never have been. They are less so now than ever before. As communication and commercial interchanges develop international contacts become more important. As emigration from one country to another increases the obligations of countries to protect the rights of resident foreigners increase. Independence is replaced by an interlocking of interests that demands a recognition of the fact that no state can longer be independent as it was in times past.
The emphasis of duties of this sort does not greatly increase the burdens of the stronger powers nor those of the lesser states that have created orderly governments capable of protecting life and property. Weaker nations are able to give a less effective guarantee to foreigners and to their own citizens. As a result, in spite of the theory of equality of states, in practice the more advanced states exercise a constant pressure upon the weaker to assure that they exert themselves to guarantee safety for life and property. The pressure may be veiled but it is none the less real. If the responsibility is not assumed, there is always the possibility of recourse to force. Many examples could be cited. The demands made upon Venezuela in the opening years of the century and the claims for indemnities arising from the Boxer rebellion in China are illustrations of the ways in which reparations may be sought. That there is possibility of abuse in such circumstances is beyond dispute, but the alternative—to allow the weaker state a free hand in the persecution of foreigners—would be a policy even less endurable. Such a policy is intolerable under modern conditions when both population and capital
