want to avoid that. Now everybody, I think, who thinks about it recognizes the fact that there is work to be done, that somebody ought to do it, that the law of nations ought to be gotten on to a more definite and satisfactory basis; that you cannot do it by piling up organizations. The way to do it is to begin to do it; and I hope that beginning may be made not later than a quarter of eleven this morning.

I have been asked by Dr. Scott to read some notices. He wishes me to request all members who expect to attend the banquet tomorrow night to get the tickets today. I wish to say, however, that no member of this committee will be permitted to attend the banquet tomorrow unless he brings a certificate from Dr. Scott that he has done something today. A further notice reads: Please state that any subcommittee which needs clerical assistance may find it at No. 2 Jackson Place.

Before declaring this joint meeting adjourned, permit me to say a word about Lord Bryce. Great and noble man he was, full of public spirit in the broadest sense; not merely English public spirit, not merely British public spirit, but the spirit of ardent partisanship for all men everywhere on the face of the earth, of whatever race, or previous condition of servitude, who were struggling to attain the ends of free and orderly self-government; a man of noble and active enthusiasms but at the same time of the most simple and satisfactory common sense in the application of them; a genuine and special friend of America, watching for many years, with the greatest solicitude, all the ups and downs of our governmental experiments, and a man willing to take infinite trouble in the pursuit of the occupation of his life,the study, the biological study, of the struggles of men towards government. I went over to Europe two years ago, rather grumblingly, complaining that I was too old to be pulled and hauled around the world, and forced to do all sorts of odd jobs. I got up to The Hague, and I found a letter from Bryce written from Madrid. He wrote to ask me to be sure not to get away from Europe without his seeing me. He said he was just back from Morocco. He had been over there studying the tribes! Well, as Bryce was eightyone, and I was only seventy-five, I withdrew all my previous remarks, and settled down to my work cheerfully.

This continent owes him a great deal, and the British Empire owes him a great deal for one thing that he did: The course of diplomatic affairs in matters relating to British possessions,-Canada on one hand and the United States on the other, had always taken the rather devious course of, say, a communication between the State Department and the British Ambassador; that was sent to the Foreign Office, and sent by the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office; in accordance with the regular practice of the Colonial Office sent to the Government at Ottawa; and the Government at Ottawa having no branch or division for the purpose of dealing with such things, dealt with it as a whole; and after they had gotten through discussing and talking and finally coming to some conclusion, or no conclusion, they would report back

to the Colonial Office; the Colonial Office would send something on the basis of their report to the Foreign Office; the Foreign Office would send something back to the Ambassador; the Ambassador would go to the State Department; and then they would have a week to find out what it was all about! Well the representatives of Britain here trained in the diplomatic school were strictly correct in their treatment of such questions. But Bryce, when he found something coming up that really affected the interests of Canada, did not hesitate an hour to pack his gripsack, and to go to Ottawa and talk to them about it; and he would come back and know the whole thing! And that really started the new régime,-the new régime under which the long growing and rather sullen dissatisfaction of the British Dominions with having no voice in matters that affected their foreign relations was done away with. They acquired under his leadership as British Ambassador here the share in matters affecting their foreign relations that they thought they were entitled to; and it was a great thing for Britain, and for all of us, that that was the condition when this great war came on, instead of the condition of dissatisfaction that had preceded it.

I had a letter the other day telling about his end, in full possession of his strength, in full possession of his mental and physical powers; active, alert, busy, full of the great work that he was just entering upon, upon the life and times of Justinian. He went to bed as usual in the evening; in the morning he was gone, lying peacefully in his bed, an ideal end of a busy and active and restless life.

I feel myself not only great affection, but a feeling of grateful appreciation of the man who was real and who spent himself in doing real things, not for his aggrandizement, but to help everybody who was trying to do the things that he was interested in having done.

Mr. CHARLES HENRY BUTLER. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say that we have been impressed with the remarks of the chairman, and at the proper time in the proceedings of the Society I shall ask to have these remarks transferred to the minutes of the meetings of the whole Society, and made the basis of a proper resolution to transmit to Lady Bryce, expressing the regard and esteem of this Society and the affection which this Society always had for Lord Bryce.

The PRESIDENT. That is very appropriate. Is there any further business to be brought before the General Committee?

Professor GEORGE G. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, there are present a considerable number of members of the Society not members of, or not named on, these several subcommittees. Would it be in order that the members should be invited to share in the discussions of these subcommittees as they may choose?

The PRESIDENT. Quite so; quite so. The organization in this Society is not an end; it is a means.

It is understood, then, that the members of the Society are invited to join any one of the subcommittees that interests them and take part in the discussion. Subcommittee No. 1 on "Visit, Search and Capture" I will assign to this corner of the room here (indicating); Subcommittee No. 2 on the "Status of Government Vessels," I will assign to this corner here (indicating), and if they do not behave, they will be subject to visit, search and capture by Subcommittee No. 1. Subcommittee No. 3 on "Problems of Maritime Warfare" will be put down in the corner on the left (indicating); Subcommittee No. 4 on "Offenses which could be characterized as International Crimes and Procedure" may have their meeting place in the remaining corner of the room.

Upon the adjournment of the subcommittees this morning they will adjourn to meet at half-past two this afternoon in their appropriate corners, and at half-past eight this evening Baron Korff will oblige us by a paper or an address upon "The Equality of States."

Is there any further business to be brought before the general committee? If not, the committee will separate and resolve itself into its constituent elements, meeting in their respective corners.

A.M.

Whereupon, the meeting of the committee adjourned at 10.50 o'clock

THIRD SESSION

Friday, April 28, 1922, at 8.30 o'clock p.m.

The Society was called to order at 8.30 o'clock P.M., with Honorable Oscar S. Straus, a Vice-President and Chairman of the Executive Council, in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN. There is some little business to be transacted before the session begins. It is customary to appoint a nominating committee. Under the amendment to the constitution which will come up and doubtless will be adopted tomorrow, it is provided that an interval of at least one year shall elapse between terms of service on the Executive Council. The Council is composed of three classes, each of eight members, whose terms expire in successive years. The class that goes out this year will be those that are designated to serve until 1922, and new nominations for the class of 1925 will be made. We are not a closed corporation, but we are growing older. We are sixteen years old now. Many of us who started sixteen years ago are not quite as young as we were then, and we want this Society always to have the push and energy to go forward and meet the great problems of the reconstruction of the world on a basis of law. Therefore by this renovation we are not going to die by old age. It is my duty to appoint a nominating committee to present the nominations at the business meeting, which is held tomorrow morning at ten o'clock.

I appoint to such nominating committee Hon. Frank C. Partridge, Prof. Charles Cheney Hyde, Hon. Lester H. Woolsey, Prof. Phillip Marshall Brown and Prof. Francis W. Aymar. I would suggest that that committee meet this evening after the session is closed so that they can confer and make arrangements for a further meeting as they decide. This committee is to present nominations, as I have stated, for the eight members of the council of the class of 1925; they are to present nominations for honorary president; they are to present nominations for president, and they are to present nominations for eighteen vice-presidents. There are three new vice-presidents who must be nominated to fill the vacancies caused by death of three of the present vice-presidents, and those three, I am sorry to say, are Hon. Philander C. Knox, Hon. Horace Porter, and Chief Justice White.

I am requested to state that the members should secure tickets for the banquet at latest tomorrow morning from Mr. Finch, who has charge of the banquet. I trust that will not be neglected because certain arrangements have to be made and they cannot be made later, and therefore the reservations should be made not later than tomorrow morning.

The session this evening will be constituted by an address on "The Equality of States," by Baron Korff, after which the four important com

mittees who have charge of the four subjects designated upon the program will make their reports. I will have something to say about that before calling upon them to make their reports.

I now have the pleasure of calling upon Baron Korff, Professor of Political Science in the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University.

THE EQUALITY OF STATES

ADDRESS BY BARON S. A. KORFF

Professor of Political Science in the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: It was with a feeling of distinct hesitation that I decided to tackle the question on the program this evening, and for several reasons, not only because I knew that I would be faced by an eminent audience, having in its midst some of the foremost specialists in the United States, and that I had to deal with the most intricate questions of international politics, but because I realized that in a way I would have against me the policies of certain great Powers, and finally because the main principle is still controversial. Yet I gathered up my courage because I considered that now is the time more than ever to discuss this principle. International law, after the great war, is very slowly but gradually picking up and being reconstructed, and it is time to consider the main and basic principles.

In this respect two questions stand out preeminently in my mind. First of all, Is any legal order, such as we would like international law to stand for, possible without the principle of equality? It is no mere coincidence that in this respect our thoughts go back to the eighteenth century, and we think of the father of the theories of personal freedom, Samuel Pufendorf, and that these questions of personal freedom are very closely connected with the important principle of the equality of states.

The second question that comes to my mind is of a political nature, Is the conception of inequality harmless? And I answer it also in the negative. I think that it bears some very great dangers for the ideas of international law. Not so long ago there was made a valiant attempt to analyze and study this domain. A book was written that I read with the greatest pleasure,1-constructive, stimulating, interesting; every page I found enthralling; and yet when I had read it through and put it down, I put it down with a certain feeling of dissatisfaction. It ought to have a second volume with more definite conclusions.

The source of trouble in this question is the growth of the so-called great Powers. There formed gradually in the nineteenth century a small group of nations that were imposing their will and policies on the rest of the world, like a sort of self-appointed executive committee; that policy was constantly

1E. D. Dickinson, The Equality of States in International Law.