HAGUE CONFERENCES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO INTERNATIONAL LAW BY WILLIAM I. HULL, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN SWARTHMORE COLLEGE, MEMBER OF PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF PEACE GINN & COMPANY, BOSTON JX 76585 COPYRIGHT, 1908 BY WILLIAM I. HULL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Athenæum Press GINN & COMPANY. PRO- PREFACE THE National Educational Association, at its forty-fifth annual session in Los Angeles last summer, adopted a report presented by its Committee on Resolutions which contained the following section: "The teachers of the United States of America, assembled in the National Educational Association at Los Angeles, California, view with pleasure and satisfaction the conditions which have brought about the second Hague Conference. We believe that the forces of the world should be organized and operated in the interests of peace and not of war; we believe that the material, commercial, and social interests of the people of the United States and of the whole world demand that the energies of the governments and of the people be relieved of the burdens of providing at enormous expense the armaments suggested by the competitive desire for supremacy in war; we further believe that the fear of war and the possibility of war would alike decline if the governments were to rely more upon the sentiment of the people and less upon the strength of their armies and navies. "We urge upon our representatives at the second Hague Conference to use their influence to widen the scope and increase the power of the Hague tribunal. While disclaiming any desire to suggest a programme or to urge specific action, we do urge our representatives to secure the most favorable action possible upon international arbitration, the limitation of armaments, the protection of private property at sea, and the investigation of international disputes by an impartial commission before the declaration of hostilities. "We recommend to the teachers that the work of the Hague Conferences and of the peace associations be studied carefully, and the results given proper consideration in the work of instruction." This message from the ten thousand teachers present at Los Angeles to their more than half million colleagues in the United States was the culmination of a movement which included, among other noteworthy facts, resolutions similar in tenor passed by the American Institute of Instruction at its meeting in Montreal and by the National Association of School Superintendents at its meeting in Chicago. It was brought to the author's attention while he was in The Hague endeavoring to fulfill the mission of an American journalistic representative at the second Peace Conference; and so desirable did it seem that the Association's recommendation to its members should be acted upon that this book was written in the hope that it might prove of service to them in carrying it out. The arrangement of topics is such that either a consecutive account of each conference may be secured, or a comparative study of the discussion and action upon each topic by the two conferences may be made. The participation of the delegations from the United States in the work of each conference has been made especially prominent. But both commendation and condemnation, in this as in other particulars, have been carefully avoided. For the object sought by the author was to present a true and impartial—a historical-record, and not to enter upon the field of partisan argument or theoretical contention. As to the proportionate amount of space devoted to the various topics, it may be said that some of them which have been presented in some detail, although but little or no important action was taken upon them by the two conferences, are none the less prominent in the public thought and are destined to play an important rôle in future conferences. The sources of information for the two conferences are few in number, but are both official and satisfactory. For the first conference, the official record, entitled "Conférence Internationale de la Paix," has been published in a large quarto volume of six hundred and twenty pages by the Netherlands minister of foreign affairs. It contains the minutes of all the meetings of the conference, its commissions and subcommissions; the admirable reports upon the discussions of the subcommissions and commissions; and the official text of the conventions, declarations, and resolutions adopted by the conference. The "Actes et Documents relatifs au Programme de la Conférence de la Paix de la Haye 1899," also published by order of the Netherlands government, is a valuable collection of materials upon which the work of the conference was based. "The Peace Conference at The Hague," by F. W. Holls, a member of the United States delegation to the conference, is authoritative and interesting. The official record of the second conference, identical in character with that of the first, and of far larger volume, was printed from day to day during the conference, but has not yet been published. Through the courtesy of the Netherlands minister of foreign affairs the author was able to procure a complete set of this record and to base his account of the conference upon it. Almost all of the multitude of documents and comptesrendus of the conference were published in the Courrier de la Conférence, which appeared daily during the sessions of the conference, under the editorship of the able and distinguished journalist, Mr. William T. Stead. In common with all the readers of the Courrier, the author of this book owes a large debt of gratitude to Mr. Stead for the enterprise and public spirit shown by him in inform |