The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-26
The Meagre Outcome OF tho Peace
Conference.

When the Peace Conference assembled at
The Hague, its ostensible purpose was to
bring about q limitation OF military arma-
ments 1t was also proposed that war
should be to considerable extent avertcd
by making arbitration compulsory in GER
tain cases. A further suggestion was made
that the evils Of war might be sensibly
mitigated II private property at sea should
DO exempted from capture. Not one OF
these proposals has been adopted.
The protocol in which the results attained
by the conference are set forth includes
besides some expressions Of opinions and
wishes which are binding upon nobody,
three conventions and three declarations.
Not even these conventions and declara-
tions are obligatory upon any country until
they have been ratified by its treaty-making
power, which, in the case Of the United
States, comprehcnds not only the Execu-
tive, but two-thirds OF the Senate. 1t Is
certain that two-thirds OF the Senators will
not sanction the third OF the three declara-
tions, and it Is probable that they will re-
fuse assent to the other two.
| To this third declaration, which prohibits
the use OF bullets that will expand easily
| III liic pous' 'hc hti'Sdpco
at The Hague refused to subscribe on the
ground that their instructions forbade
them to agree to anything that would be
likely to trammci tho development Of
American inventive genius in warfare.
The United States Senate will probably
hold that the spirit OF their instructions
should have impelled them also to de-
cline assent to the second and third
declarations, which prohibit the throwing
! OF proiectilcs or explosives from balloons
and the use OF projectiles having fol
their solo object the diffusion Of asphyxi-
ating gases. 1t ia manfestly no more in
human to annihtlate an enemy by cxplo-
sives dropped from balloons than 1t is to ac-
complish the same work by explosives dis
charged from cannon or mortars Neither is
it any more inhuman to put hostile force
hors de combat by gas than it Is to effect the
same result by volleys OF musketry or by
artillery. 1t is conceivahcthat in the event
OF n war between the United States and n
European coalition. we might be forced to
rely for self-dofence upon the superiority
OF American inventive genius applied to
the work of wholesale destruction. All
three of tho declarations would be found
in practice to benefit those nations which
are backward in respect of civilization,
while they would fetter those which are
capable OF making continual improvements
in the art OF war.
OF the three conventions, the second and
third are If only trivial significance. By
the second, the laws and customs OF war on
land are modified but in n few details. and
by the third, the principles of the Geneva
Convention OF ls64 are made but partially
applicable to naval warfare, the profound
differences between military operations on
land and those at sea rendering it obv-
ously impossible to go far in that direction
It is only the first convention foe which
any considerable Importance is claimed.
This purports to provide for the pacific set
Element OF international disputes. All it
does, however, Is to establish permanent
board OF arbltrators, to which international
litigants may submit their controversies,
II they choose. Nations, Of course, have
always been at liberty to arbitrate their
quarrels, and 1t is probable that hereafter,
when they have recourse to such an expedi-
cnt, they will prefer tribunal Immediately
and directly appointed dd hoe, in the COM
position OF which each OF The litigants has
had an equal hand, to a standing tribunal
with the selection OF whose members they
. have had much less to do.
The chances are, therefore. that the
members of the permanent tribunal con-
, templated by the conference will enjoy a
slnecure. An attempt, indeed is made to
I assure to them a certain amount Of bust
ness by article 81 of tho protocol, which
makes 1t the duty OF all the co-signatory
powers TO recommend recourse to the
tribunal whenever two nations seem upon
, the point OF settling dispute by war. II
such recommendation is to be other than
J perfunctory, ifit is to imply threat to CON-
pei by force resort to arbitration, 1t is plain
that the United States Senate will never
accept the article in question. On the one