Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1899-05-25
GEARS CONFERENCE.
The Peace Delegates Arrive at The
Hague and Exchange Visits.
THREE COMMISSIONS TO Be NAMED.
They VIII Arrange the Discussions on Ar
maments and Military Expenditures,
Laws Governing Civilized War
fare and Arbitration.


The Hague May ls.-All the dele
gates to the international peace con-
ference have arrived. Yesterday was
spent in general exchange of visits.
The permanent president of the con-
ference will be M. de Staal, Russian
ambassador to Great Britain and the
head of the Russian delegation. The
honorary chairman, 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 brilliant
ly decorated with foreign flags, denot-
ing the various national headquarters.
Last evening M. Van HANDBOOK,
former Dutch minister of foreign af-
fairs, gave dinner to introduce for
eign delegates.
The reporters will be admitted only
to hear the inaugural address of M. de
Beaufort. Three commissions will then
be named to arrange programme for
discussion. The first relates to restric-
Stions of ornaments and military eX-
/ penditure. The second deals with the
laws governing civilized warfare and
the third with mediation and arbitra-
ton. A great mass Of diplomatic doe
uments will be submitted on these sub
ESTABLISHMENTS including the mem
orandum of Prince Metternich, of Aus
tria, in 1916, regarding the suggestion
of the prince regent of England, sup
ported ~ Alexander |. of Russia, for
an international peace conference: IL =
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 simulta-
neous disarmament; the proposals of
Napoleon III. to convoke European
peace conference at Paris in 1868, and
similar papers.
The second commission will consider
the declarations of the congress Of
Paris, 1880, and the Geneva convention,
1864, the unratitied clauses of the
Geneva convention of 1868, the acts of
the st. Petersburg convention prohib-
iting the use of certain projectiles by
civilized nations the minutes of Ihe
Brussels conference of 1874, the sugges-
tions of the Oxford manual regarding
the lawsand observances of war; the
rules of bombardment of cities adopted
by the Institute of International Law
in Venice in 1885, the declarations of
France and Great Britain regarding
the unadopted rules of the Geneva con-
vention; the views of the Amsterdam
chamber of commerce, approved by sue
cessive Netherlands foreign ministers,
urging the adoption of the minutes of
the Brussels conference of 1874 dealing
with the laws and observances of war,
which did not lead to the conclusion of
any convention, and the circular of the
Dutch minister of foreign affairs in
1871 relating to the adoption of the
principle of inviolability of private
property and urging clearer detini-
ton of the term ''contraband of war"
The third commission will consider
the proposals of Lord Clarendon at
the Paris congress of 1856 for the inter-
mediation of a friendly state previous
to a recourse to force, the motion of
Signor Mancini in the Italian chamber
of deputies in 1915 in favor of arbitra-
ton, the acts of the Berlin and Zurich
conferences on compromise and media
ton, David Dudley Fields plan for an
arbitration tribunal, the proposals for
an arbitration tribunal for the North,
Central and South American states,
adopted in Washington in 1890, the
marquis of Salisbury's letters to Sir
Julian Pauncefote in 1896 relating to
the conclusion of an arbitration treaty
between Great Britain and the United
States and the terms of the ratified
Anglo-Americap treaty and many sim
liar documents
M. de Staal will open the conference
by summarizing the objects of the
gathering and expressing the conf
dence of Emperor Nicholas that the
powers will support the benefcent
work of the conference. After the APP
pointment of the commissions the con-
ference will ad journ for week.
The American delegates, it is under
stood, will carefully abstain from mix
ing in purely European questions, but
will take an earnest part in the discus
sion of the application of arbitration
and improvements in the Geneva rules
for the protection of field hospitals,
giving also attention to the abolition
Of privateering and the exemption of
all private property from seizure, ex-
cept contraband of war, this policy be-
ing the same as that adopted by Ben
jamin Franklin in negotiating the
treaty with Frederick the Great and
successfully urged by Presidents James
Monroe, James Buchanan, Benjamin
Harrison and William Mckinley.
The Uague Nav 90. The chiefs O