The Alien Registration Division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service has announced that there are 695,363 alien Italians in the United States and 314,715 alien Germans. The census of 1940 indicated over eleven million white inhabitants born in a foreign country residing in the United States, and a recent release shows that about 65% of these became naturalized citizens.1 It can be calculated, therefore, that we have in this country, excluding orientals, a neutral alien population of about two millions. Are these persons protected by virtue of alien status from liability to military service? The issue has been confused by claims that rights under international law are violated by forcing neutral aliens to serve. In what follows, attempt is made to show that no controversial issue of international law need be raised, and that no such issue need interfere with the legal and domestic right of the United States to request alien service.

When citizens of the United States propose a discussion of any subject of public policy which is specifically mentioned in the national Constitution, the constitutional provision is likely to be the most appropriate point of departure. The statesmen who framed the great charter of 1787 were on the alert in the public interest when, after providing that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,"1 they added that

The Congress shall have Power . . .

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries

When the time comes for the representatives of Japan to face those of China, Great Britain, Holland, Mexico and the United States across a table, to drive the best bargain they can for the continued national life of their island empire in the Pacific, one of the questions to be settled will be the control of the fisheries. Given the tremendous importance of fish in the food and economy of Japan, it will be a fundamental and vital question; and it would seem that for any thorough-going settlement the Soviet Union, with its shores on the Pacific, should be invited to participate in the discussion, if indeed by that time it has not actually gone to war with Japan. A brief review of the history of the problem may be of interest now and helpful to a better understanding later.

It is of interest to the student of international affairs to examine the relationships of Soviet Russia with international organizations, both public and private, and of the policies governing those relationships. The study aims to find out why the Soviet Government has joined some international unions, affiliated with certain groups, and has refused to cooperate with others. What has been the Soviet Government’s policy in entering into multipartite conventions; why has it become a successor to some international agreements that were ratified by the Imperial Russian Government and rejected or abrogated others; and to what extent is the Soviet Union guided by generally accepted principles of international law in its foreign policies as evidenced by its participation in international organizations?