The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-18
Delegates All Ready For Peace Con-
ference Today.
PREPARE FOR BUSINESS
PERMANENT PRESIDENT WILL
BE M. DE STAAL.
Yesterday Was Spent In General
Exchange of Visits-outline of
Matters That Are to Come Before
the Body-Part the americans
Will Play.

The Hague, May 17.-All the dele
gates to the international peace confer
ence have arrived. Today was spent in
a general exchange of visits.
The permanent president of the con-
ference will be NJ. De Staal, Russian
ambassador to Great Britain and the
head of the Russian delegation The
honorary chairman who will open the
proceedings will be NJ. De Baufort,
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 Nj.
Van Karnebook, former Dutch minis
ter of foreign affairs, gave dinner to
introduce the foreign delegates.
The reporters viii be admitted only
to hear the inaugural address of NJ. De
Beaufort Three commissions will be
named to arrange programmes for dis
cussion- The first relates to restric-
tons of armament and military eXpen-
dtture The second deals with the
laws governing civilized warfare, and
the third with mediation and arbttra-
ton.
Diplomatic Documents.
A great mass of diplomatic docu-
ments will be submitted on these sub
jects-documents including the memoir
andum of Prince Metternich of Aus
tria, in 1916, regarding the suggestion
of the prince regent of England, sup
ported by Alexander / 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 NJ. Merignbac in favor of simultane-
n leo rr11o He n a.
poleon III to convoke a European peace
conference at Paris in 1868, and similar
papers.
The second commission will consider
the declarations of the congress of |
Paris, 1850. and the Geneva conven-
ton, 1864, the unratified clauses of the |
convention of 1868, the acts of /
the st. Petersburg convention prohib-
iting the use of certain projectiles by /
nations; the minutes of the /
Brussels conference of 1874; the sugges-
tons of the Oxford Manual regarding |
the laws and observance of war; the /
rules for the bombardment of cities /
adopted by the Institute of Interna- /
tional Law in Venice in 1896; the de- /
clarationS of France and Great Britain |
the unadopted rules of the |
Geneva convention; the views of Am
sterdam chamber of commerce, ap- |
proved by successive Netherlands for
eign ministers, urging the adoption of |
the minutes of the Brussels conference /
Of 1874 dealing with the laws and OBJ
servances of war, which did not lead to
the conclusion of any convention, and I
the circular of the Dutch minister of /
foreign affairs in 1871 relating to the
adoption of the principles of inviola-
bility of private property and urging
4 clearer definition of the term CON
traband of war"
Other Matters to Consider.
The third commission will consider
the proposals of Lord Clarendon at the
Paris conference in 1856. for the in
of a friendly state previ-
Ous to a recourse to force, the motion
IF Signor Mancini in the Italian cham
Der Of deputies in 1875, in favor OF ar
Ditration; the acts of the Berlin am
Zurich conferences on compromise and
mediation: David Dudley Fields plan
'or an arbitration tribunal; the pro-
Dosals for an arbitration tribunal for
he North, Central and South Ameri-
AN states adopted in Washington in
800: the Marquis of SaliSbury's letters
% Sir Julian Pauncefote in 1896 relat-
ng to the conclusion Of an arbitration
reaty between Great Britain and the
United States and the terms of the rat
fled Anglo-American treaty and many
similar documents.
NJ De Staal will open the conference
W summarizing the objects OF the
gathering and expressing the conf
ence of Emperor Nicholas that the
powers will support the beneficient
work. of the conference. After the ap-
continent of the commissions the con-
erence will adjourn for a week.
The American delegates. it is under ;
TODD, will carefully abstain from mix
ny in purely European questions but
will take an earnest part in the discus
ion of the application of arbitration !
nd improvements in the Geneva rules
or the protection of field hospitals, ,
living also special attention to the .
BOLTON of privateering and the ex- ,
mption of all private property from
eizure, except contraband of war, this !
olicy being the same as that adopted ,
" Benjamin Franklin in negotiating !
he treaty with Frederick the Great,
nd successfully urged by Presidents
ames Monroe. James Buchanan, Ben
amin Harrison and William McKin- c
~.