A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 91, 11 January 1935, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

International Law

“The Dominion” editorially quotes a statement by Sir Thomas Holland that the international rule of law was “the vanishing point of jurisprudence, since it lacks any arbiter of disputed questions save public opinion.” Lord Birkenhead defines international law as “the rules acknowledged by the general body of civilised independent States to be binding upon them in their mutual relations.” On the question of whether international law was law at all Lord Salisbury observed that “it can be enforced by no tribunal.” Austin held that international law “rests merely on the support of public opinion,” and cannot therefore oe properly called law. A big step forward in international law was taken after the Great War by the term? of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Covenant contains comprehensive provisions for the pacific settlement of disputes between the members of the League. Each member is pledged to submit any dispute likely to lead to rupture between it and another member to inquiry by the Council, or to arbitration before any agreed tribunal, or to judicial settlement by the Permanent Court of International Justice. The member concerned is bound to accept the decisions and is pledged not to go to war 'with any member complying with the decisions given. Any member resorting to war in disregard of its covenants is to be deemed to have committed an aet of war against all other members of the League (Article 16). This article marks an important change in the character of general international law, in that, between States that are members of the League, it provides a sanction for the specific provisions for the pacific settlement of disputes, and generally, for the sanctity of treaties. The wrongdoer can now be distinguished as the State that resorts to war in disregard of the provisions of the Covenant. But the putting into effect of the appropriate punishment must ultimately depend on the support of an educated public opinion. Balance of Power.

Mr. Anthony'Eden has said that Britain’s foreign' policy is no longer based on the balance of power. Viscount Grey, who was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1905 to 1916, says in his “Twenty-five Years”: “I have never, so far as I recollect, used the phrase ’balance of power.’ I have often deliberately avoided the use of it, and I have never consciously set it before me as something to be pursued, attained and preserved. I am not, therefore, qualified to explain or define what it is. I imagine it to mean that when one Power or group of Powers is the strongest ‘bloc’ in Europe, our policy has been, or should be, that of creating, or siding with, some other combination of Powers, in order to make a counterpoise to the strongest Power or group, and so to preserve equilibrium in Europe. Now the Triple Alliance in 1886 (Germany, Austria and Italy) and the following years, when Lord Salisbury and Lord Rosebery were Prime Ministers, was indisputably the strongest combination, the most powerful thing in Europe. Nevertheless, the policy of friendship with it was followed by the British Government even before the Franco-Russian Alliance had come into existence as a counterpoise; and this policy was continued for many years, while the Triple Alliance continued, in spite of the Franco-Russian Alliance, to be the dominant factor in European diplomacy. During this period, therefore, Great Britain did not attempt to create any counterpoise to the strongest group; on the contrary, the British Government sided with that group. I do not affirm that this, when closely examined, disproves the theory that the tendency of British policy has been to preserve a balance of power. ... If all secrets were known it would probably be found that British Foreign Ministers have been guided by what seemed to them to be the immediate interest of this country without making elaborate calculations for .the future.” “Strad.” Violin.

The late Archbishop Redwood bequeathed his Stradivarius violin to St. Patrick's College, Silverstream. Antonio Stradivari (born about 1644, died 1737) was an Italian. He was born at Cremona and apprenticed in the trade of violin-making to Nicholas Amati. At first he modelled his violins on those of his but about 1684 he adopted larger proportions, and became more independent in his methods. For a long time he seems to have experimented, but from about 1700 his instruments show that he had arrived at definite conclusions as to the true proportions of a fine violin. Upon the instruments of his maturest period rests his fame as indubitably the greatest of all violin-makers. Stradivari made well over a thousand instruments, including violas and violoncellos, many of which are still extant. They are so much valued that fancy sums are paid whenever a “Strad” comes into the market. The finest specimens possess a rich full tone, but not all his work is equally good, some of his early instruments in particular suffering from the use of inferior material at a time when he could not afford to buy better. On his labels Stradivari adopted the usual custom, and Latinised his name as Antonins Stradivarius. Jibouti-Addis Ababa.

Italy is to have a block of shares in the railway from Jibouti to Addis Ababa, which provides Abyssinia with a trade outlet to the Red Sea. This railway runs through unproductive country for a large part of its length, and serves as a link between Abyssinia and the outside world. It suffers from the heavy rains and the thieving propensities of some of the half-tamed tribes through whose territory it passes; these folk have an incurable affection for the iron sleepers and copper telegraph wire as raw material for making spear-heads and ornaments of all kinds. With the exception of this railway all transport in Abyssinia is by caravans of pack animals—mules, donkeys and ponies predominating in the highlands, and camels in the low-lying districts. Addis Ababa is the capital of Abyssinia, with a population of 60,000. There, every day is market day, and thousands of people gather to buy and sell. Jibouti, in French Somaliland, is on the Gulf of Aden, and has a good harbour and modern equipment. It is also a coaling station and port of call for French vessels trading with the Far East. East Africa and Australia, and renders both those ships and French war vessels independent of the fortified British coaling station of Aden. It has a European population of about 400 and a large floating native population.