The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-18

The Geneva Tribunal and It's Works.
The True Motives OF England's Sim
4 gular Policy.
The HERALD special cable dispatches from
the Geneva Court of Arbitration are continued
to-day, and keep us fully advised of the action
of the tribunal and of the rumors floating
about on the air of the beautiful lake city.
The Court held very brief session yesterday,
as on Saturday, and no business was transacted
beyond informal talk, the consideration of the
important question of the protracted adjourn
ment demanded by England having been post
poned until tomorrow at two o'clock in the
afternoon. General good humor prevailed
among the members Of the Court, and joking,
laughter and courtesy seem to have been
the order of the day. Whether the same
happy condition of affairs is to con-
tinue remains to be seen. The Ameri-
can agent and counsel, it is said, are
awaiting instructions from our government.
In the British Parliament Earl Granville and
Mr.. Gladstone respectively, in reply to ques-
tions put to them, stated that the British argu-
ment had not been presented to the Court in
any shape, thus confirming the previous state
ment of the HERALD special correspondent
The press reports by way of London assert
that the adjournment requested by England
will probably be granted and affect to believe
that the treaty will be saved, but our special
advices give no such hope. On Wednesday
the subject of England's application will no
doubt be considered. Meanwhile, as the treaty
business has become SO entangled that few can
understand the precise point of difficulty,
and as both Mr. Fish and Lord Granville seem
to be anxious not to let the public know, if,
indeed, they know themselves, where the
hitch is let us see if we can penetrate the
ENHANCEMENT and find the knotty point which
both governments have enveloped in mystery.
The mass of the people on both sides the
Atlantic have the impression yet that the diff
Guilty lies in the claim of the United States for
consequential or indirect damages resulting
from the depredations of the Alabama and her
fellow privateers. This, it is true, was the
difficulty. But the administration at Wash
ington, acting by the advice of the Senate-by
the advice of more than two-thirds Of that
body-agreed to abandon the claim for conse-
quential damages, and to do this through
Supplemental Treaty or by an additional article
to the Washington Treaty. This proposal to
give up the position taken at the first and
maintained all through was regarded by the
American people as hunhliatng; but it was
at least, frank and honest proceeding.
There was no afterthought, no trickery, no
intention Of overreaching the British govern
ment. When the government of this great re-
public said it would abandon the claim for
indirect damages or losses it certainly had no
thought of presenting them in any insidious or
underhand way. What more, then, could
England want? This appeared to have been
the only point of difference between the two
governments. When the concession of it,
through the action of the Senate, was an
in England and to Parliament there
was thrill of satisfaction throughout the
country. England had got what she wanted.
The opposition and ministerialists in both
Houses of Parliament fraternized over the
result. Everybody supposed the treaty was
saved and that to complete its conditions was
merely question of forms and time.
A few hours after all was changed. The
sky was overcast again. The British govern
ment again became dissatisfied. There was
new difficulty Great efforts have been made
to hide the exact nature Of it from the public
1t has been represented by the embarrassed
diplomatists as verbal difficulty arising from
. difference of opinion as to the meaning Of
certain words or expressions We have been
told that the British government want the Ian
guage of the Supplemental Treaty to be made
more plain and explicit. The impression
which both governments seemed DESTROYS of
conveying was that the hitch was in the words
only-a mere question of phraseology. To
people Of common sense it appears strange
that any such difficulty should exist about
words merely if there were no principle in
volved. Though both governments have been
foolishly intent on Disgusting the fact, and,
though we have not yet got at the particular
form of the proposed Supplemental Treaty in
volving it, we can see that there is great |
principle at the bottom OF this difficulty.
Enough has leaked out to show that England
is not contending over the meaning of words
merely, but over question of the highest i'm
portance, which was with her the paramount
consideration in making the Washington
Treaty.
We refer to the rules regarding the obliga-
tons of the two Powers to each other as neu-
trails in the future. These rules were the
basis of the whole treaty. And in order to
settle the Alabama claims they were made SO
far retroactive. Each Power was required to
use "due diligence as a neutral to prevent
the escape of privateers to prey upon the COM
merce of the other when at war; The rules
are, in other respects, extremely exacting and
stringent as regards augmenting the force or
war means Of an enemy. The whole gist and |
spirit of them was to tie the hands of the
United States SO as to prevent England being
IN inrnd "a tho Of with other |