purposes of the trust are the well-being and development of the natives, and the corpus of the estate is at the disposal of the mandatory, except so far as restricted by the "safeguards (e. g. prohibition of military or naval bases).

It was partly for this reason and partly for lack of all supporting evidence that Sir Joseph Cook criticised the following passage in the General Report of the Mandates Commission on "C" Mandates: 1

"It [the Commission] fears on the other hand, that the disproportion between the material wealth of this island and the small number of its inhabitants may induce the mandatory Power to subordinate the interests of the people to the exploitation of the wealth. It is, therefore, not without the deepest concern that it considers the question whether the well-being and development of the inhabitants of this island, which in the words of the Covenant form a sacred trust of civilisation,' the accomplishment of which it is the Commission's duty to safeguard, are not in danger of being compromised."

Sir Joseph Cook took the somewhat unusual step of presenting formal Comments on the Observations of the Commission, in which, on another matter, he was joined by the representative of Japan.2 The passage in question was the more remarkable in that the General Report of the Commission to the Council 3 states that

"the Commission is happy to note that taken as a whole, the reports of the mandatory Powers responsible for the administration of territories under 'C' Mandates give evidence one and all, of an earnest desire to secure for the population concerned the benefits arising out of the application of the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant and of the mandates."

It was sufficient for Sir Joseph Cook to point out that there was no evidence to justify the apprehensions entertained by the Commission. No profit accrued to the three Governments concerned in the exploitation of the phosphates. Hence there was no motive to "subordinate the interests of the people." The

the document, intend that his wife and daughter should, by virtue of the declaration of trust, become the beneficial owners of two-thirds of the property comprised in it, held that the declaration created a trust which was valid and binding on the settler, and was not affected by the provisions of Sec. 53 of the Income Tax Assessment Act, 1915-16 (which, the defendant had contended, invalidated the declaration in a question of income-tax assessment).

1 Minutes of Meeting of Permanent Mandates Commission, August 7, 1922 (A. 36, 1922, VI.). 3 A. 39, 1922, p. 4.

2 A. 37, 1922, VI. (C. 552, M. 334, 1922, VI.).

real benefit to the Government was that their farmers were assured of a supply of the best phosphate at less than world-prices.

In conclusion it should be added that the terms granted by the Administration to native owners for land required for mining are considerably better than under the German régime. Up to July 1, 1921, such owners received only a royalty of a halfpenny a ton for all phosphates shipped from their land. They are now paid (a) £20 per acre for all phosphate lands taken up by the Commission on lease subsequent to June 30, 1921, and (b) a royalty of 2d. per ton on all phosphate shipped from their respective lands. In addition a royalty of Id. per ton is paid to the Administration to be held in trust for the benefit of Nauruans generally.1 The new régime was instituted after consultation among the three Governments concerned. The remuneration is small, perhaps, in the eyes of a civilised man in view of the immense value of the product in the Commonwealth, but it is not small to a child of nature who lives on cocoa-nuts and fish and sunshine.

APPENDIX.

Information regarding Labour Conditions on the Island supplied by the British Phosphate Commission.

As Nauruans dislike working on their own island, the British Phosphate Commission employs some 592 Chinese, who were first introduced by the Pacific Phosphate Company, 169 Caroline Islanders and 22 Marshall Islanders. They are housed in large, well-built barracks, electrically lit and well ventilated. They receive liberal rations and first-class medical attention free of charge. Two doctors and a chemist are provided, as well as a surgery, dispensary, operating theatre and hospital. Besides being allowed a number of fixed holidays during the year, the labourers do not work on Sundays, nor, except when a steamer is loading, on Saturday afternoons. If employed on Saturday afternoons or on a holiday they receive over-time pay, which, in the exceptional case of Sunday work, amounts to double rates. The rates of pay for ordinary coolies working in the field are: £1 12s. to £1 16s. per month; bonus for good work and good conduct, 4s. per month; overtime 2s. 6d. to 3s. per month; rations, £1 12s 6d. to £1 17s. 6d. per month. Field coolies are all employed on piece-work and commonly finish their day's work in from four to five hours. The Australian Commissioner, Mr. H. B. Pope, states that he knows of no place in the Pacific where coloured labourers" are better housed, paid, fed and treated than they are on Nauru.” 2

1 Administrator's Report, December 17, 1920-December 31, 1921, p. 4.

2 Nauru and Ocean Island, by Harold B. Pope: Federal Parliamentary Paper, 1920-1, No. 148, F. 16251, p. 44.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the Prime Minister of Australia, in a statement to Parliament on September 8, 1922, emphasised two points which do not appear to have been brought clearly before the Permanent Mandates Commission. The first was, that while the Administrator acts under instructions from the Commonwealth Government, in all important matters the Commonwealth Government consults the other two Governments. These Governments receive copies of all ordinances made by him and of the orders issued by him which contain full information of all his administrative measures. The second point was that, although the British Phosphate Commission is by the agreement declared to be free from interference by any of the Governments with the direction, control or management of their business, the Commissioners do, however, consult their Governments in such matters as the recruiting of labour for work on the island.

These points are important, for they show, as does indeed the agreement itself, that the responsibility for the administration of Nauru lies not with Australia alone but with the three Governments concerned. There is all the more reason, therefore, to remedy one patent defect of the present régime-the entire absence of Parliamentary control in any one of the three countries over the joint administration.

THE LAW OF PEACE

By PROFESSOR A. PEARCE HIGGINS, C.B.E., LL.D., Whewell Professor of International Law in the University of Cambridge and Associé de l'Institut de Droit International.

"The

IN the first volume of this Year Book a writer on League of Nations and the Laws of War" after maintaining that in the past the preoccupation of writers and statesmen with the laws of war had been a real obstacle to the progress, of international law, urged that it is only by the development of the law of peace that a stable system can be built up by the League of Nations.1 A recently published work by Professor Redslob foretells that the twentieth century will be the century of justice. We re-echo Professor Redslob's hope, and agree that attention should be more fully paid to the development of those rules which guide and govern the action of States in their normal pacific relations, for it is by the more complete elucidation and acceptance of those rules that the way can be prepared for the settlement of international differences by arbitration or by judicial decisions on the basis of justice. How varied are the topics which come under the heading of “ Peace,” and what great issues they involve, can be seen in a recently published work which makes a great contribution towards that development which the writer first referred to so much desired.3

66

Two years ago we reviewed the first published portion of M. Fauchille's great treatise on international law which dealt with war and neutrality. The volume contained nearly 1100 pages; the first portion of the volume on peace is of a similar length and there is another portion still to come. If the laws of war and neutrality required special reconsideration owing to 1 British Year Book of International Law, 1920-21, p. 109.

2 Histoire des grands principes de droit des gens. 1923. For review see below,

p. 192.

3 Paul Fauchille: Traité de droit international public, Tome 1, Première partie. Paix, 1922. Paris: Librairie Arthur Rousseau. Pp. xii+1058. 35 fr.

4 1921-1922, p. 224.

the occurrences of the late war, the laws of peace stand in equal need of restatement by reason of the Treaties of Peace and the establishment of the League of Nations.

''

The present volume deals with the topic of " persons," i. e. the subjects of international law: property, and the other objects of the law of nations are left for the second part of this volume, which we are glad to know is in the press. The book is a great storehouse of learning; the erudition and labour of the author render a detailed criticism impossible, all that we can do is to draw attention to some of its salient features.

One preliminary observation may be permitted of a general character. M. Fauchille appears to have been influenced by, though he has not fully adopted the standpoint of, Dr. Alejandro Alvarez and some other Latin-American writers in their differentiation of the principles of international law applicable to Europe and America. This appears to be a distinctly retrograde movement and one which is contrary to the whole tendency of modern developments. The world is one, and the interdependence of all parts was never more strikingly marked than it is to-day. It may be admitted that there are special principles which the States of the continents of America have accepted as binding between themselves, as tending towards closer co-operation and the friendly settlement of disputes, but this is not to say that there is a separate body of international law governing the relations of the States in the Western Hemisphere and another body of law applicable to the Old World. This was pointed out by a distinguished Brazilian international lawyer in a work published in 1913, in which he pointed out that while Latin-America had its own peculiar problems, these did not constitute a derogation from the general principles of international law, but were to be settled by the application of those principles. Doctrines of a political character stand on a different footing from those of a legal character, and international law cannot fail to take cognisance of them, especially when such declarations of policy as the Monroe Doctrine have, on the whole, made for the maintenance of peace. "Regional understandings have their place in the scheme of the League of Nations, but the Assembly has shown no desire unduly to multiply them.

The tenth section of the Introduction of M. Fauchille's work,

1 Sa Vianna: De la non-existence d'un droit international americain.