Parliament met on Tuesday. The Queen's Speech was short and
confined to a single point,—the need for calling out the Reserves owing to the state of affairs in South Africa. and for providing for the extra expenditure required. The word " war " was not mentioned in the Speech, and quite properly, for the vagueness of international law makes no Power inclined to admit the existence of a state of war in the technical sense. Besides, you enforce what you hold to be your rights from a dependent State, but you do not declare war upon it. The North did not declare war upon the Southern States, but merely asserted by arms the rights of the Federal Government. Of course in a sense this is hair- splitting, but in an age when the claims of the international lawyers are so high, it is wise for a Government to place itself technically in an unassailable position.
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