THE CONDUCT OF WARFARE The three following sections relate to the waters in which hostile operations may take place.

Section 1 probably calls for no explanatory remark.

With reference to Section 2, dealing with certain spaces of water more or less closed to belligerent action, it may be desirable to state that the letters as to the Suez Canal were written to obviate some misconceptions as to the purport of the Convention of October 29, 1888, and to maintain that it was not, at the time of writing, operative, so far as Great Britain was concerned.
This state of things was, however, altered by the Anglo-French Convention of April 8, 1804, which, concerned principally with the settlement of the Egyptian and Newfoundland questions, provides, in Art.

6, that "In order to assure the free passage of the Suez Canal, the Government of His Britannic Majesty declares that it adheres to the stipulations of the Treaty concluded on the 29th October 1888; and to their becoming operative.

The free passage of the canal being thus guaranteed, the execution of the last phrase of paragraph 1, and that of paragraph 2 of the 8th article of this Treaty, will remain suspended." The last phrase of paragraph 1 of Art.