At bottom, of course, the protection of the lives of its citizens is one of the first duties of every state, a duty that does not cease at the boundary. Abroad protection should be given not only in normal times, when, in fact, it will seldom be necessary to call for it, but, so far as circumstances permit, during periods when the countries to which the citizens have gone to live are suffering invasion or are torn by civil war. The outrages practiced on the local population may arouse active sympathy abroad, resulting in extreme cases in intervention by the foreign government in defense of the interests of general humanity, but long before that point is reached a country must feel the call to protect its own citizens resident in foreign lands, when their rights are violated.
It can not be claimed, of course, that as soon as public order is disturbed in a country foreign governments have a right at once to resort to armed intervention to protect their citizens, but in every case it is a national duty to make all governments and all parties to conflicts within them understand that prompt and full reparation for wrongful damages will be expected. Up to what point protest and redress can properly be relied upon, and when more forceful measures must be resorted to can be determined by no definite rule. The character of the disturbed populations, the nature of the violations, their long continuance, the prospect of early adjustment of public order, and an indefinite number of political considerations all influence the decisions that will be taken. No country is under the obligation to allow the abuses to continue indefinitely. At some point the duty to respect technical foreign sovereignty be-
