New-York tribune., 1907-06-03
4 STORY OF THE HAGUE.

An interesting story Of the origin Of the first
peace congress at The Hague is related by the
exceptionally well Informed st. Petersburg cor
respondent of THE Daily Telegraph" of Lon
don, on what he describes as very high and in
deed, unquestiOnable authority-so that he says
there can be no doubt as to the substantial
truth Of the narrative"
The story runs that at Easter time in 1898. when
there were war clouds menacing almost every
nation Of the world, Germany and France had
Just equipped their armies, at great expense
with new and improved artillery, and 1t was in
cumbent upon Austria and Russia as their
allies. 10 do the same. But General Kuropatkin
the Russian Minister of War presented TO the
Emperor a remOnstrance against going TO so
great an expense and suggestion that if Aus
tria Hungary could be prevailed upon to refrain
from rearmlng her forces Russia might do the
same and much would thus be gained In other
words, mutual limitation of armaments would be
precisely equivalent to increase of armaments
in keeping the balance of power. This sugges-
ton impressed the Emperor, and he passed il
on to Count Mouraveff, his Minister for Foreign
Affairs. and asked him TO consider it, discuss 1t
with Mr.. Wtte, the Minister for Finance and
report upon it.
Count MOuravieff seems himself to have re-
garded the proposition favorably. but Mr. Witte
would have none of it, denouncing it as n sug-
geSllOn WnlCn never SnOulu nave been made.
To attempt TO execute il would be TO represent
Russia as mpecunious and TO impair her credit
abroad. If new guns were needed or any other
expenses were necessary 10 keep Russia I'D to
the military standard Of the other great powers
the Finance Department would fnd the money
in some way. Nevertheless Mr. Wftte was not
enamoured of mlitarsm, and he suggested that
If all Europe could be persuaded to limit its
armaments. that would be worth while and the
result would be enormous profit If the Euro
pean states could content themselves with merely
nominal armies. as did the United States of
America, and cOnfine their defences TO warshiDs
they would thrive in an unprecedented way and
rule the best part of the globe Such scheme
was, be thought worthy of the Emperors atten
ton
Count Mouravieff reported to the Emperor tbo
substance of his discussion With Mr. Witte. DOS
sibly, however. taking credit to himself for the
latter's grandose plan. Next Il special council
was called by the Emperor, including Count
MOuravieh. Count Lamsdorff, General Kuronat
Kin and Mr.. Wittc. mt which General Kurnrat
ktns original suggestion first discussed
Mr.. Witte repeated his criticisms of ii and ,yos
supported by Counts Mouravieff and Lamsdorff
and the plan was rejected. Then Count AIoura
vieif presented draft of circular to the nov,
ers aiming at some such understanding as Mr.
Witte had proposed, and the final outcome was
the issuing Of the Invitation to the first congress
al The Hague. Sc, rs the correspondent cited
suggests. the credit Of the peace congress is df-
Tided among three. General Kuropatkin is en-
titled To some for his protest against heavy mil
itary expenditures and his suggestion of Iimita-
ton Of armaments by two powers; Mr.-now