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1959] ADJUDICATION IN INTERNATIONAL RIVER DfSPUTES 33 tv ~\) ..w. o by political or administrative frontiers." 9 This is the first of six princi- ples formulated by the "Rau Commission" set up to resolve a dispute over a proposed change in the physical regime of the Indus system of rivers. It is significant that this encouragement to resolution by agree- ment came from a body empowered to make recommendations to a central government for an authoritative determination of the issues involved,'. But the Commission also demonstrated one of the rOles of adjudication. The parties, guided by the six general principles 11 as applied by the Com- 9 Report of the Indus [Ran] Commission and Printed Proceedings 10 (Sinlla, 1941; reprinted in Lahore, 1950). 10 The United States Supreme Court has often indieated that resolution by agree- ment is generally the preferable method of settling water disputes. In Hinderlider v, LaPlata Company, 301 U. S. 92, 105 (1937), .Jnstiee Brandeie said: 'I. . . The difficulties incident to litigation have led States to resort,- with frequency, to adjustment of their controversies by compact, even where the matter in dispute was a relatively siDiple one of a boundary. In two such cases this Court suggested 'that the parties endeavor with the consent of Congress to adjust their boundaries.' In New York v. New Jersey (256 U. S. 296, 818), which involved a more intricate p'roblem of rights in interstate waters, the reeommendation that treaty-making be resorted to was more speci:tle." In New York v, New.Jersey, 256 U. S. 296, 31a (1921), the Conrt said: tlWe cannot withhold the suggestion, inspired by the consideration of this cRse, that the grave problem of sewage disposal presented by the large and' growing populations living on the shores of New York Bay is one more likely to be wisely solved by co- operative study and by conference and by mutual concession on the part of representa- tives of the States so vitally interested in it than by proeeedings in any eourt however constituted." . 11 The Commission was appointed in 1941, pursuant to the Government of India Act, 1935, to report upon a complaint by the Province of Sind concerning- injuries to it- threatened by proposals of. the Punjab, an upstream riparian, to impound and' divert waters of tributaries of the Indus River. The Chairman ,of the Commission was Sir Benegal N. Rau, then a judge of the Calcutta High Court and later a member of the International Court of Justice. At the outset,_ the Commission proposed for comment by the parties certain general principles of law, and these were accepted unanimously by the primary disputants and the five other States and Provinces which appeared in the proceedings. These principles are stated in the. Report, op. ett. note 9 above, at 10-11 as follows: I t Subject to correction in the light of what you may have to say, the following principles seem to emerge from the authorities: "(1) The most satisfactory settlement of disputes of this kind is by agreement, the parties adopting the same technical solution of each problem, as if they were a single community undivided by political or administrative frontiers. (Madrid ;Rules of 1911 and Geneva Conv-ention', 1928, Articles 4 and 5.) "(2) If once there is such an agreement, that in itself furnishes the tJaw' governing the rights of the several parties until a new agreement is concluded. (Judgment of the Permanent Court of International Justice, 1937, in the Meuse Dispute between Hol~ land and Belgium.) , , (8) If there is no such agreement, the rights of the several Provinces and States must be determined by applying the rule of lequitable apportionment', each unit get~ ting a fair share of the water of the common river. (American decisions.) II (4) In_the general interests of the entire community inhabiting dry, arid territories, priority may usually have to be given to an earlier irrigation project over a later ODe: tpriority of apptopriation gives superiority of right'. .(Wyoming 11. Colorado, 259 U. S, 419, 459, 410,)