The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-05-18
Arbitration The Next
Topic.
Mass of Diplomatic Documents
To Be Submitted.

The Hague, May 17.-An the delegates
to the international peace conference have
arrived. Today was spent in general
exchange of visits.
The permanent president of the confer
ence will be NJ. De Staal, Russian am
bassador to Great Britain, and the head
of the Russian delegation. The honorary
chairman who will open the proceedings
will be NJ. 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 NJ.
Van Wanobook, former Dutch minister
of foreign affairs, gave a dinner to intro.
duce the foreign delegates.
The reporters will only be admitted to
hear the inaugural address of NJ. De
Beaufort, who is excluded from opening
the discussion of the Czar's project.
Three commissions will then be named to
arrange programmes for discussion.
The first relates to restrictions of arma-
ments and military expenditure; the sec
lied warfare and the third with media.
tion 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 sugges-
tion of the prime regent of England sup
ported by Alexander 1. of Russia for an
ha
ions of Mr.. David Dudley Field, of the
United States as to fixing permanent
limit to military force; the argument of
NJ Meringhac In favor Of simultaneous
disar nam ent; the proposals of Napoleon
III. to convoke European peace confer
encs at Paris in 1863 and similar papers.
The second commission will consider
the declarations of the Congress of Paris,
1856; and the Gensva convention, 1856 4;
the unratified clauses of the Geneva con-
vention of 1868; the acts of the st. Peters
burg convention prohibiting the use of
certain projectiles by civilized nations;
the minutes of the Brussels conference of
1874; the suggestions of the Oxford
manual regarding the laws and observ-
ances Of war; the rules for the lombard
ment of cities, adopted by the Institute
of International Law in Venice In 1896;
the declaration Of France and Great Bri
tain regadring the unadopted rules of the
Geneva convention; the views of the
Amsterdam chamber of commerce, ap-
pro we'd by successive Netherlands foreign
ministers, urging the adoption of the
min utes of the Brussels conference in
1874 dealing with the laws and observ-
ances 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 u! & ,ng clearer.uennltlCn OF
the term "oontr aband of war"
The third commission will consider the
proposals of Lord Clarendon at the Paris
congress in 1856 for the intermediatioh OF
Il friendly state previous to a recourse to
force: the motion of SIgnor Mancini in
the Italian chamber of deputies in 1873
in favor of arbitration; the acts of the
Berlin and Zurich conferences on com
promise and mediation; MIR. David Dud-
ley Fields plan for an arbitration tri-
bunal; the proposals for an arbitration
tribunal for the North. Central and South
American states, adopted in Washington
in 1890; the Marquis of Salisbury's let
ters to Sir Julian Paunoefote in 1896 re-
lating to the conclusion of an arbitration
treaty between Great Britain and the
United States; the terms of the unratifed