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.

In an article in this Journal some years ago, Professor Georg Maier analyzed the legal cases presented by the Republics of Peru and Ecuador during their long boundary dispute and concluded that the Ecuadorian Government had a much stronger de jure title to the disputed territory, while the Peruvian Government’s claim rested primarily on a strong de facto title. Consequently, he argued that the 1942 Rio Protocol which awarded the Peruvian Government the bulk of the territories in question was not an equitable solution to the dispute since such a solution would lie between the extremes of Ecuador’s de jure case and Peru’s de facto case. He further concluded that a more equitable solution should be sought so the dispute would no longer be an impediment to amicable relations between the two countries. The conclusion of this writer is that the Peruvian Government’s de jure case in the dispute was stronger than that of the Ecuadorian Government and that Peru’s legal case was then buttressed by a prolonged occupation and development of much of the disputed area. Furthermore, even if the Rio Protocol was not an equitable solution to the problem, no legal justification exists for demanding the renegotiation of a pact signed and ratified by both the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Governments and then guaranteed by four other American Governments.