COURSE IN DIPLOMACY

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 48, 24 February 1917, Page 13

COURSE IN DIPLOMACY

AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

New York University will inaugurate this month a course which will have as its aim to fit men for consular and diplomatic appointments (says the Springfield Republican). The course will be taught by Dr. Earl Willis Creecraft, an authority on international law and diplomacy. The university's decision to enter the field of specialised diplomatic training was the result of numerous indications of its need by prospective candidates for consular and diplomatic appointments as well as students interested in Mexican affairs. The present plans call for a. curriculum including international law, treaties, a.nd the consular service, and the course will cover the following subjects: Recognition of government de. facto and dp jure and its effect upon foreigners; intervention of a, non-political character for protecting citizens from injuries received in foreign countries; presentation, prosecution, and settlement of international claims which are based on war, insurrection, or mob violence, violation of treaties, and on a general denial of justice as measured by international practice; rights and duties of aliens, of naturalised citizens aaid persons about to be naturalised, and friendly and non-friendly means of securing redress.

"Great Britain, Germany, and Italy," said Dr. Oreecraft in discussing the new course, "undertake to use force if necessary iir the i settlement not only of claims arising from injuries. to their citizens abroad but also in the collection from foreign countries of contraot debts. It'is'doubted by some whether the provision on this point which was adopted by /The Hague Conference .of 1907 has to any extent helped to protect weaker countries from the use of force by large powers in the collection of such claims. "The United States does not go as far as this in the protection of the property of its citizens. . Its past policy has been to hold that its citizens have assumed the risks on entering into business contracts with foreign Governments and with their citizens, and that by so doing our own citizens have placed themselves on the same footing as native citizens of the foreign country. In the American Republics the view is quite generally held that where citizens under the law of their'own country are not permitted to sue their home Government without its consent, these citizens when entering foreign lands should not expect to receive armed protection from their Government-in forcing their'claims on the Governments of the countries which they have entered.

"The practice of the United States has been to arbitrate with other nations, usually through the appointment of mixed claims commissions. Such commissions have disposed of claims of foreigners against the United States as' well as claims of Americans against foreign governments. Arbitration proceedings have been used to advantage in numerous instances. A good beginning has. been made at The Hague Court of Arbitration. ..,..■

"Although the function of arbitration is judicial in character, and although the arbitrator's province is thus distinct from that of the diplomatist, it can hardly be said tiiat diplomacy does not lie at the bottom,, of all settlement of international claims." Diplomacy brings the governments together in" their willingness to submit to arbitration.' Diplomacy succeeds in the making of the necessary treaty constituting, tho law to be .ipplied. Finally, diplomacy, in tho event o£: failure of arbitration, must take up the burdens of adjustment along lines which are peaceable and friendly and not warlike."