Reduced, therefore, to its simplest expression, the position taken up by the United States is this: Our trade is of greater importance than your victory. Admitting the hypothesis to the full that a neutral country has no interest in the result of a war, is unconcerned which side wins, yet I do not believe that this attitude finds any warrant in the principles on which international law is based. But there is another and very practical reason in favour of my second contention. Too strenuous a protest is apt to make men look a little below the surface of mere words, to turn their attention curiously to trade statistics. They have been dexterously handled in the British answers. A neutral Government is not the best judge of its merchants’ claims; inevitably it becomes their advocate, and in the tangle of discussion is apt to identify itself with commercial transactions which, it is common knowledge, often need the closest investigation. The true position of a neutral Government, the almost complete severance from its protection of merchants who deal, however indirectly, with a belligerent, demands, I venture with great deference to assert, an altogether different attitude from that taken by the United States Government. International law has of late been the subject of much loose talk, by the German especially; and some colour has been lent to his assertions by the nature of the American Protests to Great Britain. International law does not profess to govern the conduct of belligerents between themselves, but only the laws of war. Except in so far as these have been incorporated in conventions, except in so far as the principles of humanity have been reduced into concrete words and so have become laws binding the consenting nations when they fight, it is not the province of international law to mitigate the blows of war.[2] A neutral Government is not concerned with the methods of warfare adopted by a belligerent until they ape the barbarian. Then, even in the absence of convention, it is entitled to protest in the name of our common humanity. Conventions to which both belligerents and the neutral are parties entitle it to support its protest by diplomatic action. But, convention or no convention, more strenuous action is justified by the application of elementary legal principles when its citizens, pursuing their normal avocations, are injured.[3] International law, properly understood, governs the relations of belligerents with neutrals. Its sanctions are not belligerent action, nor any action against the alleged offender, which may even indirectly benefit the enemy. Arbitration after the War, and compensation, are the only remedies when neutral property has been injured. Then, and only then, can the principles of international law be calmly discussed; then, and only then, can any new departure by a belligerent be tested by a reference to fundamental principles. The reason is obvious. International law is