REPORT OF THE DELEGATES OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCE HELD AT THE HAGUE FROM JUNE 15 TO OCTOBER 18, 1907.

Hon. ELIHU ROOT,

Secretary of State.

SIR: Pursuant to a request of the Interparliamentary Union, held at St. Louis in 1904, that a future peace conference be held and that the President of the United States invite all nations to send representatives to such a conference, the late Secretary of State, at the direction of the President, instructed, on October 21, 1904, the representatives of the United States accredited to each of the signatories to the acts of the The Hague Conference of 1899 to present overtures for a second conference to the ministers for foreign affairs of the respective countries.

The replies received to this circular instruction of October 21, 1904, indicated that the proposition for the calling of a second conference met with general favor. At a later period it was intimated by Russia that the initiator of the First Conference was, owing to the restoration of peace in the Orient, disposed to undertake the calling of a new conference to continue as well as to supplement the work of the first. The offer of the Czar to take steps requisite to convene a second international peace conference was gladly welcomed by the President, and the Final Act of the Conference only recites in its preamble the invitation of the President.

The Russian Government thus assumed the calling of the Conference, and on April 12, 1906, submitted the following programme, which was acceptable to the Powers generally and which served as the basis of the work of the Conference:

1. Improvements to be made in the provisions of the convention relative to the peaceful settlement of international disputes as regards the Court of Arbitration and the international commissions of inquiry.

2. Additions to be made to the provisions of the convention of 1899 relative to the laws and customs of war on land-among others, those concerning the opening of hostilities, the rights of neutrals on land, etc. Declaration of 1899. One of these having expired, question of its being revived.

3. Framing of a conveniton relative to the laws and customs of maritime warfare, concerning

The special operations of maritime warfare, such as the bombardment of ports, cities, and villages by a naval force; the laying of torpedoes, etc.

The transformation of merchant vessels into war ships.

The private property of belligerents at sea.

The length of time to be granted to merchant ships for their departure from ports of neutrals or of the enemy after the opening of hostilities.

The rights and duties of neutrals at sea, among others the questions of contraband, the rules applicable to belligerent vessels in neutral ports; destruction, in cases of vis major, of neutral merchant vessels captured as prizes.

In the said convention to be drafted there would be introduced the provisions relative to war on land that would be also applicable to maritime warfare.

4. Additions to be made to the convention of 1899 for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention of 1864.

The United States, however, reserved the right to bring to discussion two matters of great importance not included in the programme, namely, the reduction or limitation of armaments and restrictions or limitations upon the use of force for the collection of ordinary public debts arising out of contracts.

It was finally decided that the Conference should meet at The Hague on the 15th day of June, 1907, and thus the Conference, proposed by the President of the United States, and convoked by Her Majesty the Queen of The Netherlands upon the invitation of the Emperor of All the Russias, assumed definite shape and form.

It will be recalled that the First Peace Conference, although international, was not universal, for only a fraction of the Powers recognizing and applying international law in their mutual relations were invited to The Hague. The fact that the uninvited might adhere to the conventions was foreseen by the Conference itself, and the conventions concerning the laws and customs of land warfare and the adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention of the 22d of August, 1864, provided that nonsignatory Powers by adhering became admitted to the privileges as well as bound by the liabilities of the various conventions. The convention for the peaceful adjustment of international difficulties (art. 60) suggested eventual adherence of such countries, but made this conditioned upon an understanding to be reached by the contracting Powers.

In the circulars of October 21 and December 16, 1904, it was suggested as desirable to consider and adopt a procedure by which States nonsignatory to the original acts of The Hague Conference may become adhering parties. This suggestion was taken note of by the Russian Government and invitations were issued to forty-seven countries, in response to which the representatives of forty-four nations assembled at The Hague and took part in the Conference. No opposition was made to the admission of the nonsignatory States to the benefits of the convention of 1899 for the peaceful adjustment of international difficulties, and on the 14th day of June, 1907, the signatories of the First Conference formally consented under their hands and seals to the adhesion of the nonsignatory States invited to the Second Conference.

The delegation of the United States to the Conference was composed of the following members:

Commissioners plenipotentiary with the rank of ambassador extraordinary:

Joseph H. Choate, of New York.

Horace Porter, of New York.

Uriah M. Rose, of Arkansas.

Commissioner plenipotentiary:

David Jayne Hill, of New York, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States to the Netherlands.

Commissioners Plenipotentiary with rank of minister plenipotententiary:

Brig. Gen. George B. Davis, Judge-Advocate-General, U. S.

Technical delegate and expert in international law:

James Brown Scott, of California.

Technical delegate and expert attaché to the Commission:

Charles Henry Butler, of New York.

Secretary to the Commission:

Chandler Hale, of Maine.

Assistant secretaries to the Commission:
A. Bailly-Blanchard, of Louisiana.
William M. Malloy, of Illinois.

The Dutch Government set aside for the use of the Conference, the Binnenhof, the seat of the States-General, and on the 15th day of June, 1907, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the Conference was opened by his excellency the dutch minister for foreign affairs in the presence of delegates representing forty-four nations. In the course of his remarks his excellency offered a tribute of gratitude to the eminent statesman who controls the destinies of the United States of America. President Roosevelt has greatly contributed to harvest the grain sown by the August Initiator of the solemn international conferences assembled to discuss and to render more exact the rules of international law which, as the States are the first to recognize, should control their relations."

At the conclusion of the address of welcome his excellency suggested as president of the Conference His Excellency M. Nelidow, first delegate of Russia, and, with the unanimous consent of the assembly, M. Nelidow accepted the presidency and delivered an address, partly personal, in which, in addition to thanking the Conference for the honor of the presidency, he called attention to the work of the First Conference and outlined in a general way the underlying purpose of the Second Conference and the hopes of the delegates assembled. At the termination of his address he proposed the personnel of the secretary-general's office.

At the next meeting of the Conference, on the 19th day of June, the president proposed that the Conference follow the procedure of the First Conference, adapting it, however, to the new conditions; for, as the Conference was so large, it seemed advisable to draw up a series of rules and regulations to facilitate the conduct of business. The president thereupon proposed the following twelve articles, which were unanimously adopted, with the exception of the third paragraph of article 8 which was suppressed:

ARTICLE 1. The Second Peace Conference is composed of all the plenipotentiaries and technical delegates of the Powers which have signed or adhered to the conventions and acts signed at the First Peace Conference of 1899.

ART. 2. After organizing its bureau, the Conference shall appoint commissions to study the questions comprised within its programme.

The plenipotentiaries of the Powers are free to register on the lists of these commissions according to their own convenience and to appoint technical delegates to take part therein.

ART. 3. The Conference shall appoint the president and vice-presidents of each commission. The commissions shall appoint their secretaries and their reporter.

ART. 4. Each commission shall have the power to divide itself into subcommissions which shall organize their own bureau.

ART. 5. An editing committee for the purpose of coordinating the acts adopted by the Conference and preparing them in their final form shall also be appointed by the Conference at the beginning of its labors.

ART. 6. The members of the delegations are all authorized to take part in the deliberations at the plenary sessions of the Conference as well as in the commissions of

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which they form part. The members of one and the same delegation may mutually replace one another.

ART. 7. The members of the Conference attending the meetings of the commissions of which they are not members shall not be entitled to take part in the deliberations without being specially authorized for this purpose by the presidents of the commissions.

ART. 8. When a vote is taken each delegation shall have only one vote.

The vote shall be taken by roll call, in the alphabetical order of the Powers represented.

[The delegation of one Power may have itself represented by the delegation of another Power.]

ART. 9. Every proposed resolution or desire to be discussed by the Conference must, as a general rule, be delivered in writing to the president, and be printed and distributed before being taken up for discussion.

ART. 10. The public may be admitted to the plenary sessions of the Conference. Tickets shall be distributed for this purpose by the Secretary-General with the authorization of the president.

The bureau may at any time decide that certain sessions shall not be public.

ART. 11. The minutes of the plenary sessions of the Conference and of the commissions shall give a succinct résumé of the deliberations.

A proof copy of them shall be opportunely delivered to the members of the Conference and they shall not be read at the beginning of the sessions.

Each delegate shall have a right to request the insertion in full of his official declarations according to the text delivered by him to the secretary, and to make observations regarding the minutes.

The reports of the commissions and subcommissions shall be printed and distributed before being taken up for discussion.

ART. 12. The French language is recognized as the official language of the deliberations and of the acts of the Conference.

The Secretary-General shall, with the consent of the speaker himself, see that speeches delivered in any other language are summarized orally in French.

The president stated that the programme for the work of the Conference was so elaborate that a division of the Conference into four commissions would be advisable; that in so doing the precedent of 1899 would be followed, for the First Conference apportioned the subjects enumerated in the programme among three commissions. The following dispositions were thereupon proposed and agreed to:

Arbitration.

FIRST COMMISSION.

International commissions of inquiry and questions connected therewith.

SECOND COMMISSION.

Improvements in the system of the laws and customs of land warfare.

Opening of hostilities.

Declarations of 1899 relating thereto.

Rights and obligations of neutrals on land.

THIRD COMMISSION.

Bombardment of ports, cities, and villages by a naval force.

Laying of torpedoes, etc.

The rules to which the vessels of belligerents in neutral ports would be subjected. Additions to be made to the convention of 1899 in order to adapt to maritime warfare the principles of the Geneva Convention of 1864, revised in 1906.

FOURTH COMMISSION.

Transformation of merchant vessels into war vessels.

Private property at sea.

Delay allowed for the departure of enemy merchant vessels in enemy ports.
Contraband of war. Blockades.

Destruction of neutral prizes by force majeure.

Provisions regarding land warfare which would also be applicable to naval warfare.

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The president thereupon proposed as presidents or chairmen of the various committees the following delegates:

First Commission: M. Léon Bourgeois.

Second Commission: M. Beernaert; assistant president, M. T. M. C. Asser.

Third Commission: Count Tornielli.

Fourth Commission: M. de Martens.

At the same time the president designated as honorary presidents of the third and second commissions, Messrs. Joseph H. Choate and Horace Porter, and as a member of the correspondence committee Hon. Uriah M. Rose. The president recommended that the deliberations be kept secret, or, at least, that they be not communicated by members to the press. The recommendation was unanimously adopted but was not universally adhered to by the delegates.

The first, second, and third commissions were subsequently divided into subcommissions in order to reduce the numbers and to facilitate the work, and at various times committees of examination were appointed by each of the commissions in order still further to reduce membership and to present in acceptable form projects accepted in principle but not in detail by the various commissions. Finally, in order to correct the language and to assign the various projects already approved to their proper place in the Final Act, a large editing committee (comité de rédaction) was appointed at a meeting of the Conference and a subcommittee was appointed, consisting of eight members, to do the work of the large committee and report to it. It may be said that the American delegation was represented on almost all of these various committees and subcommittees.

The actual work of the Conference was, therefore, done in commission and committee. The results, so far as the several commissions desired, were reported to the Conference sitting in plenary session for approval, and, after approval, submitted to the small subediting committee for final revision which, however, affected form, not substance. The results thus reached were included in the Final Act and signed by the plenipotentiaries on the 18th day of October, 1907, upon which date the Conference adjourned.

The positive results of the Conference might be set forth, with perhaps equal propriety, in either one of two ways: First, by discussing the work of each commission and the results accomplished by each; or secondly, by enumerating and describing the results in the order in which they appear, arranged by the Conference itself, in the Final Act. The first method would have the advantage of showing the work of each commission as a whole from the presentation of the various projects until they took final shape in the commission and were approved by the Conference in plenary session. As, however, important projects were considered by the commission, but were not voted upon by the Conference, or, if voted in a form so modified as to appear almost in the nature of original piopositions, and inasmuch as the various conventions and measures adopted are arranged in the Final Act without specific reference to the commissions, it seems advisable to follow the order of the Final Act, so that each measure may occupy the place in the report which was assigned to it by the Conference itself. This arrangement will bring into prominence the result, rather than the means by which the result was reached, and will prevent in no slight measure repetition and duplication.