trate and a civil judge alternately. A permanent delegate, with the title Prefect of the Pyrénées Orientales, has charge of the interests of France in the Republic. Andorra pays an annual tribute to its joint overlords. Andorra has no diplomatic relations with other States, and its personality as a State is entirely absorbed in that of its rulers.

[Mérignhac, Traité de droit public international, Vol. II, pp. 223-226.]

AUSTRALIA, COMMONWEALTH OF.

Autonomous colony.

1. INTERNATIONAL STATUS.

1900, July 9.-Commonwealth of Australia constitution act. United the Colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania, and subsequently Western Australia.

2. EXTENT OF AUTONOMY.

a. Organization of Government.

A federation of States possessing local self-government. Executive authority.-Exercised nominally by a governor general as representative of the British Crown, with the advice of a federal executive council nominally appointed by the governor general but actually responsible to the Parliament.

Legislative authority.-Parliament consisting of the British Crown and a Senate and House of Representatives. The Senate consists of six senators elected by each of the original States for a term of six years; the House of Representatives consists of twice the number of senators, elected in the several States in proportion to their respective numbers.

b. Powers of Government.

Restrictions imposed.

The Federal Parliament possesses only the powers enumerated in the constitution, the residuary powers being retained by the member States; but the grant of powers to the Federal Parliament is very extensive and there are no restrictions in favor of the British Crown other than the nominal right of the governor general to withhold assent from a bill or to "reserve" it for the pleasure of the Crown. There is also a right of appeal from decisions of the highest court of the Commonwealth to the British Privy Council, but not in cases involving the constitu

tional relations between the Federal Government and the States.

Immigration and emigration.

Australia has full control over the regulation of immigration and emigration; it has also the power of naturalizing aliens, who thereupon acquire Australian citizenship as distinct from British citizenship.

Fiscal affairs.

Australia has full control over her revenues and expenditures as well as control over the coinage, over the extent and form of her public debt, and over banks and banking. Trade relations.

The determination of customs duties is entirely within the competence of the Australian Parliament; upon its own initiative it has adopted (1914) preferential treatment for imports from the United Kingdom.

Treaty-making competency.

Treaties entered into by the British Government are legally binding upon Australia, but of recent years the practice has been for the British Foreign Office to consult the Australian Government before entering into treaties immediately affecting its interests. This is particularly the case with commercial treaties, those concluded during the past decade containing clauses providing for the separate adherence and separate withdrawal of the British dominions generally. In the case of the arbitration treaties of 1908 the British Government reserved the right to obtain the concurrence of the self-governing dominions before accepting an agreement providing for the arbitration of a matter affecting their special interests.

BELGIUM.

INTERNATIONAL STATUS.

Neutralized State.

1839, April 19.-Treaty of London between Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia on the one hand and Belgium on the other hand.

Article I provides that the contracting parties recognize the 24 articles annexed to the treaty, forming the substance of a treaty concluded the same day between Belgium and Holland, as having the same force as if they were textually inserted in the present treaty, and that they are thus placed under the guarantee of their said Majesties, the contracting parties.

Article VII of the 24 articles referred to in Article I provides: "Belgium, within the limits described in Articles I, II, and IV, shall form an independent and perpetually neutral State. It shall be obligated to observe the same neutrality toward other States."

[Martens, N. R., XVI, 790.]

NOTE. This treaty of 1839 replaces the earlier treaties of October 15 and November 15, 1831, between the same powers, parties of the first part; the guarantee of neutrality being contained in an article (XXV) adopted November 15 as an additional article to the 24 articles of the treaty of October 15, which provided as follows: "The courts of Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, and Russia guarantee to His Majesty, the King of the Belgians, the execution of all the preceding articles." This article was omitted in 1839 when the guarantee of neutrality was inserted in the treaty to which the 24 articles were annexed.

1870, August 9.-Treaty between Great Britain and France. 1870, August 26.-Treaty between Great Britain and Prussia. These treaties provide specifically for the observance of the neutrality of Belgium during the war then in progress between France and Prussia, with the proviso that upon the expiration of the treaty, 12 months after the return of peace, the independence and neutrality of Belgium should continue to rest upon the treaty of 1839.

[For the text of the treaties see Phillimore, International Law, I, 113.]

NOTE. The neutralization of Belgium under the treaty of 1839 must be distinguished from the rights of Belgium as a neutral State under the general rules of international law. These rules, long of customary obligation, were specifically confirmed by the second Hague conference in the convention respecting the rights and duties. of neutral powers and persons in war on land, Article I of which reads:

"The territory of neutral powers is inviolable," and Article II of which reads:

"Belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys of either munitions of war or supplies across the territory of a neutral power." This convention, however, was merely a declaration of rights and duties and there was no under

standing at The Hague conference that the conventions there adopted carried with them an obligation on the part of the signatory powers to guarantee the observance of the conventions by the armed intervention of neutral third parties in cases where the conventions were violated.

[Malloy, Treaties, etc., between the United States and other powers, II, 2290.]

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (1878-1908).

1. INTERNATIONAL STATUS.

Turkish provinces administered by Austria-Hungary. 1878, July 13.—Treaty of Berlin.

Prior to 1878 Bosnia and Herzegovina were a part of Turkey, Herzegovina being a sandjak or province of the larger vilayet of Bosnia. By the treaty of San Stephano, March 3, 1878, Article XIV, the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina was to be reformed in accordance with a scheme which had been laid before the conference of Constantinople of 1876. The treaty of Berlin went much further in its scheme of reform and in Article XXV it was agreed that "The provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary." In 1908 Austria-Hungary set aside the provisions of the treaty of Berlin and annexed the two provinces. By autograph letter of October 5, addressed to the premiers of the two provinces, the sovereignty of the Emperor-King was extended to them.

2. EXTENT OF AUTONOMY.

The nominal sovereignty of Turkey over Bosnia and Herzegovina manifested itself only in the circumstance that foreign consuls in Bosnia and Herzegovina received their exequatur from Turkey instead of from Austria; in all other respects the administration of the two Provinces by Austria-Hungary followed the familiar lines of the government of subject territories. While, therefore, the autonomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina as respects Turkey was complete, as respects the administering power, Austria-Hungary, it was reduced to a minimum. The administration was conducted in the name of the Austrian Emperor through the imperial minister of finance at Vienna. A central administrative bureau was established at Sarajevo with departments of the interior, religion and education, finance and justice, and its official mem

bers were largely composed of Austrian Slavs, who were regarded as better able to understand the local customs and language. The only participation of the people of the administered Provinces in the government consisted in the election of 12 representatives who, together with the highest ecclesiastical authorities, composed the consultative assembly. Two years after the annexation of the Provinces by Austria-Hungary a large measure of autonomy was granted by the constitution of February 17, 1910, which made provision for a diet chosen by universal suffrage and empowered to deal with provincial finances, taxes, railways, police, public works, and civil and criminal law, subject to Austrian or Hun garian veto.

(For the text of the Constitution of 1910, see British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. CV, p. 505.)

BRITISH WEST INDIES.

A Crown colony in its traditional and ordinary form consists of a governor as chief executive, assisted by an executive council consisting of the principal administrative officers of the colony, together with a legislative council presided over by the governor and composed of members, some official, some unofficial, nominated as a body by the Crown and representing, as far as possible, the different classes, races, and interests of the colony. The ultimate control remains in the hands of the Crown represented by the governor, who is immediately subject to the secretary of state for the colonies. Owing to the varied and diverse character of the former Crown colonies, the new official name which has been adopted for them is "Colonies not possessing responsible government," by which designation they are placed in contrast with the self-governing dominions such as Canada and Australia.

"It is a common error to classify the British West Indies as Crown colonies. It is true that the majority of them do fall under that category, but Barbados and the Bahamas possess representative institutions, while in British Guiana the constitution of the legislative council does not provide for an official majority. None of the colonies, however, possesses responsible government, and in all the administration is carried on by public officers under the control of the secretary of state for the colonies. Officially the islands are classified as follows:

1. Colonies possessing an elected house of assembly and a nominated legislative council: The Bahamas and Barbados.

2. Colony possessing a partly elected legislative council, the constitution of which does not provide for an official majority: British Guiana.