sior is the motto of progress. Let us then bravely take up the work before us, having as the light of our path the luminous star of peace and justice, to which we shall never attain, but which will lead us always towards the welfare of humanity.”

After a duration of thirty-five minutes the session closed. At the second plenary session, telegrams from the Queen and Czar were read; the organization of the conference and the few rules necessary for its procedure were adopted; the president announced that the governments represented at the second conference which had not participated in the first had given in their adhesion to the acts of the first; the German and British delegations announced that they would propose the establishment of an international court of appeal to adjudicate cases of prizes taken in naval warfare; and the United States delegation announced that it would reserve the right of introducing the question of the collection of public debts by force, or any other question not mentioned in the programme. The session lasted forty-five minutes.

The third plenary session, after the presentation of the report of the Commission on Petitions, was devoted to the discussion and adoption of the III Commission's report on the application of the Geneva Convention to maritime warfare.

At the fourth plenary session, reports from the II and III Commissions on the laws and customs of war on land, and on the bombardment of seaports, were adopted, and the question of the limitation of armaments was disposed of.

The fifth plenary session was devoted to the adoption of the II Commission's report on the declaration of war and the rights and duties of neutral states, and to a discussion of the same commission's report on the treatment of neu

trals in the territory of belligerents, which was referred back to the commission.

The sixth plenary session was opened by the announcement that, "under the ægis of the conference," a treaty of arbitration had just been concluded between Italy and Argentina; the amended report of the II Commission on the status of neutrals in belligerent territory was read and adopted; the report of the I Commission establishing an International Prize Court, and the report of a special committee fixing a time for the convocation of a third Peace Conference, were also read and adopted.

At the seventh plenary session, the laws and customs of warfare on the sea, elaborated by the IV Commission, were reported and adopted.

At its eighth plenary session, the conference approved the III Commission's reports on the location of submarine mines, and on the conduct of warships in neutral ports in time of war.

The important reports of the I Commission on the Permanent Court of Arbitration and on the extension of obligatory arbitration were adopted at the ninth plenary session; the resolution offered by Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, in regard to the construction of the Peace. Palace, was unanimously adopted; and the Commission on Editing began its report on the Final Act.

The report of the Commission on Editing was completed at the tenth plenary session, and the Final Act was adopted; the Commission on Petitions also made its final report.

The eleventh and last plenary session, October 18, was devoted to addresses of farewell, delivered by President Nelidow, Vice President de Beaufort, of the Netherlands,

1 See page 20.

Sir Edward Fry, of Great Britain, Count Tornielli, of Italy, M. Saenz Peña, of Argentina, M. Pérez Triana, of Colombia, M. Tzudzuki, of Japan, Samad Khan, of Persia, and M. van Tets van Goudriaan, the Netherlands minister of foreign affairs, and the honorary president of the conference. These addresses were devoted partly to congratulations and thanks extended to various officials and governments, and partly to a discussion of the general results of the conference. From this latter point of view, two or three of them are of historic interest and will be referred to again.1

The I Commission held ten reunions, between June 22 and October 11; its first subcommission, and its various committees, met forty-seven times; and its second subcommission and committee met six times. The II Commission's reunions were six in number, and extended from June 22 to September 9; its first subcommission met five times, and its second subcommission seven times. The III Commission held eight reunions, between June 4 and October 4; its first and second subcommissions met four and five times, respectively. And the IV Commission's reunions, extending from June 24 to September 26, numbered fourteen, while its committees held twenty-one meetings.

When it is recalled that many of these nearly eight score meetings were several hours in length, it must be admitted that the conference's four months of existence were laborious ones; but, on the other hand, it must remain a source of surprise as well as of gratification that so many results of weighty import were accomplished in meetings comparatively few in number and extending over only four months.

1 See Section XIV: A Summary of Results

VIII. PROGRAMME

a. THE CONFERENCE OF 1899

For some time after the publication of Count Mouravieff's rescript of August 24, 1898, suggesting a conference, it was thought that the Russian government would have no definite proposals to bring before the conference, but would simply introduce the subject of the limitation of armaments, hoping that in the course of the discussion some practical solution of the problem might arise. But as this plan was too indefinite to be fruitful of practical results, a second Russian rescript was issued January 11, 1899 [Russian style, December 30, 1898], containing the following sug gestions as to a definite programme:

"The subjects to be submitted for international discussion at the conference may be summarized, in general terms, as follows: "1. An understanding stipulating the non-increase, for ab define period, of the present effective military and naval for the military budgets pertaining to them gation of the means by which even a budgets may be secured in the future

"2. A prohibition of the introduce

any new kinds of firearms whatsoever as

"4. A prohibition of the use, in naval warfare, of submarine torpedo boats or plungers, or of other similar engines of destruction; and an agreement not to construct in the future war vessels with rams.

"5. The application to naval warfare of the stipulations of the Geneva Convention of 1864, on the basis of the additional articles of 1868.

"6. The neutralization of ships or boats employed in saving those overboard during or after naval battles.

"7. A revision of the Declaration concerning the laws and customs of war, elaborated in 1874 by the Conference of Brussels and remaining unratified to the present day.

"8. The acceptance, in principle, of the employment of good offices, of mediation and of facultative arbitration, in cases adaptable to them, with the object of preventing armed conflicts between nations; an understanding as to the method of their application, and the establishment of a uniform practice in their employment."

No amendments or reservations were made by the other governments in accepting this Russian programme, and it became the basis of the conference's discussions and, as we have seen, of the division of work between the first three commissions. The order of topics in the Russian programme was followed in assigning them to the three commissions, armaments coming first and arbitration last; but Baron de Staal, in his opening address, inverted this order, placing arbitration first and dwelling chiefly upon it, while armaments came last in his mention of topics and received least attention from him. It may be remarked that the conference itself emphasized this illustration of the old adage that "the first shall be last, and the last shall be first"; for it devoted itself chiefly to the topic of arbitration and achieved its most noteworthy triumphs in connection with it. When the second conference was summoned, arbitration was made the first topic on the programme, and it was assigned to the I Commission.