"The progress of civilisation should have the effect of alleviating as much as possible the calamities of war. The only legitimate object which States should set before themselves during war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy. For this purpose it is sufficient to disable the greatest possible number of men. This object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which would uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men or render their death inevitable. The employment of such arms would, therefore, be contrary to the laws of humanity." (St. Petersburg Declaration, 1868. Preamble.) "The right of belligerents to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited." (Hague _Règlement_, Art. 22.) "Besides the prohibitions provided by special conventions [the Declaration of St. Petersburg alone answers to this description] it is in particular prohibited (_e_) to employ arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause superfluous injury." (_Ib._ Art. 23.) The only special prohibition is that contained in the Declaration of St. Petersburg, by which the contracting parties-- "Engage mutually to renounce, in case of war among themselves, the employment by their military or naval forces of any projectile of a weight below 400 grammes which is either explosive or charged with fulminating or inflammable substances." No one, so far as I am aware, has any wish to employ a bullet weighing less than 14 oz. which is either explosive or charged as above. So far, therefore, as the generally accepted laws of warfare are concerned, the only question as to the employment of Dum Dum or other expanding bullets is whether they "uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men, or render their death inevitable"; in other words, whether they are "of a nature to cause superfluous injury." It is, however, probable that people who glibly talk of such bullets being "prohibited by The Hague Convention" are hazily reminiscent, not of the _Règlement_ appended to that convention, but of a certain "Declaration," signed by the delegates of many of the Powers represented at The Hague in 1899, to the effect that-- "The contracting Powers renounce the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard casing, which does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions." To this declaration neither Great Britain nor the United States are parties, and it is waste-paper, except for Powers on whose behalf it has not only been signed, but has also been subsequently ratified. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T. E. HOLLAND. Athenæum Club, May 2 (1903).