DECLARATIONS OF WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 89, 5 August 1914, Page 4

DECLARATIONS OF WAR.

Wliat ' s the usage of the past as regards declaration of war? The question is one iiliont which there is some dissei't, but it appears thai as the world grows older its manners grow worse. lii earlier days official declaration, with courtly formality, usually notified the world at large that a struggle by foree'of anus was about to take place. The general, question, npnrl Iron! usage or international law, is oi great general interest just now, for,

. I as it has been well put, the rights and| interests of neutrals iu regard to their shipping and belongings on shore are obviously concerned in the question whether a war can exist without a I formal declaration, and. if so, when it inay.be considered to have cam-, menced." -Sir Sherston Baker, one of the best legal authorities on tins point, writes as follows:—Even ad-, mitting the views of Hautefeuille that wars commenced without official announcements are violations of the law of nations, in so far as concerns the failure to make a formal declaration.; it will hardly be contended that alii the belligerent acts of the parties during the continuance of the campaign are of consequence illegal, and violations of international jurisprudence., !t is .therefore, necessary to fix a time when the war is to be regarded as regular or formal. This is no.easy matter.; different solutions to the question have been proposed, the most sensible of which is the rule that in such cases the legitimate consequences of war flow directly from the state of public hostilities, and that the effects which the voluntary law of nations contribute to solemn war date with respect to belligenents' rights from the commencement of such hostilities, and, with respect to neutral duties, from an official announcement, or a positive knowledge, of the existence of the war."