The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-05-18
OPENING OF PEACE CONGRESS
ALL THE DELEGATES HA VE ARRIY-
ED ATTHE HAGUE.

The City Brilliantly Decorated with
Foreign Flags-An Elaborate Pro.
cedure-The Important Questions TO,
Discussion.
The Hague, May 17.-All the delegates
to the international peace conference
have arrived. To-day was spent in g
general exchange of visits. The perma-
nent president of the conference will be
M. DeStall, Russian ambassador to
Great Britain, and the head of the Rus
sian delegation. The honorary chair
man, who will open the proceedings, will
be M. De Beaufort, president of the
council and minister of foreign affairs
Of the government of the Netherlands
The city is brilliantly decorated with
foreign flags, denoting the various ma
tional headquarters. This evening M.
Van Karnobook, former Dutch minister
of foreign affairs, gave dinner to in
troduce the foreign delegates. The re-
pcrters will only be admitted to hear the
inaugural address of M. De Beaufort,
who is excluded from opening the dis
cussion of the cars project. Three
4 commissions will then be named to ar
rapca prooro N, moo for dicoucc;op Tho
first relates to restrictions of armaments
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 Alex
ander I of Russia, for an international
peace conference; the opinions of David
Dudley Field of the United States as to
fixing permanent limit to military
forces; the argument of M. Merignhac in
favor of simultaneous disarmament; the
proposals of Napoleon III to convoke a
1853 and similar papers.
The second commission will consider
the declaration of the congress of
Paris, 1856, and the Geneva convention,
1864, the unratified clauses of the Gen
eva convention of 1868, the acts of the
st. Petersburg convention prohibiting
the use of certain projectiles by civilized
nations, the minutes OF the Brussels con-
ference of 1874, the suggestions of the
Oxford Manula regarding the laws and
observances of war; the rules for the
bombardment of cities adopted by the
institute of international law in Venice
In 1896, the declaration of France and
Great Britain regarding the unadopted
rules of the Geneva conventions; the
views of the Amsterdam chamber of
commerce, approved by successive Meth
erlands foreign ministers, urging the
adoption of the minutes Of the Brussels
conference in 1874 dealing with the laws
and observances of war, which did not
lead to the conclusion of any conven-
tion; and the circular of the Dutch min
lister of foreign affairs in 1871 relating
to the adoption of the principle of in
volatility of private property and urg-
ing clearer definition of the term CON
traband of war.
The third commission will consider
the proposals of Lord Clarendon at the
Paris congress in 1856 for the intermed-
alton of a friendly state previous to a
recourse to force, the motion of Signor
Mancini In the italian chamber of dep
utes in 1875 in favor of arbitration; the
acts of the Berlin and Zurich confer
ence on compromise and media ton; Da-
vid Dealy Fields plan FOR an arbitration
tribunal; the proposals for an arbitra-
tion tribunal for the North, Central and |
South American states adopted in
Washington in 1890; the Marquis of Sal
isbury's letters 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-American
arbitration treaty, and many similar
documents.
M. Destaal 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-
ference. After the appointment of the
committees the conference will adjourn
for a week. The American delegates it
is understood, will 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 Cen
eva rules for the protection of field hos
pitfalls, giving also special attention to
the abolition of privateering and the ex-
emption of all private property from
seizure, except contraband of war, this
policy being the same as that adopted
by Benjamin Franklin in negotiating
the treaty with Frederick the Great,
and successfully urged by Presidents
James Monroe, James Buchanan, Ben
jamn Harrison and William Mckinley.
REPUBLICAN, COUNCILMEN
II. II. Tyner for President of