ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 113 



each of the twenty-one national societies, recommended by the socie- 

 ties for membership in the Institute. 



It is proper to say, before leaving this subject, that His Excellency 

 the President of the Congress, is himself a member of the Institute and 

 that the members from the United States are: the Honorable ROBERT 

 BACON, formerly Secretary of State of the United States and Am- 

 bassador to France; the Honorable ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State 

 of the United States; the Honorable EUHU ROOT, formerly Secretary of 

 State of the United States and always a friend of the Americas ; Dr. LEO 

 S. RowE, Professor of Political Science in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania and personally known and appreciated in Latin America through 

 his repeated visits to all the American countries; and JAMES BROWN 

 SCOTT, Esq., Secretary of the Carnegie Endowment for International 

 Peace and Chairman of the Joint State and Navy Neutrality Board of 

 the United States. 



It is proper also to add, in this* connection, that the American Institute 

 met in connection with and under the auspices of the Congress, that it was 

 formally opened on December 29, 191 5, and welcomed by the Honorable 

 ROBERT LANSING, on behalf of the Government of the United States, 

 by His Excellency, the Chilean Ambassador, on behalf of the Congress, of 

 which he was President, and by the Honorable EUHU ROOT, on behalf 

 of American publicists. It completed its organization by admitting the 

 five members from each national society and selected the following offi- 

 cers: Honorary President, ELIHU ROOT; President, JAMES BROWN SCOTT; 

 Secretary General, ALEJANDRO ALVAREZ; Treasurer, Luis ANDERSON. 



On the 3d of January, 1916, the Honorable ROBERT LANSING, Secretary 

 of State of the United States, addressed a letter to the President of the 

 Institute, lequesting it to consider the matter of neutrality, from which 

 very important letter the following passage is quoted : 



I would, therefore, suggest that a committee be appointed to study the 

 problem of neutral rights and neutral duties seeking to formulate in terms 

 the principle underlying the relations of belligerency to neutrality rather 

 than the express rules governing the conduct of a nation at war to a nation 

 at peace. 



I would further suggest that the subject might be advantageously di- 

 vided into two parts, namely, the rights of neutrals on the high seas, and 

 the duties of neutrals dependent upon territorial jurisdiction. 



In view of the past year and half of war the present time seems particu- 

 larly opportune to study this question and this Institute being composed 

 of members from neutral nations is especially fitted to do this from the 

 proper point of view and with the definite purpose of protecting the liberty 

 of neutrals from unjustifiable restrictions on the high seas and from the 

 imposition of needless burdens in preserving their neutrality on land. 

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