The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-05-18
IT BEGINS today.
Peace Conference
Delegates Throng
The Hague.
OF WORK.
Large Mass Of Historical
Documents Will Be
Studied.

The Hague, May17.-All the delegates
to the international peace conference
have arrived. Today was spent in
general exchange of visits. The perma-
nent president of the conference will
be NJ. De Staal, Russian ambassador
ID Great Britain and head of the Rus
sian delegation. The honorary chair
man, who will open the proceedings,
will be NJ. De Beaufort, president of
the council and minister of foreign af-
fairs of the government Of the Meth
erlands.
The city is brilliantly decorated with
foreign flags denoting the national
headquarters. This evening M. Van
Handbook, former Dutch minister of
foreign affairs. gave a dinner to intro
duce the foreign delegates. Reporters
will only be admitted to hear the in
augural address of NJ. De Beaufort,
who is excluded from opening the dis
cussion of the czars project.
Three commissions will then be nam
ed to arrange programs for discussion.
The first relates to restrictions of arma-
ments and military expenditure. The
second deals with the laws governing
civilized warfare, and the third with
mediation and arbitration. A great
mass of diplomatic documents will be
submitted on these subjects, documents
including the memorandum of Prince
Metternich of Austria, in 1916, regarding
the suggestion of the prince regent Of
England, supported by Alexander l OF
Russia. for an international peace con-
ference; the opinions of David Dudley
Field Of the United States, as to fixing
a permanent limit to military forces;
the argument of NJ Merignha in favor
Of simultaneous disarmament; the
proposals of Napoleon II to conYoke
European peace conference at Paris
in 1868, and similar papers.
The second commission Will CONSIDER
the declarations of the congress OF
Paris, 1855, and the Geneva convention,
1864 the unratified clauses of the Ge-
neva convention of 1868, the acts OF the
st. Petersburg convention prohibiting
the use of certain projectiles by civil
ICED nations, the minutes of the Brus-
sells conference of 1874, the suggestions
Of the Oxford manual regarding the
laws and observances of war, the rules
for the bombardment of cities adopted
in Venice in 1896, the declaration OF
France and Great Britain regarding
the unadopted rules of the Geneva
convention, the views of the Amster-
dam Chamber of Commerce approved
by successive Netherland foreign min
listers urging the adoption of the min
utes of the Brussels conference in 1874
dealing with the laws and obserYances
of war, which did not lead to the con-
clusion of any convention, and the cir
cular of the Dutch minister of foreign
affairs in 1871, relating to the adoption
of the principle of inYiolability of pri-
yate property and urging a clearer
definition of the term ''contraband of
war"
The third commission will consider
the proposals of Lord Clarendon, at the
Paris congress in 1856, for the interme-
diation of a friendly state previous to
recourse to force, the motion of Signor
Maneini III the Italian chamber of dep
uties. in 1875, in favor of arbitration,
the acts of the Berlin and Zurich con-
ferenees on compromise and mediation,
David Dudley Fields plan for an ar
bitration tribunal, the proposals Tor
an arbitration tribunal for the North,
Central and South American states,
adopted in Washington in 1890,
the Marquis of Salisbury's let
tiers to Sir Julian Paunce-
fote. in 1896. relating to the conclusion
of an arbitration treaty between Great
Britain and the United States, the
terms Of the unratified .Anglo-Amer
lean arbitration, and many similar
documents.
M. De Staal will open the conference
by summarizing the objects of the gath
ering and expressing the confidence of
Emperor Nicholas that the powers will
support the beneficent work of the con-
After the appointment of COM
missions. the conference will adjourn
for a week. The American delegates, it
is understood, win carefully abstain
from mixing in purely European ques-
tions. but will take an earnest part in
the discussion of the application OF ar
bitration and improvements in the Ge-
neva. rules for the protection of field
hospitals, giving also special attention
to the abolition of privateering and ex-
emption of all private property from
seizure, except contraband of war. this
policy being the same as that adoOt-
ed by Benjamin Franklin in negotiat-
ing the treaty with Frederick the
Great. and successfully urged by Pres
idents James Monroe, James Buchanan,
BENJAMIN Harrison and VIM. Mckin-
Low