Last Saturday, Mr. Kellogg, the American Secretary of State, discussed
his peace proposal before the American Society of International Law. In general his address was a defence of his method of ruling out all definitions and reservations as a weakness in themselves, and a very able defence it was. Take, for instance, the reservation proposed by France about the right of self-defence. No Provision in a Treaty, Mr. Kellogg said, could possibly add to the inherent right of self-defence and consequently (we quote from the Times) " it is not in the interest of Peace that the Treaty should stipulate a juristic concep- tion of self-defence, since it is far too easy for the un- scrupulous to mould events to accord with an agreed definition." The voice might have been the voice of Sir Austen Chamberlain. Certainly such an argument should be heartily approved in Britain.
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