Evening star., 1934-04-29
|SUPER-NAT|ONSH|T
|By TR0yANOvSKY
Russian Envoy Addresses
American International
Law Society.


nate and conquer other nations"
In his speech before the American
Society Of International Law, which
closed its twenty-eighth annual meet
ing at the willard Hotel, the Am
oassador coupled his reference to the
"supernations" with a recital of a
Russian fable concerning a cook who
discovered a cat eating the meat.
Ihe cook lectured eloquently while
the cat listened but continued eating.
Il guess" said Troyanovsky, this
fable was written with international
relations in view. 1t raises the question
what has to be done when the cat
listens and continues to eat. That is
10 say, what shall we do about sane
tons in international relations"
Supernatural Support Fails.
Troyanovsky indicated more conf
dence was needed in specific non-ag-
greSsion pacts than in broadly in
elusive agreements.
Some students" he said. ''are turn
Ing to the idea of a supernationa1
support But they have not been yerv
successful. International law is a COL
iectlon OF the rules directing the re-
iatlons among the nations. These
rules are effective only in so far as the
nations themselves accept them Of
their own will. The source of the reg
ulatlng is the nations. and not a sun
erforce acting from above the nations
Even the tribunal at The Hague is
permitted to function only with the
consent of the nations. Membership
IN the tribunal Is not compulsory and
us competence is limited by the mu-
tuaI agreement Of the nations
Practically this tribunal is a court Of
arbitration.
The League Of Nations is consti-
tuted as body with equal rights OF
lts members and in substance onlv
unanimous votes are valid, especially
since a dissatisfied nation can at anv
time withdraw from this apparently
supernatural institution.
Scouts Influence of Morals.
The practical experience with the
League OF Nations goes far to prove
tnat my contention is correct, at least
Tor the present time. particularly
when some nations regard themselves
as supernations destined not to CO.
operate with others but to dominate
and conquer other nations. possibly
members OF the League Of Nations"
I do not think" the ambassador
said, that one must take too serious
ly the view which includes under
International law moral sense and the
laws OF human conscience. These in
huence, of course, international law
indirectly, but how could they be
directly converted into rules of inter-
national law when different nations
and different parts of the populations
have very different views on what
constitutes the laws of morals and
the dictates of conscience xxx
We have to find something more
positive, more concrete and definite.
l think that only very precise inter-
national treaties duly signed can give
us an acceptable basis for interna-
tional relations and consequently for
international law.
Agreements of this kind leave less
room for misinterpretation than pacts
composed in vague terms"
ExtolIed by Phillips.
The personal and political courage
OF Ambassador TroyanovSky we're ex-
tolled by Undersecretary of State Phil
lips, who introduced the Soviet repre-
sentative to a brilliant audience of
international jurists, Federal leaders
and members of the diplomatic corps.
The purpose of President Roosevelt
and the Government in re-estabiishing
diplomatic relationship with Russia,
Phillips pointed out, was not merely
for resumption of trade relations but
for cementing friendship between the
peoples OF the two nations.
The primary function of interna-
tional law. Judge Florence E. Allen,
first woman judge of the United
States Circuit Court, told the interna-
tlonal lawyers, must be the conServa-
ton of peace, otherwise the race will
be bled to death"
Conservation of peace has not been
the objective of international law
until Just recently, she said, because
thinking men have realized the diff
culties in the path of enforcing SUBJ
stantive law as applied to nations.
She declared, however, that it Is a
matter of history that laws have usu-
enforcement and predicted that in
ternational laws having universal
peace for their sole objective will be
written and that the machinery then
will be found to bring about their
enforcement.
Il grant that the Pan American
multilsteral pact is not perfect" she
said, but it does point the way to
settlement of international contro-
versies by pacific means. This pact
constitutes the first attempt to en-
force substantive laws as between the
nations.
Sees New Ten Commandments.
What We need is the objective set
forth in the Pan American conven-
ton in the body Of international law,
for the conservation Of peace. That
international law which neglects the
duties of the nations to preserve the
peace will be rewritten. There will
be day when Ten Commandments
will be written for nations as for
men, and when that day comes the
machinery will be found for enforce
ment."
Frederic r. Coudert of the New
York bar told the gathering that al
though this is day of upheavals and
experiments in government such as
rarely takes place in span of CEN
turies, the very spirit of upheaval is
an encouraging sign
The fact, he said, that governments
are experimenting is an augury of re-
covery. The spirit of trial and expert
menting now being manifested SO
strongly in this country, he said, is
evidence of a youthful, strong and
animated spirit which will triumph
over national difficulties.
He said there is a tremendous field
OF service for the international lawyer.
Pointing out that in back of interna-
tional law must be an ideal as strong
as the ideals which unite individual
nations, he said that what the inter-
national lawyer of today must do Is to