The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-05-10
viii Stand Together in Advocacy Of Such a
Scheme to Settle Disputes.
While the Details of the Plan Can
not Be Procured for Publication
in Advance of the Presentation
of the Project to the Conference
It Is Said There Are Essential
Differences Between This Plan
and That Adopted in the Olney-
Pauncefote Treaty.

WASHINGTON, May 9.-The United
States and Great Britain will stand
together in the advocacy of the adop-
ton of a scheme for the settlement of
International disputes by arbitration
, which will be presented to the disarm-
ament conference at its meeting in The
Hague on the 10Th of the present
month. The American delegation,
headed by ambassador White, are
equipped with a fairly well digested
plan for the execution of this long
cherished project, while the British del
egates are prepared with plan which
is almost identical with the American
project.
The details cannot be procured for
publication in advance of the presen-
tatiOn of the projects to the conference.
1t is known, however, that there arr
essential differences between this last
plan and that embodied in the treaty
drafted by Secretary Olney and Sir
Julian Pauncefote which failed of ac-
ton in the Senate when submitted for
ratification. The differences are rather
in the methods approved for securing
an impartial adjudication than in the
principles of the former convention,
and it is believed that on these points
the British and American propositions
are not precisely similar.
1t cannot be said that the American
delegates go to the conference with any
strong expectations that their own
scheme for securing the adjustment of
disputes by arbitration. or, indeed, any
project of the kind, will secure the adj
hesion of the entire conference or even
majority of the delegates. But they
are content to plant the seed and make
a beginning, which it is hoped by the
President and Secretary Hay will in
the end have substantial results.
The American delegates go commit
ted to this arbitration project much
more strongly than to anything likely
to figure before the conference Pc
garding disarmament, their instructions
to tell the conference that the present
armament of the United States. and
any within the possibilities of the flu
ture, are so far below the present min
imum ornaments with which any Of
the great Powers of Europe are likely
to be content that there is really no
reason why the United States should
be called into the agreement Other
points upon which the delegates have
been instructed are correctly referred
to in the cable dispatches this morn
ing. namely, the exemption from seizure
of individual property and the extern
sion of the Red Cross rules to warlike
operations at sea. As to the former
the President expressed himself strong
~ in his last message to Congress- and
the delegates go charged to give prac-
teal effect to these views. AS to the
Red Cross extension, both the United
States and Spain during the recent war
voluntarily agreed to apply the Red
Cross rules at sea
But another point in the instructions
which Is not mentioned in the cable
dispatches is that relating to the
ameiioration of the horrors of war, and
with this. too, the American delegates
are deeply concerned 1t was because
of the Presidents interest in this sub
ject, as much as for any reason. that
the two technical experts, Captain Ma
han and Captain Crosier, are included
in the American delegation and the
State Department encourag es hope that
something in this direction would be
accomplished at the approaching con-
ference