PRIVATE RIGHTS AS AGAINST BELLIGERENT RIGHTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13462, 29 June 1907, Page 5

PRIVATE RIGHTS AS AGAINST BELLIGERENT RIGHTS.

0 LONDON, June 28. . The Times' Hague correspondent states that a great proportion of the proposals relate to the rights and interests of neutrals, which are now advocated at the expense of belligerents. If any considerable number are adopted, private interests will bo guarded to such an extent that war would possibly be robbed of half its terrors and inconveniences, and the campaigns prolonged.

(In April we were told that Russia had declined to insert ia her official programme the question of limitation of, armaments or the Drago doctrine.' The Drago doctrine is a corollary to the Monroe sDoctrine, and takes its name from the distinguished Brazilian jurist, Dr. Dr^go, who first formulated it. Dr. Drago claims that it shall be accented as a principle of international poHcy that no fqreign Powers shall be permitted to, use military or naval force to collect debts from any American State. The doctrine in the first instance clearly referred to the case of Venezuela, and the claims urged against it by England and Germany, but it has been extended to cpver the position of all the SSouth and, Central American republics. ,At the Pan- American Congress held at Rio Janeiro last year, the Drago doctrine, playod a prominent part, and efforts were made to induce Mr Root, representing the United States, to aslopt it officially. But though President Roosevelt and his advisers strenuously support the.Monroe Docfrine, the United States Government has not yet formally accepted the responsibility of forbidding any other Power $0 collect debts on the Continent.)