The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-10-27

Cne first meeting of the commissioners
it was mutually agreed between them
that no account of the proceedings should
be revealed. Notwithstanding this en-
barge placed upon the newsmonger,
Paris papers pretend to give informa-
ton regarding the work of this very Sc
cret commission.
It is the opinion of some in official
circles here that the peace commission
will fail in securing the object aimed
at, and that war between the United
States and Spain will be resumed. These
argue that if the United States presses
Spain too hard and makes the conditions
of peace impossible of acceptance by the
proud Spanish hidalgos the negotiations
will fail, and Spain will rely upon the
sympathy of Europe in her emergency.
A few days ago met a Spanish gen.
tleman whom I had not seen since first
meeting him in London in 1889. He
recently arrived here from Madrid and
is thoroughly posted as to the state of
public opinion in Spain. In the course
of a conversation reference was made to
the peace commission, and he somewhat
startled me by saying with much en-
phasis that the commissioners of Spain
would never agree to relinquishing any
portion of the Philippine islands. But,
he continued to say in substance, should
the seemingly impossible occur the peo-
pie of Spain will not consent to such an
arrangement and would prefer to have
the war transferred to Spanish soil
rather than to permit the alienation of
all their chief colonial possessions.
Whether my Spanish acquaintance
was correct or not in his surmises there
are not lacking presidents in history
where conditions agreed to by those
fully authorized to conclude a peace
were rejected by the nation adversely
affected by them. After the disastrous
battle of Pavia Francis I, king Of
France, was forced to conclude a peace
which was repudiated by the people of
his country. The assembly of Cognao
declared that although the king had alb
solute control over peace and war he
could not by the treaty of Madrid alien
ate any part of his kingdom. 1t would
be nice point in national ethics to de-
eide whether any power in state has
the authority to cede in perpetuity any
part of the public domain. Whether it
has or not, nations have never felt
bound by such agreements and recognize
in them not the law of right but that
of necessity.
Something more germane to the pres
emit state of affairs in connection with
the peace commission and its very pos
sibIe failure to secure the ends aimed
at is the fact that s1ch conventions
have frequently failed in the history of
nations. When the preliminaries of
peace were signed in Paris in 1927 by
the ministers of the emperor of Ger
many, of France, Great Britain and
Holland, Spain held aloof and peace
could not be secured while she remained
in opposition. The dangerous state of
the Spanish kings philip VI health
alarmed Queen Eliza beth, and she pre-
vailed upon her husband to accept the
preIiminaries of peace by the act of the
Prado in 1923. Immediately afterward
a congress was opened at Seasons,
France, to arrange a treaty Of peace,
but chiefly in consequence of the repre-
Eentatives of Spain making demands
the other powers could not grant the
negotiations failed.
Another attempt at terminating
war by treaty of peace that failed oc-
eurred in 1895, the nations concerned
being Great Britain and France. In Oc-
tober of that year the British govern
ment made proposals of peace with
France, and Lord Malmesbury was sent
as a plenipotentiary The day follow
ing his arrival in Paris he had an inter
view with the French minister, Della
croix, who was chosen by the directory
to represent France. From the first
there was an evident lack of cordially
and sincerity on the part of the T -ench
government, and the demands they
made were so impossible of being grant
sd that after the negotiations had drag
ged along for a month they ended with
out result. That France s sole object IN