DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLICATION 1506 For sale by the PREFACE As early as 1877 the Department of State felt the need for a digest of international law in the conduct of its daily work. In that year "A Digest of the Published Opinions of the Attorneys-General, and of the Leading Decisions of the Federal Courts, with reference to International Law, Treaties, and Kindred Subjects", prepared by the Honorable John L. Cadwalader, Assistant Secretary of State, was published by the Government Printing Office. Mr. Cadwalader explained in the preface to the publication that "In considering questions relating to international law, or arising under treaty provisions, the want of some ready means of reference to conclusions which have formerly been reached on the same or kindred questions has constantly been experienced." The topics in that small volume of less than 300 pages were arranged alphabetically, the volume concluding, for example, with the subject-headings "War" and "Warrants". It was the forerunner of other more recent and more comprehensive digests prepared under the auspices of and published by the Government. In 1886 there was published, pursuant to a resolution of Congress approved by the President on July 28 of that year, 24 Stat. 345, a second digest of international law prepared by Dr. Francis Wharton, who was then Chief Examiner of Claims of the Department of State. Less than a year later, in 1887, a second edition of that digest consisting of 4,000 copies was printed. The second edition contained certain new material in the Appendix to the third volume. Wharton stated in the "Preliminary Remarks" to his work that if the records of the Department of State covered by his three volumes should be printed as a whole "they would cover four hundred volumes of the ordinary law-book size" and that it "would be difficult for one seeking in haste to find rulings on some pending question of international law, to come to an accurate result from the study, in the short time assigned to him, of so vast a mass of authorities”. By an act of Congress, approved February 20, 1897, provision was made for "revising, reindexing, and otherwise completing and perfecting by the aid of such documents as may be useful, the second edition of the Digest of International Law of the United States". 29 Stat. 579, 584. This resulted in the publication by the Government in 1906-twenty years after the first publication of Wharton's Digestof "A Digest of International Law" in seven volumes, together with an index volume, prepared by the Honorable John Bassett Moore, who had previously been Assistant Secretary of State. Approximately thirty-five years have elapsed since the publication of that invaluable work. During this time many changes in the international structure have taken place and many new situations, unique in character, have arisen-some as a result of a World War (1914-18) and others flowing from the more normal processes of evolution. (A considerable portion of the manuscript of this work was prepared before the outbreak of the European war in 1939.) The documents and files accumulated in the Department of State since 1906, which it is the purpose of the present digest to cover, are more voluminous than those for the entire period prior to that year. The material contained in Moore's Digest is not duplicated in the present publication. In general the outline of that Digest, and of the earlier publication by Wharton, has been followed for the convenience of those who may desire to use the Digests together. Certain departures in arrangement, however, will be noted. For example, the chapters on "Domicil", "Conventional and Diplomatic Relations”, and "Intervention", have been omitted; but material on those subjects is incorporated at appropriate places in other chapters. No effort has been made to include all available material on any given topic. On the contrary, difficulty has been experienced in eliminating material and selecting that thought to be most representative. For the most part the Digest represents the position of the Government of the United States on the subjects discussed as revealed by the voluminous records of the Department of State and to a lesser degree by decisions of the Federal courts, opinions of the attorneys general, etc. The importance of a proper understanding of the facts of a situation in an evaluation of opinions and pronouncements relating to it, has been recognized by the attention given to the historical and factual settings of the material presented. Because of their large number and importance the prime quotations have been placed in the same type as the text. They are, however, readily distinguishable from the text by differences in leading and marginal indention. An index to the entire Digest will be found in the final volume. A work of such wide scope as this cannot be accomplished by the labors of a single worker. I have been fortunate in having associated with me a small group of energetic and resourceful people engaged in research, and I gratefully acknowledge their invaluable help. I express my indebtedness to Miss Marjorie Whiteman, Mr. Durward V.. Sandifer, Miss Katherine B. Fite, Mr. Sidney D. Spear, Mr. John W. Halderman, Mr. William W. Bishop, Jr., Mr. John Maktos, Mr. Frederick M. Diven, Mr. E. Barbour Hutchison, and Miss Alberta Colclaser for their assistance, during varied periods of time, in collecting and analyzing vast quantities of material. For their cooperation in the initiation of the work, I am indebted to the Secretary of State, the Honorable Cordell Hull, and former Under Secretary of State, the Honorable William Phillips, who saw the need for a new digest of international law covering the period since 1906 and desired that I should undertake the work. I am indebted to the Honorable Wilbur J. Carr, the Honorable George S. Messersmith, and the Honorable Breckenridge Long, who, successively, as Assistant Secretaries of State, gave their valued cooperation. I also express my gratitude for the cooperation of Mr. Charles B. Hosmer, Executive Assistant to Assistant Secretary Long, Mr. Edward Yardley, Director of Personnel, Dr. E. Wilder Spaulding, Chief of the Division of Research and Publication, and his predecessor, the late Dr. Cyril Wynne, and for the faithful work of Miss Alice M. Ball, Chief of the Special Documents Section, who, with her assistants, so carefully edited the manuscript for printing. I express my appreciation of the helpfulness of Miss Martha L. Gericke, Librarian, and of Mr. David A. Salmon, Chief of the Division of Communications and Records, who, together with their staffs, have been extremely obliging in making available the books and manuscript records of the Department. To each of these officials, as well as to others of my colleagues who have been helpful in reading portions of the manuscript, I am deeply indebted. WASHINGTON, D.C., 1940. G. H. H. |