This was, in my opinion, a mistake, which has been avoided in more recent times, in which the written law of war has been developed with such marvellous rapidity.

Not only have codes of such rules been promulgated in regular "Conventions," made in 1899, 1906, and 1907, but the so-called "Declarations," dealing with the same topic, of 1899, 1907, and 1909 have been as fully equipped as were those Conventions with provisions for ratification.

The distinction between a "Convention" and a "Declaration" is therefore now one without a difference, and should no longer be drawn.

Nothing in the nature of rules for the conduct of warfare can prevent their expression in Conventions, and the reason which seems to have promoted the misdescription of the work of the London Conference of 1908-9 as a "Declaration"-- viz.

an imaginary difference between rules for the application of accepted principles and wholly new rules--is founded in error.