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accordance with local regulations, and submit himself to such tribunals as might in the respective countries care for the administration of the estates of deceased persons.

Until the Ghio judgment was rendered no American decision recorded in any report that has been seen, denied a consul the right to administer under the treaty in question. In taking a position flatly opposed to that of the courts in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Michigan (according to reports of nisi prius cases), the California tribunal has employed a method of interpretation which, irrespective of the conclusion reached, should be tested by appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE ON THE LEGAL PROBLEMS OF AVIATION

An international committee on the legal problems of aviation has recently been constituted under the auspices of various associations interested in the progress of aërial navigation in France with the coöperation of the Aëro Club of France and the International Aërial League. This body which is to be known as the Comité Juridique International de l'Aviation, has a two-fold object: (1) to elaborate in each country the legal doctrines of aërial navigation with a special view toward legislation favorable to its progress; (2) to defend the interests of aviation in all countries before all official bodies.

In France itself, the Committee enjoys a most extensive organization. At the seat of each appellate tribunal, a doctrinal sub-committee composed of magistrates, professors of law, advocates and ministerial officials, has for its mission to elaborate a code of the air; to make a systematic collection of all literary documentary material relating to the legal problems of aërial navigation and to collaborate in the publication of a Review intended to constitute an official organ of the committee. In coöperation with the "doctrinal committee," a "committee of defense" operates as a practical counselor and active defender before legislative,

8 The case of Lanfear v. Ritchie, 9 La. Annual, 96, cannot be regarded as in point because it did not involve the right of a consular officer to administer under the Argentine treaty. In the case of Re Logoriato's Estate, 69 N. Y. Supp. 507, the adverse comments of the court on the consular right under the Argentine treaty were dicta. The consul was even in that case granted letters of administration by default of a competent person to oppose him.

administrative and judicial tribunals of all societies and individuals interested in aviation whe apply for its assistance. These committees work through an active delegate so as to obtain unity of action. In countries. other than France, the organization is not completely effected as yet, although it is intended to place each country under a national delegate and the most important jurisdictions under local delegates.

The publication of the Review is already under way. It has appeared monthly since January, 1910, and bears the title Revue juridique internationale de la locomotion aérienne and is devoted to the purposes of the Committee as already outlined.

The detailed organization which has thus been undertaken in France. contemplates a closer bond of union with other countries and the large number of distinguished jurists who are giving their moral as well as active support to the Committee, testifies to the very lively interest devoted, at least in France, to the influence which aërial navigation promises to exert upon all branches of jurisprudence, international as well as local, public as well as private.

At the meeting of the Institute of International Law which took place in Paris during March and April of this year, the topic received considerable attention and led to an exchange of views. M. Paul Fauchille, who, in 1902, presented a draft law suitable for uniform. legislation in all countries, presented to the Institute an entirely new projet in the way of a draft convention for international acceptance relating only to peace times and containing modifications suggested by the mechanical advance of the art since 1902.

The Institute did not make this projet or the subject with which it deals the order of the day for 1910, but, instead, decided to submit the same to the Diplomatic Conference upon Aërial Navigation which it is intended shall meet in Paris some time during this year. This Conference, called by the French Government, will be composed of official diplomatic delegates from as many countries as will accept the invitation. and will consider a large number of problems relating to the subject, dealing more particularly with the administrative regulations governing international flights, the identification of the various types of air-craft and rules applicable to pilots. A report has recently been made to the Chamber of Deputies by M. Paul Deschanel upon the subject of this forthcoming conference and the expenses therefor are to be embraced in the budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the year 1910.

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THE NEW ENGLAND ARBITRATION AND PEACE CONGRESS

The New England Arbitration and Peace Congress, held in Hartford and New Britain, Connecticut, May 8, 9, 10, and 11, presented a dignified contribution to the literature of international peace. The Congress was held under the auspices of the American Peace Society and of the Connecticut Peace Society. The headquarters were in the Center Church House, Hartford, kindly loaned by the First Church of Christ in Hartford, a society founded in 1832 by Thomas Hooker, "Father of American Democracy."

Hartford has long been a center of interest in the abolition of war. In 1828 the Hartford County Peace Society was founded, in 1831 the Connecticut Peace Society began, and in 1835 the American Peace Society moved from New York to Hartford, where it took over the American Advocate of Peace, a quarterly journal which had been started by the Connecticut Peace Society in 1834. Thus Hartford may be called one of our ancient centers of interest in the cause of international peace. Indeed, one might point out that the Hartford Convention of 1814 was in a sense a peace congress of some little interest to the student of history. New Britain, a city of nearly fifty thousand, and ten miles from Hartford, felt a peculiar interest in the Congress this year because Elihu Burritt was born in that place just one hundred years ago. New Britain is royally proud of the "Learned Blacksmith's" career, and generously demonstrated its affection by speech, pageant, and reception Tuesday afternoon and evening, May 10th. It was in the afternoon, near Burritt's grave, and in the presence of many thousands that the orator of the day, Dr. James Brown Scott, turned from his main thought long. enough practically to announce that there had been essentially accomplished in this centennial year of Burritt's birth what Burritt plead and labored for a half-century ago, namely, an International Court of Arbitral Justice. A dispassionate retrospect must view this announcement, because of his dramatic color and historical importance, as the great single utterance of the Congress.

But there were other utterances at the various meetings, and for a variety of reasons many of them were of importance. John Brown Lennon, descendant of John Brown, and treasurer of the American Federation of Labor for many years, said in a carefully prepared paper:

What has been the lot of the world's toilers through all these ages of contest and war, slavery, serfdom, ignorance, poverty, squalor and spoliation? Mark

war.

*

man's "Man with the Hoe" is a true picture of the worker under the reign of War weapons from the galley to the modern dreadnaught, from the bow and arrow to the repeating rifle, have all tended to increase the war spirit, rather than to retard it. The economic forces of the world which depend upon peace for their best development are working day and night – silently perhaps but none the less effectively, against war. And with such agitation as this meeting and other conferences, great progress is being made. While we keep ourselves clean, our honor is safe; and I can see no sense in the claim that matters involving the honor of nations cannot be arbitrated. When industrial conditions are such that man can secure a proper standard of living by reasonable labor, the spirit of covetousness, that underlies war, will die; and wars will be at an end.

Henry Wade Rogers, dean of the Yale Law School, took the gavel as the president of the Congress at the meeting at two o'clock p. m. in the House of Representatives at the Connecticut capitol. Dean Rogers' address was characteristically clear and convincing. He believes that peace congresses are gradually but surely educating the people away from war and toward the settlement of international disputes by reason rather than force. He denies emphatically that war is necessary for the development of a nation's highest qualities, and finds his greatest hope in an international court which shall function as a substitute for war.

Interest in the congress was shown by leading men of various fields. Letters were received from President Taft, Secretary Knox, Secretary Dickinson, Mr. Bryan, and Mr. Gompers. Ambassador Bryce wrote two letters, one upon the general problem of peace and another appropriate to the recent death of England's king. Jackson H. Ralston proved the fallacy in the old argument for vital interest and national honor. Reverend O. P. Gifford submitted a three-plank peace platform as follows: No strife between brothers, no profit from war, tax paid only to righteousness and peace." President Thomas of Middlebury College contended that religion is the dynamic of a successful world peace movement.

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At the session Wednesday afternoon Honorable Simeon E. Baldwin, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, delivered an address entitled, "International Law as a Factor in the Establishment of Peace.' Later in the afternoon of the same day, at the annual public meeting of the American Peace Society, General John W. Foster, exSecretary of State, notwithstanding a threatened serious tonsilitis, delivered as the annual address, "War not Inevitable. Illustrations from the History of our Country." Mr. Foster's conclusion was as follows:

The review which I have made has shown that all the foreign wars in which we have engaged were brought on by our own precipitate action, that they were not inevitable, and that they might have been avoided by the exercise of prudence and conciliation. It also shows that it has been possible for us to live in peace with our nearest neighbor, with which we have the most extensive and intimate relations, the most perplexing and troublesome questions. Our history also shows that during our whole life as an independent nation, no country has shown towards us a spirit of aggression or a disposition to invade our territory. If such is the case, is it not time that every true patriot, every lover of his country and of its fair fame in the world, every friend of humanity, should strive to curb the spirit of aggression and military glory among our people and seek to create an earnest sentiment against all war?

We repeat that the New England Arbitration and Peace Congress succeeded in presenting a dignified contribution to the literature of international peace.

MR. ROOSEVELT'S NOBEL ADDRESS ON INTERNATIONAL PEACE

Mr. Roosevelt's appearance at Christiania, Norway, was a notable occasion and the address he delivered on May 5, 1910, as recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was a notable address. His views are not in themselves novel they are the views of his enlightened fellow-countrymen expressed countless times both in public and private by those who believe. that the old order of things is changing, that the peace of the future should be based upon justice and righteousness, not upon force and selfinterest, and that steps should be taken to provide instrumentalities for the changed conditions and to accelerate their progress. Instances are, however, rare of men in official and commanding position who have the courage to express such views, and their expression by such persons gives them a currency and an influence which they would not otherwise possess. We know that peace is desirable if it be just; that arbitration is an admirable method of settling the right of a controversy and that treaties. of arbitration are the means of securing the arbitration of future as well as past controversies; that a permanent international tribunal is, if not absolutely necessary, nevertheless highly desirable, and that reason and its, maybe, self-preservation suggest, indeed require a limit to the increase of land and naval armaments. But we are confirmed in our beliefs and justified in our exertions when a man of Mr. Roosevelt's experience and standing not only proclaims our views, but proposes that they be put into effect and operation by international agreement.

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