movements.

* * * * *

A very interesting question of international law has been brought up by
the cutting of the cables by Admiral Dewey; it is claimed that by doing
this he has established an international precedent, for his cutting of
the cable connecting a country at war with another country is a forcible
interference with communication which has not been practised in any
previous war.

The question of cable-cutting has never come up before as a means of
offensive warfare, as it is only in recent years that there has been any
extensive laying of cables. Dewey's example has been followed by the
blockading fleet off Cuba; this fact establishes beyond all peradventure
the position that this Government has assumed. The British Government
evidently believes that in the time of war the right to cut cables
connecting the opposing nation with other countries is one which may be
assumed without violation of international law. In a speech on this
matter, Mr. Balfour, First Lord of the Treasury, quoting in Parliament a
few days ago an agreement made in Paris in 1884, in reference to the
protection of cables by different nations, said: "By Article XV. of this
convention, in time of war a belligerent signatory to the convention
(that is, a county signing this agreement) is as free to act with
respect to submarine cables as if the convention did not exist. I am not
prepared, therefore, to say that a belligerent, on the ground of
military exigency, would under no circumstances be justified in
interfering with cables between the territory of the opposing power and
any other part of the world."

Our State Department considers that this statement on the part of Great
Britain commits that country to the policy regarding cables which we
have recently put into practice; her approval of our action virtually
establishes this right as a principle of international law.

* * * * *

Very serious trouble is anticipated in Italy because of the hopeless
poverty of much of the peasantry, and the apparent inefficiency of the
present system of government. The Italian peasant barely succeeds under
the most advantageous circumstances in obtaining food enough for himself
and family; consequently every change in the price of bread is a
serious matter to him; under the present Government the taxes have
become heavier, and this is sure at no distant date to bring about a
crisis; that th