lection of expenses and the exchange of documents and information connected with the operations provided for in the convention. It invited the adherence of the powers which were not parties to it. As the result of it the slave trade is substantially at an end. The convention providing for the publication of customs tariffs established an International Bureau at Brussels to translate and publish the customs tariffs of the various states of the globe and furnish them to the nations joining in the convention. Other powers are invited to accede to the convention and provision is made for a division of the expenses connected with the work of the bureau among all the powers taking advantage of the facilities it affords. The Union is to continue for seven years and if not denounced for succeeding periods of seven years.

The International Postal Union with its permanent Bureau at Berne had become world-wide in its operations and a most gratifying success in every way. Through it all the nations coöperated in facilitating commercial and social correspondence between their people. The conventions for the safety of life at sea resulted in great reduction of the perils of navigation and tended to close and intimate union of effort by the governments to formulate and enforce rules of common safety. No similar combinations for the general welfare of all had ever before been effected. Judged by the success of these international measures the task of uniting all the nations to promote their common interests appeared entirely practicable.

But the primal purpose of government, protection from hostile aggression and preservation of peace, had not been provided for by any general international agreement. The very gratifying success achieved through resort to arbitration induced the belief by many earnest seekers of an alternative for war that arbitration could be made to furnish the needed relief. Though the world had advanced very rapidly in population and in the development of industries, though the discoveries of rich mines of gold in Alaska, South Africa and elsewhere, and the vast productions of silver throughout the world had greatly increased the volume of metallic money in use, though the sentiment of mankind had become more and more opposed

to war as a means of determining any question, militarism in Europe continued to increase and the resources of the nations were wasted in ceaseless preparation for war. Germany led in preparation for war on land. Its whole male population was subjected to thorough military discipline, and all its industries and means of communication were adjusted to the requirements of military operations. By far the greater part of all the public revenues were expended on the military and naval establishments. Neighboring nations made corresponding efforts to be prepared for the emergency of war. Great Britain expended vast sums to maintain its dominion of the seas, with but little attention to land forces. Russia with by far the greatest area of contiguous territory and the largest home population needed all its revenues and the energies of all its leaders for internal development, the promotion of new industries, the education of its vast multitudes of illiterate people, and the reformation of its governmental system. Though it had more men for its armies than any other European nation, it was not nearly so well equipped for the production of munitions as its German neighbors. Feeling the need of all its means for better uses than war the Czar and his advisers proposed an international conference to bring about concerted action of all the powers for the maintenance of peace between nations, the reduction of armaments and the amelioration of the hardships of war. This proposal was responded to by Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Roumania, Servia, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and Bulgaria, of the European nations, by China, Japan, Persia and Siam of the Asiatic nations, and by the United States and Mexico, of America. Central and South America were not represented. The conference assembled at The Hague on May 18, 1899; it was presided over by Baron de Staal of Russia and its sessions continued until July 29th, with one hundred delegates in attendance. No such gathering of diplomats had ever before been assembled, and great hopes were entertained of its ability to accomplish in the field of international pacification results similar to those already

achieved in the lines above mentioned. The work of the conference resulted in the signing by all the nations represented of a general act consisting of three conventions, three declarations and six resolutions. The first of the conventions was for the pacific settlement of international disputes,1 the second, for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva convention, and the third with respect to the laws and customs of war on land. The first and most important of these provided for the establishment of a Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, with a Permanent Administrative Council, composed of the diplomatic representatives of the signatory powers accredited to the Hague and an International Bureau under its direction. The three declarations prohibit the use of projectiles or explosives from balloons for a period of five years; the employment of projectiles which diffuse asphyxiating or other deleterious gases; and the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body. The six resolutions express the opinion that the military burdens which now weigh so heavily on the world may be lightened, in the interest of the moral and material well-being of humanity; that the duties of neutrals, the inviolability of private property in maritime warfare, and the question of the bombardment of towns should be referred to a future conference, and that the questions of the types and calibres of maritime artillery and small arms and the size of naval and military budgets should be studied with a view to establishing uniformity in the former and a reduction of the latter.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration was duly organized and the United States and Mexico were the first powers to resort to it for the settlement of a matter of difference between them in the summer of 1902. (1) It has since been resorted to by other nations on various occasions.

All these conventions were superseded by others on the same subjects adopted at the second Hague conference. On October

1 Senate Documents, 2d Session, 61st Congress, 48, 2016.

2 Id. 48, 2035.

3 Id. 48, 2042.

4 Messages and Papers of the Presidents, XI, 371.

21, 1904, the United States proposed to the other powers a second peace conference. This conference met at The Hague on June 15, 1907, on the invitation of the Czar of Russia and the Queen of the Netherlands, extended pursuant to the proposal of the President of the United States. It was presided over by the Russian ambassador at Paris, M, Nelidoff and continued its sessions till October 18, 1907.

At this Conference the following Powers were represented and took part: Germany, United States, Argentine Republic, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Spain, France, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hayti, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Mexico, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, The Netherlands, Peru, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Salvador, Servia, Siam, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela, numbering forty-four in all.

At a series of meetings held from June 15 to October 18, fourteen conventions were drawn up and submitted for signature by the Plenipotentiaries as follows:

Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International

Disputes.

2. Convention respecting the Limitation of the Employment of Force for the Recovery of Contract Debts.

3. Convention relative to the Opening of Hostilities. 4. Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land.

5. Convention respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in case of War on Land.

6. Convention relating to the Status of Enemy Merchant Ships at the outbreak of Hostilities.

7. Convention relative to the Conversion of MerchantShips into War-Ships.

8. Convention relative to the Laying of Automatic Submarine Contact Mines.

9. Convention respecting Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War.

IO.

Convention for the adaptation to Naval War of the Principles of the Geneva Convention.

II. Convention relative to Certain Restrictions with regard to the Exercise of the Right of Capture in Naval War.. 12. Convention relative to the creation of an International Prize Court.

13. Convention concerning the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War.

14. Declaration prohibiting the discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons.

Full copies of these convention are given below and they will be considered in their order. The first continued the Permanent Court of Arbitration which is still maintained.

CONVENTION FOR THE PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF INTERNATIOAL DISPUTES

Article 1. With a view to obviating as far as possible recourse to force in the relations between States, the Contracting Powers agree to use their best efforts to ensure the pacific settlement of international differences.

Art. 2. In case of serious disagreement or dispute, before an appeal to arms, the Contracting Powers agree to have recourse, as far as circumstances allow, to the good offices or meditation of one or more friendly Powers.

Art. 3. Independently of this recourse, the Contracting Powers deem it expedient and desirable that one or more Powers, strangers to the dispute, should, on their own initiative and as far as circumstances may allow, offer their good offices or mediation to the States at variance.

Powers strangers to the dispute have the right to offer good offices or mediation even during the course of hostilities.

The exercise of this right can never be regarded by either of the parties in the dispute as an unfriendly act.

Art. 4. The part of the mediator consists in reconciling the opposing claims and appeasing the feelings of resentment which may have arisen between the States at variance.

Art. 5. The functions of the mediator are at an end when once it is declared, either by one of the parties to the dispute or by the mediator himself, that the means of reconciliation proposed by him are not accepted.

Art. 6. Good offices and mediation undertaken, either at the request of the parties in dispute or on the initiative of Powers strangers to the dispute have exclusively the character of advice, and never have binding force.

1