International Law : Topics and Discussions. (U.S. Naval War College.)—This
very timely publication contains a summary of the discussions on naval questions of inter- national law which were held last year at the American Naval War College at Washington, under the presidency of Professor G. G. Wilson of Harvard. The object of the dis- cussions was to draft regulations for the conduct of naval warfare which should be presented to the next Hague
Conference—now, we suppose, indefinitely postponed! We may note that at the Conference of 1907 the German delegate opposed the British desire for a strict limitation of the use of floating mines, on the ground that the operations of war could not be prescribed by international regulations, but that a wide discretion must be left to the belligerents, and that the German Navy in particular could be trusted "to fulfil in the strictest fashion the duties which flow from the unwritten laws of humanity and civilization "—such as the Hague provision that " every possible precaution must be taken for the security of peaceful shipping " when automatic mines were laid. We should be glad to know of any such precautions taken by Germany in the North Sea.
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