appointed, and were holding meetings in
preparation for it, were not prepared to advise the insertion
of provisions for this purpose in the revised Convention of
Geneva.

"The principles of the Geneva Convention" of 1864 were applied
to naval warfare by The Hague Convention No. iii. of 1899, and
those of the Geneva Convention of 1906 by The Hague Convention
No. x. of 1907 respectively. Both were ratified by Great
Britain. Cf. _supra_, Chapters ii. and iv.

* * * * *

SECTION 11

_Enemy Property in Occupied Territory_

By Art. 55 of The Hague _Reglement_ of 1899, which reproduces
Art. 7 of the Brussels _Projet_, and is repeated as Art. 55 of
the _Reglement_ of 1907: "The occupying State shall regard
itself as being only administrator and usufructuary of the
public buildings, immoveable property, forests and agricultural
undertakings belonging to the hostile State and situated in the
hostile country. It must protect the substance of these
properties and administer them according to the rules of
usufruct."

The following letter touches incidentally upon the description
of the rights of an invader over certain kinds of State
property in the occupied territory as being those of a
"usufructuary."

INTERNATIONAL "USUFRUCT"

Sir,--The terminology of the law of nations has been enriched by a new
phrase. We are all getting accustomed to "spheres of influence." We have
been meditating for some time past upon the interpretation to be put
upon "a lease of sovereign rights." But what is an international
"usufruct"? The word has, of course, a perfectly ascertained sense in
Roman law and its derivatives; but it has been hitherto employed,
during, perhaps two thousand years, always as a term of private
law--_i.e._ as descriptive of a right enjoyed by one private individual
or corporation over the property of another. It is the "ius utendi
fruendi, salva rerum substantia." The usufructuary of land not merely
has the use of it, but may cut its forests and work its mines, so long
as he does not destroy the character of the place as he received it. His
interest terminates with his life, though it might also be granted to
him for a shorter period. If the grantee be a corporation, in order to
protect the outstanding right of the owner an artificial limit is
imposed upon the tenure--e.g. in Roman law 100 years, by th