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6. Instructions of President to Philippine Commission, 1900..

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4. Convention between United States and Dominican Republic...

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7. Philippine government act, July 1, 1902.....

8. Philippine government act, August 29, 1916..

9. Porto Rico government act, April 12, 1900..

10. Porto Rico government act, March 2, 1917..

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The purpose of the present memorandum is to present types of States whose sovereignty has been restricted in one way or another by formal international agreements, as well as types of autonomous colonies upon which so large a degree of self-government has been conferred as to make them approximate to the status of a State of restricted sovereignty.

SOVEREIGN AND SEMI-SOVEREIGN STATES.

A distinction must be made from the outset between sovereign and semi-sovereign States as technical terms of international law. Sovereign States consist of those States which exercise supreme authority over all persons and property within their borders and are completely independent of all control from without. Such restrictions upon their conduct as they are subject to exist in consequence of the general rules of international law and do not involve legal dependence upon another State or States.

Semi-sovereign States are those which lack some of the attributes of a full Sovereign State, but which at the same time possess sufficient independence in the organization of their Government and in the control of their affairs to be able to claim some degree of international personality. Owing to the absence of a clear line of division between sovereign and semi-sovereign States, it is difficult at times to say to which group a particular State of restricted sovereignty belongs. The question is of importance because of the implications of membership within the family of nations.

Sovereign States alone are members of the family of nations in the strict sense; they alone possess international personality to the

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