CONVENTION FOR PEACEFUL ADJUSTMENT of International Differences. July 107 CONVENTION With Respect to Laws and Customs of War on Land. July 29, 129 SUEDO NORVÉGIENNE. Dissolution de l'Union. 29 octobre, 1905.... GREAT BRITAIN-FRANCE. Convention Concerning the New Hebrides. October 179 Document Relating to the Situation of. December 20, 1905.. 213 JAPAN-KOREA. Treaty Ratified. July 25, 1894. JAPAN-RUSSIA. Memorandum Concluded and Signed at Seoul. May 14, 215 JAPAN-RUSSIA. Protocol Concerning Question of Corea. June 9, 1896...... 216 JAPAN-RUSSIA. Protocol Concerning Question of Corea. April 25, 1898.... 217 JAPAN-COREA. Agreement Regarding Communications Services. April 1, 219 GREAT BRITAIN-FRANCE-ITALY. Agreement Respecting Importation of Arms and Ammunition into Abyssinia. December 13, 1906... . . . UNITED STATES-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Customs Revenues of the Dominican Republic. February 8, 1907...... 231 234 238 FRANCE-SIAM. Convention Respecting Boundary. March 23, 1907........ 263 GERMANY-UNITED STATES. Commercial Agreement. April 22-May 2, 1907.. 267 Convention for Exemption of Hospital Ships. INTERNATIONAL. MEXICO-UNITED STATES. Convention for Elimination of Bancos in the Rio December 272 CONFERENCE OF 1902. Treaty of Obligatory Arbitration between Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Salvador, and Uruguay. January 29, 1902.... CONFERENCE OF 1902. Treaty for Arbitration of Pecuniary Claims between the United States of America, Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Salvador, Guatemala, Hayti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaraugua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. CONFERENCE OF 1906. Resolution on Arbitration. August 7, 1906.. UNITED STATES. Rules Governing Granting and Issuing of Passports. June 317 DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE INTEGRITY OF CHINA AND THE OPEN DOOR" Treaty of Peace Between Japan and China (April 17, 1895). Treaty of Retrocession by Japan to China of the Southern Portion of the Province of Feng-Tien (November 8, 1895)... Secretary Hay's Circular Note of July 3, 1900, to the Powers Co-operating in China, Defining the Purposes and Policy of the United States...... 386 Agreement Between Great Britain and Germany, Defining Their Mutual Policy in China (October 16, 1900)... Final Protocol Between the Powers and China, signed September 7, 1901.. 388 Convention Between Russia and Japan, Signed at St. Petersburg, July AGREEMENT BETWEEN JAPAN AND KOREA, Relating to the Internal Adminis- tration of Korea, signed at Seoul, July 24, 1907. CONVENTION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA, Containing Arrangements PROTOCOL PROVIDING FOR A GENERAL CONFERENCE Between the Republics of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, Signed 396 398 ACT OF THE DOMINICAN CONGRESS Authorizing the Executive to Issue and Sell $20,000,000 Bonds Pursuant to the Convention Between the United States and the Dominican Republic, Concluded February 8, 1907...... BRAZILIAN LAW Respecting the Expulsion of Foreigners, January 7, 1907.... 410 JAPANESE LAW OF 1899, Placing Restrictions on the Residence of Foreign Instructions for the Reconnoissance of the Rio Verde and its Headwaters.. 424 AGREEMENT BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN, AND GREAT BRITAIN AND SPAIN. Signed May 16, 1907, for the Maintenance of the Territorial Status Quo of These Three Countries in the Mediterranean and in that Part of the Atlantic Ocean Which Washes the Shores of Europe and Africa....... 425 OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS Señor Luís M. Drago, Minister of Foreign Relations of the Argentine Republic, to Señor Martin García Mérou, Minister of the Argentine Republic to the United States1 [TRANSLATION] ARGENTINE REPUBLIC MINISTRY OF FOREIGN RELATIONS AND WORSHIP Buenos Aires, December 29, 1902. MR. MINISTER: I have received your excellency's telegram of the 20th instant concerning the events that have lately taken place between the Government of the Republic of Venezuela and the Governments of Great Britain and Germany. According to your excellency's information the origin of the disagreement is, in part, the damages suffered by subjects of the claimant nations during the revolutions and wars that have recently occurred within the borders of the Republic mentioned, and in part also the fact that certain payments on the external debt of the nation have not been met at the proper time. Leaving out of consideration the first class of claims the adequate adjustment of which it would be necessary to consult the laws of the several countries, this Government has deemed it expedient to transmit to your excellency some considerations with reference to the forcible collection of the public debt suggested by the events that have taken place. At the outset it is to be noted in this connection that the capitalist who lends his money to a foreign state always takes into account the resources of the country and the probability, greater or less, that the obligations contracted will be fulfilled without delay. All governments thus enjoy different credit according to their degree of civilization and culture and their conduct in business transactions; and these conditions are measured and weighed before making any loan, the terms being made more or less onerous in accordance with the preeise data concerning them which bankers always have on record. In the first place the lender knows that he is entering into a contract 1United States: Foreign Relations, 1903, p. 1. with a sovereign entity, and it is an inherent qualification of all sovereignty that no proceedings for the execution of a judgment may be instituted or carried out against it, since this manner of collection would compromise its very existence and cause the independence and freedom. of action of the respective government to disappear. Among the fundamental principles of public international law which humanity has consecrated, one of the most precious is that which decrees that all states, whatever be the force at their disposal, are entities in law, perfectly equal one to another, and mutually entitled by virtue thereof to the same consideration and respect. The acknowledgment of the debt, the payment of it in its entirety, can and must be made by the nation without diminution of its inherent rights as a sovereign entity, but the summary and immediate collection at a given moment, by means of force, would occasion nothing less than the ruin of the weakest nations, and the absorption of their governments, together with all the functions inherent in them, by the mighty of the earth. The principles proclaimed on this continent of America are otherwise. "Contracts between a nation and private individuals are obligatory according to the conscience of the sovereign, and may not be the object of compelling force," said the illustrious Hamilton. "They confer no right of action contrary to the sovereign will." The United States has gone very far in this direction. The eleventh amendment to its Constitution provided in effect, with the unanimous assent of the people, that the judicial power of the nation should not be extended to any suit in law or equity prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. The Argentine Government has made its Provinces indictable, and has even adopted the principle that the nation itself may be brought to trial before the supreme court on contracts which it enters into with individuals. What has not been established, what could in no wise be admitted, is that, once the amount for which it may be indebted has been determined by legal judgment, it should be deprived of the right to choose the manner and the time of payment, in which it has as much interest as the creditor himself, or more, since its credit and its national honor are involved therein. This is in no wise a defense for bad faith, disorder, and deliberate and voluntary insolvency. It is intended merely to preserve the dignity of the public international entity which may not thus be dragged into war with detriment to those high ends which determine the existence and liberty of nations. |