Captain Scheine does not insist that they await the arrival of these instructions and he endorses the proposition of his Excellency Mr. BEERNAERT to the end that the Commission express the desire to have the Governments proceed themselves to make a new and thorough study of the question.

This proposition is adopted without dissent.

On the proposition of the President, Mr. VAN KARNEBEEK is designated as reporter of the First Commission at the Conference. (Assent.)

Mr. Raffalovich proposes to have printed in full the minutes of the meeting of June 26, as well as those of to-day, June 30. (Assent.)

The meeting adjourns.

SEVENTH MEETING

JULY 17, 1899

Jonkheer van Karnebeek presiding.

The President takes possession of the chair and expresses himself as follows:

GENTLEMEN: When, on the eve of the Conference, we found ourselves so fortunate as to be able to express respectful congratulations to His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, we certainly did not think that during the course of [37] our meetings we should be obliged to join in the grief of His Majesty and of the royal family.

I am sure, gentlemen, that I shall be expressing a sentiment which you all have in your hearts and which is shared by all the members of the Conference, if I pay at the beginning of this meeting-the first held since the sad eventthe tribute of our profound and respectful sympathy in the grief caused His Majesty the Emperor, the august imperial family, and the whole Russian people, by the death of His Imperial Majesty the Hereditary Grand Duke.

As vice president of the Conference, I take the liberty to request our honorable president, who is now present, to kindly act as the intermediary to express to his illustrious sovereign the humble and sincere condolences of the Conference.

His Excellency Mr. Staal expresses his deep gratitude at this testimonial of sympathy in the painful circumstances through which the imperial family is passing; he will hasten to convey to his august master the condolences which have been expressed, in the name of the Conference, in such lofty terms by the honorable vice president.

The President states that his Excellency Mr. BEERNAERT has been prevented from responding to the call made to him, other duties of great importance retaining him in Belgium.

He adds that in the absence of Mr. BEERNAERT he will be the one to have the honor of taking his place to-day.

He appeals to the indulgence of the Commission, for he will have to perform double functions, that of president and of reporter; he gives assurance that the latter capacity will not affect his impartiality as president.

The order of the day embodies in the first place an examination of the minutes

of the last meeting, which have been printed and distributed.

As no one has formulated any observations, the minutes are adopted. The President places under discussion the draft of the report which will be presented to the Conference in the name of the First Commission.

It is decided that the four divisions thereof shall be discussed successively. The PRESIDENT opens the discussion on the first part of the report.

Mr. van Karnebeek observes that he took the liberty, with a view to securing a better wording, of slightly changing the text of the three points in regard to which it was possible for the Commission to come to an agreement.

After an exchange of views between Colonel Gross von Schwarzhoff, Colonel Gilinsky, Count de Macedo, General den Beer Poortugael, and the Reporter, it is decided to restore, as regards the three points of the first part of the report, the text as it was voted for by the Commission. The delegate from Germany particularly observed that in his opinion the original wording expressed the technical sense more exactly.

Mr. Beldiman asks that a statement be made in the report, in parentheses, of the names of the Powers which voted against the propositions or which refrained from voting.

Count de Macedo sees no objection to this proposition, but in case it is adopted he would also like to have indicated the reasons for which he abstained from voting to prohibit the use of expansive bullets.

Captain Mahan expresses the same desire in regard to shells with asphyxiating gases.

The President states that the request of Mr. BELDIMAN and Count DE MACEDO tends to produce once more the minutes of the Commission, which is not the object of the report.

Mr. Raffalovich is of the same opinion, and he adds that the reports of General DEN BEER POORTUGAEL and Count SOLTYK are sufficiently explicit and easy to consult in order that Mr. BELDIMAN may find satisfaction therein.

Mr. Beldiman would like at least to have mention made of the date of the meetings at which the votes were cast.

Although the first two points of this part of the report do not appear to be of very great importance and although unanimity was lacking in regard to the last two, the Reporter thought there was no reason for the Commission to neglect these results.

To him the best way to make them of value seems to be, to propose to the Conference an extension of the Declaration of St. Petersburg of November 29, 1868, to the three points in question for a period of five years.

Among the Powers represented at the Conference there are a certain number which did not participate in the Declaration of St. Petersburg.

The advantage of his proposition would be that their signatures would imply their adhesion to the Declaration of 1868.

By applying the five-year limit to all three points, we should thus in a certain [38] measure be meeting the considerations which prevented the representatives of two Governments at this Conference from joining in the vote in regard to expansive bullets.

Captain Mahan, Colonel Gilinsky, Mr. Martens, Mr. Beldiman, Captain Scheine, and Mr. Bourgeois, make the following objections to the proposition submitted in the draft report:

As regards the prohibition of the use of projectiles whose sole purpose is to spread asphyxiating or deleterious gases and the use of expanding bullets, the term of five years substituted instead of a permanent prohibition would change the scope of the decision which was voted for by the Commission. This would therefore be a new proposition which would have to be voted on and for which new instructions would be necessary. (Messrs. MAHAN and SCHEINE.)

Colonel Gilinsky insists that the prohibition of the use of expanding bullets should continue forever, as was decided several times by the subcommission and the Commission.

The consequence of the proposition would be to change the character of the Declaration of St. Petersburg, which was considered as being concluded forever; it appears difficult, from a legal standpoint, to induce Powers which did not sign the Declaration of St. Petersburg to adhere thereto implicitly and incidentally by signing the convention which will be the result of the Hague Conference, since the St. Petersburg Declaration has not been discussed here. (Messrs. GILINSKY, MARTENS, and BELDIMAN.)

There were reasons for signing an agreement in perpetuity with regard to certain points and for a limited period with regard to others, since it was necessary to make a distinction between the known and the unknown.

It would therefore be useful to maintain the original texts which take this difference into account. (Mr. BOURGEOIS.)

The Reporter answers that it is a question of presenting to the Conference the results of the examination of the Commission in the form of a Convention. If the St. Petersburg Declaration is not taken as a basis by extending it to the three points in question for a period of five years, it would be necessary, since it is desired to adhere strictly to the three votes, to have three different conventions, and it would seem that there would then be less chance of arriving at a presentable result.

The wording proposed by him in no wise affects the force or duration of the engagements assumed in the St. Petersburg Declaration. These engagements will not be limited to five years. This limitation in the proposed formula bears only on the new points which he proposes to connect with this Declaration.

In connecting them therewith, the new engagements will be placed under the régime of said Declaration, which is an important matter as regards their scope with respect to non-signatory Powers.

The President now reads the following draft proposed by Mr. MARTENS, which is intended to serve as a preface to the engagement to be undertaken.

The signatory Powers, being animated by the same sentiments which found expression in the St. Petersburg Declaration, engage themselves for a period of ... to:

Captain Mahan deems it useless to speak of sentiments; it is a question of standing on practical ground; he therefore proposes the following formula: “The signatory Powers declare............etc."

At the initiative of Mr. Bourgeois, seconded by Mr. Raffalovich, the President proposes to submit to the Conference the three texts as voted on by the Commission and to entrust to the Committee the final wording of the Convention to be concluded.

This proposition is adopted.

Captain Siegel deems it useful to call attention to the fact that in the vote relating to the prohibition of projectiles whose sole purpose is to spread asphyxiating gases, several delegates, including himself, while the vote is represented in the report as being adopted without reservation by all the delegates, voted in the affirmative only on condition that there should be unanimity.

His Excellency Sir Julian Pauncefote says that as a matter of fact fourteen delegates were in this situation.

The President replies that the vote in question took place in the subcommission, whereas the report should be based on what took place at the plenary session. Count de Macedo thinks that the word "sole" was inserted by mistake in the text of the report. He cites particularly a passage of the report of General DEN BEER POORTUGAEL of the first subcommission.

The Reporter as well as several delegates observe that the first subcommission concerned itself only incidentally with projectiles spreading deleterious or [39] asphyxiating gases, but that the second subcommission considered the question amply.

Captain Mahan and Captain Scheine say that the word "sole" was inserted purposely.

The President submits to discussion the second part of the report, which is adopted after a short discussion between General den Beer Poortugael, who asks for the omission of the word "perhaps " in the second to the last sentence, and Colonel Gross von Schwarzhoff, who insists on the maintenance of this word. General den Beer Poortugael withdraws his request.

The President places the third part of the report under discussion.

Colonel Gross von Schwarzhoff is not certain that the vote of the Commission on the conclusions of the technical committee is indicated with sufficient precision in the report.

It would be well to state plainly that the Commission unanimously accepted the terms of the report presented by the technical committee in regard to the Russian proposition.

The President asks Mr. GROSS VON SCHWARZ HOFF whether he has a new wording to propose.

The delegate from Germany replies that he has not prepared any. Colonel Gilinsky observes that everybody is not agreed with the conclusions of the technical committee and that the resolution of Mr. BOURGEOIS was accepted unanimously.

An exchange of views takes place between Colonel Gross von Schwarzhoff, Mr. van Karnebeek, Mr. Bourgeois, and Mr. Beldiman on the conditions under which the Commission accepted the conclusions of the technical committee and the addition to the text as proposed by Mr. BOURGEOIS in the previous meeting. It is shown from this exchange of views that the Commission unanimously adopted the terms of the report of the technical committee, as well as the resolution formulated by Mr. BOURGEOIS at the preceding meeting, which was separately put to a vote by Mr. Beernaert.

Mr. Bourgeois, in order to give satisfaction to the wishes expressed in various quarters, proposes to word this part of the report as follows:

Consequently, after unanimously adopting the propositions of the technical committee, the Commission adopted likewise unanimously, in order to interpret this idea, the resolution proposed to it for the purpose by the first delegate from France.

The proposition of Mr. BOURGEOIS is adopted.

Mr. Beldiman proposes that the names of the delegates who formed part of the technical committee be added to the report.