[Footnote 138: See Westlake, Chapters, pp. 211-219; Westlake, I. pp. 41-43, and again Westlake in _The Law Quarterly Review_, XXVI. (1910), pp. 312-319.--See also Lee-Warner, "The Native States of India" (1910), pp. 254-279.]
How could all these and other facts be explained, if Vassal States could never for some small part be International Persons?
Side by side with these facts stand, of course, other facts which show that for the most part the Vassal State, even if it has some small position of its own within the Family of Nations, is considered a mere portion of the Suzerain State. Thus all international treaties concluded by the Suzerain State are _ipso facto_ concluded for the vassal, if an exception is not expressly mentioned or self-evident. Thus, again, war of the suzerain is _ipso facto_ war of the vassal. Thus, thirdly, the suzerain bears within certain limits a responsibility for actions of the Vassal State.
Under these circumstances it is generally admitted that the conception of suzerainty lacks juridical precision, and experience teaches that Vassal States do not remain half-Sovereign for long. They either shake off suzerainty, as Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro did in 1878, and Bulgaria[140] did in 1908, or they lose their half-Sovereignty through annexation, as in the case of the South African Republic in 1901, or through merger, as when the half-Sovereign Seignory of Kniephausen in Germany merged in 1854 into its suzerain Oldenburg.
[Footnote 140: As regards the position of Bulgaria while she was a Vassal State under Turkish suzerainty, see Holland, "The European Concert in the Eastern Question" (1885), pp. 277-307, and Nédjmidin, "Völkerrechtliche Entwicklung Bulgariens" (1908).]
Vassal States of importance which are for some parts International Persons are, at present, Egypt,[141] and Crete.[142] They are both under Turkish suzerainty, although Egypt is actually under the administration of Great Britain. Samos,[143] which some writers consider a Vassal State under Turkish suzerainty, is not half-Sovereign, but enjoys autonomy to a vast degree.
[Footnote 141: See Holland, "The European Concert in the Eastern Question" (1885), pp. 89-205; Grünau, "Die staats- und völkerrechtliche Stellung Aegyptens" (1903); Cocheris, "Situation internationale de l'Egypte et du Soudan" (1903); Freycinet, "La question d'Egypte" (1905); Moret in R.J. XIV. (1907), pp. 405-416; Lamba in R.G. XVII. (1910), pp. 36-55. In the case of the "Charkieh," 1873, L.R. 4 Adm. and Eccl. 59, the Court refused to acknowledge the half-sovereignty of Egypt; see Phillimore, I. § 99.]