465]] ASPECTS OF THE PLEBISCITE 1 67 



of the Philippine Islands. According to Article 9 of the 

 Treaty : 



Spanish subjects, natives of the Peninsula, residing in the terri- 

 tory over which Spain by the present Treaty relinquishes or cedes 

 her sovereignty, may remain in such territory or may remove there- 

 from, retaining in either event all their rights of property. ... In 

 case they remain in the territory, they preserve their allegiance to 

 the Crown of Spain by making, before a court of record, within a 

 year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this Treaty, a 

 declaration of their decision to preserve such allegiance. . . .22 



By the " Protocole " of May 29, 1900, the time limit for 

 the declaration was extended six months.^^ 



There is one last, and possibly the greatest stumbling 

 block to the plebiscite as the successful expression of na- 

 tional self-determination. The historical survey of the 

 plebiscites of the past has revealed the great outstanding 

 fact that the principal of national liberation- through the 

 plebiscite has been active not only in the creation of great 

 powers, but also in the diminution and dissolution of others. 

 In fact any acquisition of territory, whether by force of 

 conquest or as a peaceful accession by means of a recog- 

 nized plebiscite, signifies practically always a loss of terri- 

 tory to some other state. It is in this circumstance that 

 the greatest opposition to the universal sanction of the 

 principle of self-definition as well as of the consequent and 

 consistent employment of the plebiscite as its mode of ex- 

 pression must be sought. 



The cases where in the past the plebiscite, referendum, 

 or representative vote has been used in the disruption of 

 existing political state units arc the secession of the South- 

 ern States from the North American Union, the secession of 

 West Virginia from the State of Virginia, the dissolution 

 of the union of Sweden and Norway. In the last two case."? 

 the result of the plebiscites were recognized by Virginia and 

 by Sweden. In the first case, the secessions, in spite of 



82 Compilation of Treaties in Force, Prepared under Resolution of 

 the Senate, of I<"c'bruary li, 1904, Washington, (iovt. Printing OtVicc, 

 1904, pp. 725-726. 



83 Ibid., p. 7-'8. 



