During the year 1938, the seventeenth year of its existence, the Permanent Court of International Justice was in active session for a total of 69 days—from April 29 to June 30; on July 13 and 14; and from November 28 to December 1. This compares with 107 days of active session in 1937, 143 days in 1936, and 107 days in 1935.

The Chinese Empire conveniently dates from 221 B.C., when the King of Ch’in coined the title which has since served for Emperor, and with considerable justness designated himself The First Emperor. Conqueror though he was, he left much still to be done in the process of consolidating under one imperial sovereignty all the kingdoms and tribes of the area which is now north and central China. During the pre-imperial era, intercourse among the rulers of the independent units naturally had a customary pattern, an Asiatic analogue to the rudimentary interstate law of the Greek city states. Two bloody centuries preceding The First Emperor have left much martial romance and philosophy both militant and pacifistic, but meager history. From a relatively quiet earlier period, 722-481, however, the classic annals transmit an abundance of critically acceptable history in palpable detail, with interstate incidents suitable for the purpose of case studies. This paper is limited to the first twenty years of that period, the earliest possible for its purpose, which is to induce interstate custom solely from episodes credibly recorded in Chinese classics. Only a few illustrative cases are quoted here, but all the generalizations rest wholly upon case studies unless specifically noted otherwise.

The Far Eastern Agreement signed at Yalta at the very end of the Conference on February 11,1945, was frequently defended and criticized at the hearings held in April–May, 1951, on General MacArthur’s dismissal. Yet its legal status has not yet been adequately discussed.

The resolution of the General Assembly of December 14, 1955, to admit 16 countries to membership in the United Nations, marked “an event second only to the foundation of the United Nations itself,” and a decisive step towards achieving universality of membership. As the President of the Tenth Session of the Assembly, Mr. Jose Maza (Chile) put it:

This subject is a timely one from the fact that we are on the eve of the meeting of the second international conference at The Hague, the first conference in 1899 having voted that —

The conference expresses the wish that the proposal which contemplates the declaration of the inviolability of private property in naval warfare may be referred to a subsequent conference for consideration.

The present programme for this coming conference includes this question of the immunity of private property as one agreed upon for discussion.

Before entering into a discussion of the subject, it may be well to make a résumé of the historical status of the question up to the present time so far as the United States, Great Britain, and other civilized countries are concerned.