The nineteenth century was for Ethiopia a century of inner consolidation. During that time the Ethiopian rulers step by step restored the power accredited to their dynasty which they had lost in endless feuds during the eighteenth century. On the coast the Porte claimed suzerainty over the strip down to the Strait of Bab el Mandeb and even Zeila. Turkish occupation was actual only at Massawa; from there Turkey controlled the commerce with north Ethiopia; in most other places Turkish control was nominal. The chiefs of the Danakil coastal tribes were practically independent. When, however, about the year 1839, the French Compagnie Nanto-Bordelaise bought from the local Danakil chiefs the village of Edd, which today belongs to Italian Eritrea, with a district extending three leagues inland, the Porte protested, and the French Government repudiated the purchase. But the rights of the purchasers to the soil were not questioned, and a French company still claimed them in 1862.

It is a sophistry to which human nature commonly resorts, when one wants to perform an act and at the same time to avoid its necessary consequences, to give it a fresh name. Thus, if people wish to live in concubinage and yet to be received in decent society, they call it “companionate marriage,” and if statesmen wish to rule and exploit a country without conferring on its inhabitants the grand privileges of citizenship, they call the annexation “protection”; whilst if they desire to impose tariffs on trade, and at the same time to avoid the connotation of scarcity and dearness, they avoid the awkward word “protection,” and style the process “safeguarding.”

The Japanese Foreign Office is no exception to the similarity in structure that characterizes the foreign offices of most modern States. On paper, the organization of the Gaimusho (Foreign Office) has little to distinguish it from corresponding departments in other countries. A different picture, however, is offered by the constitutional mise en scène of this important office. The relations of the Gaimusho to the Cabinet, and through theCabinet to the Imperial Diet, to the Privy Council, and to the Army and Navy, sharply reflect the pattern of the Japanese polity and gives the Foreign Office of Nippon a character which is in marked contrast to the same department in most parliamentary régimes.

The fourteenth year of the Permanent Court of International Justice has been one of its lean years. The Court’s output has been small, and action by governments with reference to its maintenance and functioning has been somewhat less significant than in some of the earlier years.

During 1935, the Court was in session for 107 days as compared with 120- days in 1934,178 days in 1933, and 240 days in 1932. The 34th session, from February 1 to April 10, 1935, was largely devoted to the case relating to Minority Schools in Albania, in which an advisory opinion (the 26th) was given on April 6,1935. The 35th session, from October 28 to December 4, 1935, was largely devoted to the case relating to the Consistency of Certain Danzig Decrees with the Constitution of the Free City of Danzig, in which an advisory opinion (the 27th) was given on December 4,1935. At the close of the year two cases were pending on the docket of the Court.

The recent changes effected in the foreign policy of the United States both as regards the relations of that State with its neighbors in the Western Hemisphere and as regards its position as a world Power have brought again to the fore the question of the validity of the Monroe Doctrine. There are reasons to believe that this traditional policy, if not completely repudiated by the very State which brought it into being, will, at least, remain uninvoked during some period of time. In fact, it would appear that in so far as it is concerned with the problem of intervention, the doctrine has been definitely rejected by the present administration through the so-called “good neighbor policy.” Furthermore, it has but recently been observed in the Congressional debates preceding the passage of the Neutrality Joint Resolution of August 31 of last year, that the imposition of an impartial arms embargo against belligerents would preclude the United States from applying the Monroe Doctrine in case a weak American State should be the object of aggression by a foreign Power.

The law of citizenship did not escape the general chaos into which the existing laws of Russia fell upon the accession of the Bolsheviks to power on November 7, 1917. Consequently it has not been easy to determine thestatus of citizens of the former Russian régime under the new government, especially of those residing abroad, voluntarily or by compulsion. It has only been gradually that any degree of certainty has come into the law, the first decree purporting to cover the question of citizenship in a comprehensive fashion not having been enacted until October 29, 1924. Even today one who essays to state with certainty what the Soviet law of citizenship is with respect to any given case needs to tread warily. After a comprehensive study of that law and its application, one is impressed with the fact that not all its provisions can be taken literally in all cases.

One of the danger spots in after-war Europe is the “autonomous territory” of Memel. So many questions are constantly being raised about it that a sketch of its background is necessary. A prominent French writer, for instance, stated in 1926 that the population were “au point de vue ethnique, moitie polonais et moitié lithuanien,” when as a matter of fact there are only a very few Poles in the whole area with its population of 140,000 or more.

The arbitration between Ethiopia and Italy, concerning the armed clash which occurred at Wal Wal, in the Ogaden, on December 5–6,1934, offers a number of interesting aspects to the student of international adjudication, and, indeed, to the student of international organization and procedure in general. In addition, the case should be recorded as such and for what it is worth while the materials are still available and while personal recollections of the incident are fresh.