On March 16, 1935, the Chancellor of the German Reich promulgated a law for the introduction of a system of general compulsory military conscription with a view to increasing the strength of the German army to twelve corps consisting of thirty-six divisions, aggregating, it was estimated, a total of 600,000 men. On the same day he convened the diplomatic representatives of the European Powers at Berlin and delivered to them the text of the law.

The exchange of ratifications on April 9, 1935, of the Franco-American Convention on Double Taxation by Ambassador Straus and Foreign Minister Laval calls attention to the development of a new field of law in which the United States has been participating since the post-war depression. International double taxation had existed for some time before the World War as the result of countries taxing income whether derived by non-residents from local sources or by residents from foreign sources, but it did not become a serious problem until the budgetary exigencies of the World War had caused such an increase in rates that the payment of taxes to the foreign country, as well as to the home country, resulted in taking practically all of the income from carrying on business in the two. Likewise, serious double taxation existed in the field of property and estate or inheritance taxes as the result of countries taxing property having a local situs as well as property having a foreign situs but belonging to persons domiciled within their territory.

The development of political relations between the Baltic States and the Soviet Union has passed through two distinctive stages. The first began with the conclusion of treaties of peace signed in 1920 between Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland, and the then Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. By the terms of these treaties Soviet Russia renounced all its previous rights of sovereignty over the territory of the Baltic States and unreservedly recognized their independence.

The Chinese Empire conveniently dates from 221 B.C., when the King of Ch’in coined the title which has since served for Emperor, and with considerable justness designated himself The First Emperor. Conqueror though he was, he left much still to be done in the process of consolidating under one imperial sovereignty all the kingdoms and tribes of the area which is now north and central China. During the pre-imperial era, intercourse among the rulers of the independent units naturally had a customary pattern, an Asiatic analogue to the rudimentary interstate law of the Greek city states. Two bloody centuries preceding The First Emperor have left much martial romance and philosophy both militant and pacifistic, but meager history. From a relatively quiet earlier period, 722-481, however, the classic annals transmit an abundance of critically acceptable history in palpable detail, with interstate incidents suitable for the purpose of case studies. This paper is limited to the first twenty years of that period, the earliest possible for its purpose, which is to induce interstate custom solely from episodes credibly recorded in Chinese classics. Only a few illustrative cases are quoted here, but all the generalizations rest wholly upon case studies unless specifically noted otherwise.

In its attempt to forge a lien between the process of pacific settlement outlined in the Covenant of the League of Nations and the judicial process provided for by the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice, the Special Assembly of the League of Nations dealing with the Chaco dispute has broken some new ground. The effort made in its report of November 24,1934, was not successful, or not wholly so; but it may have established a precedent which will serve in the future, and for this reason it seems to deserve some special attention.

Since the Treaty of Versailles—more in the nature of an armistice than a treaty of peace—we have from time to time heard rumors of wars; and today a state of war exists. Therefore neutrality is no longer a mere conception, it is a fact; and, as wars are contagious—at least they were a few years ago—many people there are who look upon a world war as a dread possibility, unless the present machinery of peace proves itself competent to bring about and to preserve peace.