1907 and the Declaration of 1909 should first be threshed
out in discussions on a Bill dealing with these questions only; and that
the decision, if any, thus arrived at should be subsequently inserted,
freed from hypothesis, in the Consolidation Bill"?

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, December 28 (1910).

THE DECLARATION OF LONDON

Sir,--I have read Professor Westlake's letters upon the Declaration of
London with the attention due to anything written by my very learned
friend, but, although myself opposed to the ratification alike of the
Prize Court Convention and of its complement, the Declaration, do not at
present wish to enter upon the demerits of either instrument.

There is, however, a preliminary question upon which, with your
permission, I should like to say a few words. My friend justly observes
that in dealing with the Declaration "the first necessity is to know
what it is that we have before us"; and he devotes his letter of January
31 to maintaining that the Declaration must be read as interpreted by
the explanations of it given to the full Conference by the Drafting
Committee, of which M. Renault was president. Professor Westlake
supports his opinion by a quotation from the reply of the Foreign Office
in November last to the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce (_Miscell._ 1910,
No. 4, p. 21). I may mention that a similar reply had been given, a year
previously, by Mr. McKinnon Wood to a question in the House of Commons.
The source of these replies is doubtless to be found in a paragraph of
the Report, addressed on March 1, 1909, to Sir Edward Grey, of the
British Delegates to the London Conference, which runs as follows:--

"It should be borne in mind that, in accordance with the
principles and practice of Continental jurisprudence, such a
Report is considered an authoritative statement of the
meaning and intention of the instrument which it explains,
and that consequently foreign Governments and Courts, and no
doubt also the International Prize Court, will construe and
interpret the provisions of the Declaration by the light of
the Commentary given in the Report." (_Miscell._ 1909, No. 4,
p. 94.)

It is desirable to know upon what authority this statement rests. I am
aware of none. The nearest approach to an assertion of anything like it
occurred at The Hague Conference of 1899, when the "approval" accorded
to "the work of t