2. These promised, and already perpetrated, atrocities consist in the destruction of merchant shipping without any of those decent preliminary steps, for the protection of human life and neutral property, which are insisted on by long established rules of international law. Under these rules, the exercise of violence against a merchant vessel is permissible, in the first instance, only in case of her attempting by resistance or flight to frustrate the right of visit which belongs to every belligerent cruiser. Should she obey the cruiser's summons to stop, and allow its officers to come on board, they will satisfy themselves, by examination of her papers, and, if necessary, by further search, of the nationality of ship and cargo, of the destination of each, and of the character of the latter. They will then decide whether or no they should make prize of the ship, and in some cases may feel justified in sending a prize to the bottom, instead of taking her into port. Before doing so it is their bounden duty to preserve the ship papers, and, what is far more important, to provide for the safety of all on board. This procedure seems to have been followed, more or less, by the submarines which sank the _Durward_ in the North Sea, and several small vessels near the Mersey, but is obviously possible to such craft only under very exceptional circumstances. It was scandalously not followed in the cases of the _Tokomaru_, the _Ikaria_, and the hospital ship (!) _Asturias_, against which a submarine fired torpedoes, off Havre, without warning or inquiry, and, of course, regardless of the fate of those on board. The threat that similar methods of attack will be systematically employed, on a large scale, on and after the 18th inst., naturally excites as much indignation among neutrals as among the Allies of the Entente. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T. E. HOLLAND. Oxford, February 12 (1915). * * * * * SECTION 4 _Aerial Warfare_ It may be desirable to supplement what is said in the following letters by mentioning that the Declaration of 1899 (to remain in force for five years) was largely ratified, though not by Great Britain; that of 1907 (to remain in force till the termination of the third Peace Conference) was ratified by Great Britain and by most of the other great Powers in 1909, not, however, by Germany or Austria; that aerial navigation is regulated by the Acts, I & 2 Geo. 5, c. 4, and 2 & 3 Geo. 5, c. 22; and that an agreement upon the subject was entered into between France and Germany, on July 26, 1913, by exchange of notes, "en attendant la conclusion d'une convention sur cette matière entre un plus grand nombre d'états" (the international Conference held at Paris in 1910 had failed to agree upon the terms of such a Convention); and that Art. 25 of The Hague Convention of 1907, No. iv., was ratified by Great Britain, and generally.