The Declaration last mentioned (No. 3 of the first Peace Conference) is now something more than waste paper, having been generally ratified. Great Britain, on August 17, 1907, at the fourth plenary sitting of the Second Peace Conference, announced her adhesion to it, as also to the, also generally ratified, Declaration No. 2 of 1899, which forbids the employment of projectiles constructed solely for the diffusion suffocating or harmful gases. The provisions of Arts. 22 and 23 (_e_) of the _Règlement_ annexed to The Hague Convention of 1899 "concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land," as quoted in the letter, have been textually reproduced in Arts. 22 and 23 (_e_) of the _Règlement_ annexed to the Hague Convention, No. iv. of 1907, on the same subject, ratified by Great Britain on November 27, 1909. The written agreements as to the choice of weapons may be taken therefore to start from the general principles laid down in the preamble to the Declaration of St. Petersburg (though held by some Powers to err in the direction of liberality), and in Arts. 22 and 23 (_e_) of The Hague _Règlements_. The specially prohibited means of destruction are, by the Declaration of St. Petersburg, explosive bullets; by The Hague _Règlements_, Art. 23 (_a_) poison or poisoned arms; by The Hague Declarations of 1898, Nos. 2 and 3, "projectiles the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or harmful gases," and "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." As to Declaration No. 1, _cf. supra_, p. 22. It must be remarked that the Declarations of St. Petersburg and of The Hague, unlike The Hague Règlements, apply to war at sea, as well as on land. _Cf. supra_, p. 22, and see the author's _The Laws of War on Land (written and unwritten)_, 1908, pp. 40-43. GASES