tenure of scholarships, &c., in the case of such persons. Among other payments for which such statutes can make provision there are to be noted payments for the relief and assistance of members of a college or other members of the university engaged as above, except that the reference to prisoners of war is absent. Finally, there is a general sweeping power to make provisions of a similar nature to any of the foregoing as may seem to be required to prevent or mitigate loss or injustice, and to meet exigencies due to circumstances attributable directly or indirectly to the present The Bill concludes with provisions as to the manner of making these statutes and with an interpretation clause. war. OCCASIONAL NOTES. Mr. Justice Sankey will act as Commercial judge until the end of the present sittings. Mr. Justice Shearman will leave London for Warwick, ou the Midland Circuit, on Monday next, and will open the commission on the following day. Mr. Justice Coleridge and Mr. Justice Bailhache will open the commission at Leeds, on the North-Eastern Circuit, on Friday next. When the business at this town is finished they will return to London and remain until the end of the present sittings. An intermediate session for cases arising in the county of Middlesex will commence to-day (Saturday), at the Guildhall, Westminster, at 10.30. The March Sitting at the Mayor's Court will commence on Thursday next at 10.30. Sir David Brynmor Jones, who was recently appointed a Master in Lunacy, has resigned the Recordership of Cardiff. Mr. Henry Herbert Browell, aged fifty-eight, of 6, The Grange, Wimbledon, S.W., and of 4, New-square, Lincoln's-inn, W.C., barrister-at-law, left unsettled property valued at £13,289. Mr. Kyffin George Salter, solicitor, of Brynallt, Ellesmere, Salop, left property of which the net personalty is £41,575, and the gross £108,032. The Hon. Henry Robert Orde-Powlett, aged 68, of Queensberry-place, South Kensington, S. W., formerly of Bolton Hall, Leyburn, Yorks, barrister-at-law, second son of the third Baron Bolton, left unsettled property of the gross value of £31,609. Mr. Richard John Ward, of Silver-street, Lincoln, solicitor, of the firm of Messrs. Ward and Moore, Official Receiver in Bankruptcy from 1888 to 1909, who died in September last, left estate of the gross value of £6,663 17s. ld., with net personalty £886 14s. 11d. Mr. William Patchett, K.C., of Bury Lodge, Epping, Essex, and of 5, Crown Office-row, Temple. E.C., formerly Treasurer of the Inner Temple, who died on the 19th Jan. aged eighty-seven, left unsettled property of the gross value of £10,334, of which the net personalty amounts to £8,662. Sir John Macdonell will deliver the final lecture of his course upon "Some Recent Changes in the Laws of Neutrality in War," at the London School of Economics, Clare-market, Kingsway, W.C., on Tuesday next, at 5.30 p.m. The lecture is open to the public without fee and no ticket is required. A meeting of the Union Society of Lordon was held at the lecture room, King's-bench-walk, on Wednesday, the president, Mr. Harry Geen, in the chair. Mr. Morden moved: "" That the present naturalisation laws are unsatisfactory." Mr. Gallop opposed and the debate was continued by Messrs. Claxton, Edison-Thomas, and Willson. The motion was carried. Mr. Justice Low will preside at the eighty-third anniversary festival of the United Law Clerks' Society on Thursday, the 20th May, at the Hotel Cecil. The following are the stewards conducting the festival: Messrs. W. G. Barronger, A. G. Davey, J. S. Drummond, W. H. Elliott, G. Fisk, W. R. Freeman, J. Mathison, Morris W. Reed, Henry Spray (treasurer), Tom Spray, W. J. Tarr, Frank Souter (chairman), and Geo. J. Offer (hon. secretary). The annual report of the library of All Souls College, Oxford, which is the principal law library in the university, gives some idea of the effect of the war upon the universities. The purchase of all books not absolutely necessary has been avoided, so that before the close of the year one principal item had been reduced by 45 per cent. upon the previous year. With the assistance of other economies it has been possible to carry forward an appreciable balance in view of possible emergencies. Books which have had to be removed from other repositories owing to their application_to other purposes have been stored in the college library. During the past year the library has been enriched by a selection of 191 volumes from the library of the late Warden, Sir William Anson, and a valuable gift from Professor Spenser Wilkinson. Although ladies are debarred from the practice of the Legal Profession, they are able to add something to the literature of law. Mr. A. W. Soward, C.B, the secretary of the Estate Duty Office, acknowledges in the new edition of his work on the law and practice of the estate duty the assistance of his daughter, Miss E. D. Soward. The book is the better for her intelligence and accuracy." It may be permitted to wish for her as distinguished a career as that of Miss Evelyn Underhill, who began by assisting her father and then produced a charming legal work on her own account. Now, of course, she is known as one of our foremost writers on the difficult subject of mysticism, and for some years, by her marriage with Mr. H. Stuart Moore, has been connected with other legal and literary associations. A recent trial at the Central Criminal Court and certain proceedings now in progress in the United States serve as a forcible reminder that increased stringency has to be applied in connection with the issue of passports during wartime. Passports have been known in England under this name since the sixteenth century, but, as may be imagined, the regulations with regard to their issue have been altered from time to time. They are issued by the Foreign Office to British subjects, either British born or naturalised, but it is noticeable that in regard to the latter class the regulations are somewhat more exacting than in the case of British-born subjects. For example, in the case of a naturalised subject applying for a passport, he must produce his certificate of naturalisation, and, further, if he is living in London or the subu: bs, he must apply personally, while, if he is resident in the country, his passport is sent, in the first instance, not to himself, but to the person who verified his application. Here we find the State necessarily and properly discriminating between the two classes of citizens-a discrimination of long standing and not without interest in view of some recent assertions that the two classes must for all purposes be treated a3 on an absolute equality. As has been said, the ordinary British passports are only issued to British subjects, but the late Sir Edward Hertslet, whose long connection with the Foreign Office gave him unusual means of knowledge on all such matters, records a curious and amusing instance where this rule was departed from. This was in the case of a lady of English birth who had married a native of the Ionian Islands during the time those islanda were under British protection. After the annexation of the islands to Greece, the husband died, but the lady, now a widow, took no steps to resume her British nationality, although she returned to and took up her residence in England. On applying at the Foreign Office for a passport she became very irate on being informed that one could not be granted her as she had, by her marriage, become a Greek subject. She demanded to see a high official, who explained her legal status, but she only laughed, and said, "Come, come; you really must not talk rubbish to me. I know nothing about your treaties or naturalisation laws. All I know is that I am an English lady, and I demand a British passport." Like the other well-known instance of an importunate widow, she succeeded her good looks, good temper, and fascinating manner having overcome all official scruples! Cases relating to passports have rarely come before the courts, the best known being that of Rex v. Brailsford (93 L. T. Rep. 401), where it was decided that a combination of persons for the purpose of obtaining a passport by false statements is an indictable misdemeanour at common law. PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE AND The vacancy in the representation of Maidstone was stated in the motion for the issue of a writ for the election of a new member to have been caused, not by the succession of Lord Castlereagh, on the death of his father, to the peerage as Marquis of Londonderry, but by his acceptance of the Chiltern Hundreds. If a member of the House of Commons be created a peer, his seat is not vacated until the letters patent conferring the dignity have passed the Great Seal. When it is advisable to issue the writ without delay in the case of a member created a peer and it is doubtful whether the seat be legally vacated, the member accepts the Chiltern Hundreds before his patent is made out. In Lord Castlereagh's case, however, the grant of the Chiltern Hundreds was made to a member who had succeeded to the peerage. The reason of this variance from the usual practice no doubt was that the new peer, who had been summoned from active service on the death of his father, was desirous of returning to the front at the earliest moment, and did not wish to submit to the delay owing to the formalities attendant on that step, such as the production to the Lord Chancellor of the certificates of his father's marriage and burial, of his own baptism, of an extract from the Journals of the House of Lords showing that the late peer took his seat, and of the patent of peerage, as preliminaries to the issue of a writ of summons by the Clerk of the Crown to the House of Lords. Lord Castlereagh's seat was vacant, ipso facto, on the death of his father, but the issue of a writ of summons to the House of Peers would have afforded the best evidence of the fact, and for purposes of expediting the filling of the vacant seat he took the Chiltern Hundreds. In 1894 the Chiltern Hundreds was given to the present Lord (Mr Justice) Coleridge on the death of his father, the Lord Chief Justice of England, for different reasons stated by himself subsequently. He was a member of the House of Commons and engaged in practice at the Bar. He had doubts as to whether, if he applied for the writ of summons to the House of Lords, he could continue, as Justice Dodd in his judgment gave an interesting history of the law upon the point from the time of the Stuart Kings to the present time. The decision certainly upsets old notions about the effect of quashing a conviction made by the inferior courts, and it is curious that the shrewd old lawyers of twenty-five years ago, who were engaged in these cases every day from crimes courts and coercion courts, never attempted to test this question. It will also be curious to observe how the astute practitioners will now endeavour to sail round the new net that has been so skilfully woven in the King's Bench Division, because if it cannot be got rid of in some way, the business of quashing illegal orders would become a farce, and would come to an end. THE Recorder of Dublin on the 25th ult. decided a principle of first importance affecting the rights of public bodies charged with the maintenance of highways. The Pembroke Urban Council had laid down a new asphalt surface on the roads in their township, and several owners of horses and vehicles had brought actions for damages on account of injuries sustained. It was proved that the surface was like a sheet of ice, and that it was impossible for a horse to stand upon it, not to speak of walking along. For the council it was shown that the streets of Paris, Brussels, and part of London were laid down with the same material, and that there were very few accidents when the animals got used to it. The endeavour was to provide dustless roads, which would be a great boon to the public. The recorder, who is a great authority upon questions of negligence, held that there was no negligence on the part of the Pembroke Council. It was shown to him that this material was a great success elsewhere, and it was not wrong for defendants to use it. There was no authority upon the question cited by counsel on either side, and apparently the matter has not previously arisen in England or Ireland. JUDGMENT has been given in the King's Bench Division in the case of Cookman v. Commissioners of Inland Revenue, alluded to in this column (ante, p. 320) The Lord Chief Baron in an elaborate judgment stated that the first contention of the commissioners, and the contention put forward on the other side were both wrong. "The argument on behalf of Cookman," said his Lordship, was based upon a capital fallacy as to the real interest acquired by a tenant purchasing under the Irish Lan Purchase Acts. That interest was not the value of the fee simple after deducting simply the amount of the Land Commission advance. In addition, the purchaser acquired the right that the advance should be repaid by a peer of the realm and instalments payable over a long series of years, such instalments being calculated at a rate of interest much lower than that at which such purchaser or any of the public could obtain the same. That right constituted an interest in the land, and was a free gift by the nation to the purchaser." The referee had deducted from the value of the fee simple the redemption price of the annuity, and this was held not to be the proper course, because the deduction included in it part of the nation's free gift to the purchaser. The referee must fix the principal value of what passes at the time of the death as well as this right. The court has settled a question which has given rise to much discussion in this country-namely, whether the unpaid purchase advance is an incumbrance; and the court holds that it is not, but something very different from an incumbrance. The point upon which the appeal was allowed was only raised on the part of the commissioners during the hearing, and hence no costs were allowed. theoretically a member of the House of Lords as the supreme court of appellate jurisdiction, to be a practising barrister. He knew he dare not sit or vote in the House of Commons and thereby render himself subject to heavy penalties. Under these circumstances he facilitated the election of his successor in the Attercliffe Division of Sheffield by application to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the Chiltern Hundreds, which was granted. Eventually Lord Coleridge applied for the writ of summons to the House of Lords, when well assured that he was at liberty to pursue, notwithstanding his elevation to the peerage, his professional career at the Bir. PARLIAMENTARY SUMMARY. IN the House of Common 3, on Tuesday, Mr. Hobhouse presented the Injuries in War (Compensation) (No. 2) Bill, to provide for the grant of pensions and other allowances to certain persons in respect of disablement due to causes arising out of the operations of the present war whilst they are employed afloat in connection with the telegraph and postal services, and to their dependents, and for purposes connected therewith. The House went into Committee on the Defence of the Realm (Amendment) Bill, with Mr. Whitley in the chair, and the Bill passed through Committee. Tae Army Act Amen Iment Bill passed through committee. The British Ships (Transfer Restriction) Bill was read a third t me. IN the case of Reg. v. Patterson referred to (ante, pp. 89, 256, and 320) in this column, the Court of King's Bench, consisting of the Lord Chief Baron, Mr. Justice Gibson, and Mr. Justice Dodd, have held that the quashing of a conviction of the defendant by the justices in the King's Bench Division was no bar to the same charge being again prosecuted before the magistrates. The Lord Chief Baron said the order quashing the conviction could not amount to an acquittal, and that concluded the question. Mr. In the case of the Carlow coronership, Rex (McDonald) v. Byrne, referred to in this column recently (ante, p. 278), the King's Bench Division, consisting of the Lord Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Madden, and Mr. Justice Boyd, gave judgment on the 26th ult. in favour of the relator, McDonald, It was a contest between two persons as to which of them was lawfully elected coroner for the county by the county council. The relator received a majority of votes, but he had previously been a member of the rural district council, and it was urged that under sect. 46 of the Local Government Act 1894, applied to Ireland by an Order in Council, he was disqualified to be elected to a place of profit under the county council. The Lord Chancellor was appealed to on this point, and his Lordship yielded to the contention that the candidate chosen was disqualified and ordered a new election. The new election resulted in Dr. Byrne being elected. Thereupon Dr. McDonald commenced proceedings for a quo warranto, and, a conditional order having been obtained, the matter was argued before the court and judgment reserved. The Lord Chief Justice, who delivered the judgment of the court, said the opinion and the action of the Lord Chancellor were deserving of the highest respect, coming from such an authority, but, at the same time, he was not acting judicially under the circumstances, and it was their plain duty, if they were of a different opinion, to give the relator the benefit of their view. They were all of opinion that the disqualification referred to did not extend to county councils, and was confined to the one which was conferring the appointment. Dr. McDonald, not being a member of the county council, was therefore not disqualified, and he was duly elected to the office and must be put in possession of it. INTERNATIONAL, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL LAW. Foodstuffs as Contraband. THE charge in the reply from the German Government to the United States note, that Great Britain in her fight against Germany "summons hunger as an ally for the purpose of imposing upon a civilised people of seventy millions the choice between destitution and starvation or submission to Great Britain's commercial will," was answered by anticipation in that part of the note of Sir Edward Grey to the Government of the United States which deals with the question of foodstuffs. He there contends that no country has maintained more stoutly than Great Britain the principle that a belligerent should abstain from interference with the foodstuffs intended for the civil population, but that the reason for drawing a distinction between foodstuffs intended for the civil population and those for the armed forces or enemy disappears when the distinction between the civil population and the armed forces itself disappears, and he lays stress on the fact that, however much goods may be imported for civil use, it is by the military that they will be consumed if military exigences require it. A judicial answer to the vital question involving a definition of the circumstances under which provisions and other articles not generally contraband may be regarded as such was first given by Lord Stowell in the case of The Jonge Magaretha (1 Rob. Adm., p. 189, in which cheeses sent by a Papenberg merchant from Amsterdam to Brest, where a considerable French fleet was stationed, were condemned as contraband. After declaring, "I take the modern established rule to be this, that generally provisions are not contraband, but may become so under circumstances arising out of the particular situation of the war and the conditions of the parties engaged in it," the learned judge proceeded to enumerate three causes of exception tending to protect provisions from condemnation as contraband. The first was that they are the growth of the country which exports them; the second, that they are in their native and unmanufactured state; the third, that they are intended for the ordinary uses of life and not for military use. Despite the suggestion made by Lord Stowell in The Ranger (6 Rob. Adm., p. 125) that a claim might be made legally to condemn all provisions, whether intended for military consumption or not, the sounder view undoubtedly is that provisions can only be contraband when intended for military use or when sent to ports actually besieged or blockaded. Sir Edward Grey's contention is that the action of the German Government makes their foodstuffs to be destined primarily for the use of the military and brings them under the category of foodstuffs which conditional contraband, in the words of the unratified Declaration of London, "when found on a vessel for the armed forces of the enemy": (art. 35). Sir Edward Grey, however, very plainly suggested that the German Government would be likely to treat foodstuffs as absolute contraband, and recalled their attitude when the British Government in 1885 were discussing with the French Government the right to declare foodstuffs not intended for military forces to be contraband. France, during her hostilities with China in 1885, assumed an extreme position by declaring shipments of rice destined for any port north of Canton to be contraband of war by reason of the importance of rice in the feeding of the Chinese population as well as in the feeding of the Chinese armies. This attitude produced a declaration from Lord Granville, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the British Cabinet, that the decision of no Prize Court attempting to give effect to the doctrine put forward by France would be respected. Prince Bismarck, representing the German Government, viewed are the action of France with high approval in words quoted by Sir Edward Grey: "The measure in question has for its object the shortening of the war by increasing the difficulties of the enemy, and is a justifiable step in war if impartially enforced against all neutral States." Sir Edward Grey's statement that "His Majesty's Government is disposed to think the same view is still maintained by the German Government" does not necessarily imply a stricture of great severity on that Government. From the founding of international law the opinion prevailed that while provisions are not in themselves contraband, they may become so when their withholding offers a prospect of reducing the enemy by famine. The general views on that subject expressed by Grotius and upheld by Bynkershoek, received a more explicit statement from Vattel, who said that "commodities particularly useful in war, and the importation of which to an enemy is prohibited, are called contraband goods. Such are arms, ammunition, timber for shipbuilding, every kind of naval stores, horses, and even provi-ions in certain junctures when we have hopes of reducing the enemy by famine." "In 1597, Queen Elizabeth," Vattel records, "would not allow the Poles and Danes to furnish Spain with provisions, much less with arms, alleging that according to the rules of war it is lawful to reduce an enemy by famine with the view of obliging him to sue for peace": (Droit des Gens, iii.). Under the shadow of such precedents the English Governments in 1793 and 1795 seized all vessels laden with provisions bound to French ports, alleging as justification that there was a prospect of reducing the enemy by famine, and that the British nation was threatened by a scarcity of the articles directed to be seized. Reprisals. THE statements by the Prime Minister and Sir Edward Grey, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with reference to the violation by Germany of the fundamental principles of international morality, and many questions addressed to Ministers in the House of Commons in which suggestions have been embodied of recourse to retaliation on the part of the allies in punishment for such conduct of the enemy, may direct attention to the fact that retaliation may justify some acts of force which would otherwise be condemned. The golden rule has butlittle international application. As it has been well observed: "The whole international code is founded on reciprocity." If an enemy violates the established usages of war, it may become the duty as well as the right of his adversary to retaliate in order to prevent further excesses on his part. In any event, retaliation should consist of a repetition of the same or similar acts, and, so far as possible, it should be inflicted not vicariously, but on the actual wrongdoer. The resort to retaliatory measures is, according to the principles of international morality, under certain conditions justifiable. Thus in 1813, in the war between Great Britain and the United States, there was the possibility of the enforcement of a very aggravated form of reprisal and counter-reprisal growing out of the threat of Great Britain, afterwards abandoned, to try for treason threeand-twenty naturalised Irishmen captured in American vessels. When in the course of the American Civil War the Union Government liberated Southern slaves and enrolled them in the army, the Confederates, declining to recognise them as soldiers, treated them as revolted slaves, and as such refused to grant them quarter, whereupon President Lincoln threatened the execution of the prisoners as retaliation in kind. To give another instance. At the sudden outbreak of the war after the Peace of Amiens, Napoleon imprisoned all the British in France as retaliation for the British seizure of French ships that had come during peace into English ports. State property cannot be destroyed in accordance with the principles of international morality as a measure of retaliation. When in 1814 General Ross, in command of the British forces, occupied Washington and destroyed the public buildings, on the ground that American troops had burned towns in Canada, as in such a case retaliation in kind was not justifiable, the occurance was reprobated by Englishmen and Americans alike, and was the subject of the severest condemnation in the House of Commons by Sir James Mackintosh, who denounced the destruction of objects exempt among the civilised nations from the ravages of war. Cotton as Contraband. THE writer of a letter in the Times, entitled “Cotton as Contraband," inquires why cotton, some thousands of tons of which are used by Germany every day, has not been declared contraband. Cotton comes well within the category of contraband as defined in the British memorandum for the purposes of the London Conference, in which contraban is stated to be neutral property on board ship on the high seas or in territorial waters of either belligerent which (1) is by nature capable of being used to assist in and (2) is on its way to assist in the naval or military operations of the enemy. During the American Civil War cotton was treated as subject to capture by the Federals and to destruction by the Confederates themselves wherever such capture seemed probable. While in a popular sense cotton thus came to be known as contraband, it was, under the circumstances surrounding it, rather enemy property of such an exceptional character as to justify its destruction under a special rule dictated, according to Kent, by the necessary operations of war. Cotton was held to be constructive contraband because it took the place of money. The position was thus enunciated by Mr. Bayard, as Secretary of State, to Mr. Muruaga on the 28th June 1886, when explaining the treatment of cotton in the American Civil War: 'Cotton was useful as collateral security for loans negotiated abroad by the Confederate States Government, or, as in the present case, was sold by it for cash to meet current expenses or to purchase arms and munitions of war. Its use for such purposes was publicly proclaimed by the Confederacy, and its sale interdicted except under regulations established by a contract with the Confederate Government. Cotton was thus officially classed among war supplies, and as such was liable to be destroyed when found by the Federal troops, and turned to any use which the exigencies of war might dictate. Cotton, in fact, was to the Confederacy as much munitions of war as powder or ball, for it furnished the chief means of obtaining these indispensables of warfare." The American extension to private property on land of the well-settled principle that produce used to maintain the enemy's cause is at sea subject to confiscation or destruction has been sharply questioned by European writers such as Heffter and Geffcken. The argument is that if cotton or wheat may be treated under special condiconstructive contraband," any other article may tions of war as be so treated under the special conditions of war elsewhere. 46 False Flags. THE captain of the French steamer Ville de Lille, which has been sunk off Barfleur by a German submarine, states that when the submarine ordered him to stop the engines she was flying the British flag, but at the moment when he obeyed the order the flag was replaced by a German one. As regards the use of a false flag, theory and practice are unanimous in rejecting it during actual attack and defence, since the principle is considered inviolable that during actual fighting belligerent foes ought to be certain who is friend and who is foe. But many publicists maintain that until fighting actually begins belligerent forces may by way of stratagem make use of a false flag. Art. 23 (ƒ) of the Annex to Convention IV. of the Hague Regulations of 1907, which was ratified by Great Britain in Nov. 1909, only prohibits the improper use of a flag, thus leaving the question open as to what uses may or may not be proper. The exponents of the doctrine of the admissibility of the use of a false flag outside actual fighting can correctly maintain that the Hague Regulations do not prohibit it. British Prize Law permits the use of false colours, whereas the United States Naval War Code forbids it altogether: (art. 7). Stratagems, however, must be carefully distinguished from perfidy, since stratagems are allowable, whereas perfidy is prohibited. Halleck, whose views are indorsed by Professor Oppenheim, formulates the distinction by laying down the principle that, whenever a belligerent has expressly or tacitly engaged and is therefore bound by a moral obligation to speak the truth to an enemy, it is perfidy to betray the latter's confidence, because it contains a breach of good faith. Thus a flag of truce or the cross of the Genevan Convention must not be used for stratagem. GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. INSURANCE NOTES. THE annual reports of several life insurance offices have been published during the last few weeks, and, with those of the Equity and Law, the Legal and General, the National Mutual, the National Provident, the Prudential, and the Star lying before us, it should now be possible to get some idea of the way in which companies, viewed on a broad basis, are affected by the abnormal conditions of the time through which they are passing. One of the most vital things in the affairs of the life insurance company, as in those of the individual, is the maintenance of income. Every office, although in varying degree, is, of course, suffering from heavy depreciation of capital values, and the interest yield is therefore being watched now very closely, for it is upon this factor that the offices more than ever depend, not only to support their contracts, but, in the long run, to replace their capital losses. For sooner or later the securities will have to be written down to their real values, and although the Stock Exchange investments may, for the time being, be taken "as at the 31st Dec. 1913," by the special permission of the Board of Trade, this moratorium-for such, in effect, it is-can only be a temporary expedient, and none but the most sanguine imagine that at the close of the war there is going to be a miraculous recovery in the capital values of gilt-edged securities. To repair the destruction in Europe will be the work of a generation, and the old fixedincome securities, which form the backbone of life insurance finance, will not regain the prices at which they stood before the war until that work of reparation is completed and the capitalhunger of a devastated continent is appeased. IN the foregoing table the National Mutual is conspicuous as showing the highest yield, and in justice to the others a note should perhaps be made in passing, for the finance of that office is in some ways exceptional. In the first place, although nearly all others show a higher yield in 1914 than in 1913, the National Mutual shows a decrease, for in 1913 the yield was 2s. 1d. higher at £4 15s. 3d. The office with commendable frankness publishes a full list of its investments, and when that list is seen to contain Austrian, Hungarian, Brazilian, and Mexican securities, with a large block of Railway Ordinary Stocks, some vagaries in the interest yield, to say the very least, and to say nothing of capital values, are to be expected. BUT, speaking of the general tendency, it is clear that very important increases in the interest yields have been taking place. Unfortunately there is a rat in the granary, in the shape of the heavy rate of income tax ruling at the present time, and, although the figure must be regarded as a war figure and need not be considered, one may fervently hope, to be as permanent in its nature as the investments themselves, yet for some time to come it will clearly be a struggle between those two factors. The case of the Star will serve to show how tough a battle is being fought by those who are doing their utmost to improve the rate of interest earned in spite of the dead weight of the war taxes. In 1913 the Star funds were invested to yield an average rate of interest of £4 5s. 4d. per cent., which, after deduction of the income tax then current, gave a net yield of £4 1s. 7d. In 1914 the gross rate was screwed up to £4 9s. 4d., and yet, after deduction of tax, the net yield has only moved upwards by 2d. at £1 1s. 9d. Yet a move upwards it is, and a move upwards with taxes at war level, and probably nothing in the results of the difficult year through which we have been passing gives such solid comfort to the actuary of the Star as the contemplation of that simple fact. |
