The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15
HAGUE CONFERENCE
 IMMENSE FAILURE So Declares a French Delegate Before Senate Commission PALACE OF STUPIDlTY
PALACE OF STUPIDITY"
France Is Going Through New Drey. fus Affair-Ullmo Is Caught In the Act of Giving Secrets
 To Germany.
BY MARQUIS DE cAsTELLANE.

BY MARQUIS DE cAsTELLANE.
 Paris, December 14.-(special cable.)- The Hague conference has closed it's doors, and what remains of it's work? An immense failure. It has only suc- ceeded in two things-First, the decision that in times of war civilized nations may not throw explosives from balloons, and, second, that in case of hostilites arbitration must be obligatory, but it is added that if the honor of the nations is in question they are to remain sole judges of the way in which they are to avenge themselves, which is equivalent to saying that the arbitration ordered in the first part of the phrase is destroyed in the second without further ado.
 So The Hague conference has done nothing-absolutely nothing. Or shall we say that from the height of it's great moral conception it has attacked the soli- darity which existed between the nations and lessened our ideas of Fatherland? This Is not my idea merely, but that of M. Leon Bourgeois, the chief French delegate to The Hague, for he made this remark in so many words the other day before commission of the Senate.
 Thus this famous conference which was to have regenerated humanity, is consid- cred by one of it's most eminent repre- sentatives to have been not only useless, but also eminently unwholesome.,
 Really, it seems to me if 1 were MT Carnegie I would give up the idea of de- voting my millions to the erection of a palace which, called by him the Palace of Peace" is as likely as not to be styled by posterity by less pompous but truer title-the Palace of Stupidity. To devote s1500O,0O0 to the glorification of a myth is-there is no gainsaying it-somewhat dear.
 France Is going through a new Dreyfus affair. traitor named Ullmo has been caught red-handed in the act of giving up secrets of our national defense to Ger many. He has confessed his crlme, so there is no doubt about it, and, moreover, Ullmo has declared the nationality of the person for whom he committed his crime. It was a German, who was stated to be living in Brussels.
 The French police were not long In find- ing out that this pretended Belgian was an agent of Admiral Siegel, the naval at tache of the German embassy in Paris This sort of traffic Is allowed in all coun- tries, hpt only on the express condition that those who practice it shall not be caught doing so. So the German embassy here Is at fault, for it is materially i'm possible that the negotiations carrisd on to buy of Ull1no the papers in his pos session could have been undertaken by Admiral Siegel without Prince Radol.n, the German ambassador, kno ning of the affair.
 Therefore, the French government, with peff ie clyi,, Por Ia bassador, who has been so well received by French society and has nevertheless thought fit to lay trap from whence he could not but issue defeated before we had waged battle.
 This ambassador who has so curious a conception of his duties toward a country which has treated him so well cannot re- main more than a weeksor two longer at his post.
 The Due d'Orleans, would-be King of France, has just been playing at being d monarch as children play at being sol- diers on the occasion of his sisters mar riage at Woodnorton.
 Not only did he appear in the midst of princes of all kinds gathered at his English residence, with the Order of the Holy Ghost round his neck, as if he was already on the French throne, but also he required the eight gentle men who campose his suite to be all dressed in the same uniform-royal blue coats, with light-blue revers and gold fleur de lis buttons, white vests with gold buttons. knee brooches, black silk stockings and buckle shoes.
 These devoted survivors in such a rigout looked more like maitres d'hotel than aides-de- camps or chamberlains But old royal etiquette was observed and that was found sufficient. I wanted to mention this little fact because it shows only too well how the French aristocracy and those who are it's natural chiefs are still far removed from the democratic simplicity which reigns In present-day France.
 Princess Marie Bonaparte has not hesitated a moment to become an apos- tate. Having refused to undertake that the children born of her marriage with Prince George of Greece shall be brought up in the Cath ollie religion, as the Catholic church requires, the Pope forbade any priest from giving the couple the nuptial benediction.
 The princess reply was that she was satisfied to have the benediction of a Greek Pope. This renunciation of her religion, a1th ough 1t may appear an in- significant matter to many people who have faith neither in God nor the devil has nevertheless caused very un- pleasant effect in aristocratic Paris cir cles and has created much scandal among the really pious.
 This Is the reason why at various ceremonies and receptions given by the fath CT of the young princess there have been so few really distinguished per- sonages.
 The princesses of the house of Bour- bon had more pride than this, and nobody ignores the fact that one of them might have been Queen of Eng land if she had consented to do what AIo rio Rnaa ma If has d1a,,a