The first United States minister to Mexico was Joel R. Poinsett. To the ordinary mind, however, his chief title to fame does not rest on his filling this or a number of other official posts; but on the fact that he made known to the world the beautiful Christmas flower which in honor of him was named “poinsettia.” But even this discovery was a result of his diplomatic appointment; for it was while on his mission to Mexico that he observed it and brought it to the attention of botanists. It is the purpose of this article to study only the minister’s personal conduct while in Mexico and his relations with the government and people, explaining the grounds for the charges made against him of meddling in the internal affairs of the country.

Aërial navigation, owing to the unusual impetus given to it by the Great War, now promises to result in one of the most profound influences affecting the conditions of modern civilization. It is difficult to realize that only twenty years have elapsed since the program of the First Hague Conference proposed “to prohibit the throwing of projectiles or explosives of any kind from balloons, or by any similar means”; and that one of the express causes inducing the nations of the world to agree to the proposal was the undeveloped character of the art of aviation. Although the treaty was short-lived and expired in 1905, the art had so greatly advanced that a complete change of the attitude of many governments had taken place and the renewal of the treaty was out of the question.

The opening of the war inaugurated a feverish competition to perfect every possible type of aircraft for use in attack as well as for reconnaissance. The stern demands of military tactics introduced an entirely new phase in the development of aerial navigation.

The United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and Immunities met at the Neue Hofburg in Vienna from March 2 to April 14, 1961, pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 1450 (XIV) which stated the Assembly’s decision to convene an international conference of plenipotentiaries to consider the question of diplomatic intercourse and immunities.

What is Pan-Americanism? The term itself is new. It appears to have been employed first by the New York Evening Post in discussions relating to the International American Conference which was held at Washington in 1889–1890. It was used in imitation doubtless of such terms as Pan-Slavism, Pan-Hellenism, and Pan-Islamism, which, along with numerous combinations of the sort, became current during the third quarter of last century. The new term was quickly admitted into the columns of other newspapers, and, as in the course of a few years its use became general, it found its way into the editions of the dictionaries and encyclopedias which subsequently appeared. To such works of reference inquirers who have but a vague notion of its meaning are most likely to turn for their first instruction on the subject. Unfortunately, however, from this source but little enlightenment is to be obtained.

After World War II many Eastern European governments began programs of nationalization in which they took virtually all the private property of foreigners. Under the conditions prevailing it was quite obvious that American nationals would not be able to obtain compensation for the properties taken through local remedies. It thus became necessary for the Department of State to commence negotiations with these various governments with the object of obtaining some compensation for the properties so taken. Very little headway was made in such negotiations and the only practical device available was the economic counter-measure of blocking the assets of those foreign governments which were located in the United States. Such blocked assets could be appropriated (“vested”) where the property involved could be classified as “enemy” property. However, the blocking was purely a delaying tactic where the foreign government was not an “enemy” during World War II.

Since 1964 the United States has restricted military exports to the Republic of South Africa and to Namibia in compliance with a voluntary arms embargo established by the United Nations. In 1977 the United Nations, with United States support, made this ban mandatory. Shortly thereafter, the Department of Commerce significantly broadened U.S. export restrictions by prohibiting all exports—not merely arms and other military equipment—that the exporter knows or has reason to know are destined for use by the South African military or police.

Codification, so-called, of international law, has a special importance at this time, because it is necessary in order to enlarge the service rendered by the Permanent Court of International Justice as one of a group of related institutions which taken together promise to facilitate the preservation of peace to a degree never before attained.

The completion and transmission to the Reparation Commission on April 9th last of the report of the expert committees appointed by it to “consider the means of balancing the budget and the measures to be taken to stabilize the currency” of Germany and to “consider the means of estimating the amount of German exported capital and of bringing it back to Germany” mark a further step in the efforts of the Allied Governments to give practical effect to the reparation clauses imposed upon Germany by the Treaty of Peace signed at Versailles on June 28, 1919.