20 TOWER— RIGHTS AND DUTIES [April 23, 



are lawful in a state of general peace must be based upon a clear 

 and unquestioned rule of international law ; the burden of proof 

 being upon him who seeks to enforce the restraint. 



As a general statement, the obligations of all neutral states are 

 the same, so also are their rights, as non-belligerents and non- 

 participants in the war; they decide by their own motion to occupy 

 a neutral position, aside from and between the belligerents, with all 

 of whom they voluntarily remain at peace. This is called " perfect 

 neutrality," and is accepted by all the powers. But there are two 

 classes of neutrals into which the whole body of neutral nations is 

 divided, whose relations to the war are different in this respect: 

 that, one set of them abstain by their own free will from entering 

 the war; whilst the others are restrained from taking part in the 

 hostilities and are obliged to remain out of it by the conditions of 

 their existence. This difference between them marks the difference 

 between neutrality and neutralization ; between neutral and neutral- 

 ized territory. And it is to this latter that I beg leave for a moment 

 to direct attention. 



A neutralized state, then, is one which is and must remain 

 neutral under all circumstances. Its independent existence rests 

 upon that condition. It is a state which has been constituted by 

 common consent of the great powers, which has received from the 

 powers the right to subsist, provided that it take no part whatever 

 in any conflict that may arise between its neighbors and shall have 

 no right of its own to take up arms except to repel attack or to 

 defend its territory. Thus a neutralized state is, in fact, allowed to 

 exist because the operative forces of self-interest of its neighbors 

 find sufficient benefit accruing to themselves, — as, for instance, that 

 it forms an intervening space between themselves and their own 

 powerful neighbors whose proximity threatens their peace, — to in- 

 duce them to agree to its existence. There are neutralized states, 

 under international law, and neutralized individuals; and this char- 

 acter may be extended also to seas and waterways, to buildings, 

 ambulances and ships. 



A distinguished authority (Professor Holland) defines the proc- 

 ess of neutralization as " the bestowing by convention of a neutral 

 character upon states, persons and things which might otherwise 



