[739] FIRST MEETING JUNE 24, 1907 His Excellency Mr. Martens presiding. The meeting is opened at 2:45 o'clock. His Excellency Mr. Martens takes the chair and delivers the following address: GENTLEMEN: It is a very agreeable duty for me to express my sincere thanks at having been designated by the Conference to preside over the Fourth Commission. I regard this honor as a tribute to my country. My efforts will be directed toward a single object-that of facilitating the task of our Commission and of attaining the lofty goal toward which we are striving. After the eloquent addresses which we have heard in the other Commissions, it would be presumptuous on my part to add anything further. Permit me, however, to speak a few words on the task which we have to undertake. The important questions raised by war at sea have long occupied the attention of governments, but they have not yet been completely solved. CATHERINE II in her declaration of armed neutrality of February 20, 1780, was the first to lay down the basis of the rights and obligations of neutrals on the seas and to define the principles which were adopted and developed by the Declaration of Paris of 1856. But only a few points were covered. Our present task is much broader in scope; we must examine all the questions on our program relating to naval war, questions which are of the utmost importance, and we must lay down the principles upon which the powers of the whole world are agreed. We must now do for naval warfare what the Second Commission of the last Peace Conference did for land warfare: we must establish the principles which shall aim to prevent disputes and difficulties. The Conference has but a single desirethat the Fourth Commission keep in mind the future and the goal that has been set before it. As for myself, if you will permit me to express a personal wish, I should like to see the Commission take up its work in the same spirit as that which animated the First Peace Conference. But what is that spirit? With the help of Montesquieu we can define it: it is the principle which causes us to act, the dominant idea which causes us to go forward in a given direc[740] tion. We shall discover this spirit by recalling the memory of those statesmen who were present in 1899, but who are to-day either dead or absent. We shall not mention those among us who took part in the First Conference; I could not touch upon their merits without embarrassing their modesty. I shall speak of those who took part in our meetings in 1899 and with whom we worked. Their memory should be dear to us and guide us in our task. I shall recall to your minds first of all the President of the 1899 Conference, Mr. STAAL. I, who worked beside him every day, can tell you that in the beginning he was very skeptical of the outcome of the Conference; but as our work progressed and the horizon grew clearer from day to day, he became an enthusiast and in the end a convinced partisan of the task begun upon the hospitable soil of Holland. I saw him a few months before his death, and in expressing to me his regret at not being able to come to The Hague, he told me that the most glorious days of his life were those that he spent here at the 1899 Conference. Sir JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE, who was for twenty years at the head of the Foreign Office and long represented his country in the United States of America, was a statesman in the full meaning of the term. He was clear-headed and broadminded. When I made his acquaintance, I was filled with admiration at the well-nigh youthful vigor with which he set forth his ideas on arbitration, as well as on the rules and customs of war on land. On the conclusion of the labors of the Conference he wrote me from Washington that he would never forget the days spent at The Hague and that he was absolutely convinced that the Conference had been working, not only in behalf of the nations therein represented, but for the good of all mankind. Among our military colleagues of those days, with whom I had frequently to cooperate, I must mention Sir JOHN ARDAGH and the very distinguished German Colonel GROSS VON SCHWARZHOFF, who unfortunately lost his life in China. We often held opposite views, but where people are equally animated by good-will and the spirit of conciliation, they are certain always to return to a common ground of agreement. I pass with affectionate memory to the DUKE DE TETUÁN, an eminent Spanish statesman, with whom I became acquainted at the Brussels Conference of 1874. I met him again in 1899 and discovered that his ideas had undergone a great change since 1874. Here in 1899 he was a convinced partisan of the task upon which we were engaged-the codification of the laws of war. He felt that there should be a law, even after the sword had been drawn. I do not want to try your patience. I must, however, recall Count NIGRA, who was admired by everyone. He was always ready to endeavor to find a middle ground of compromise and in this respect he rendered us the greatest service. In conclusion, let me recall Mr. ANDREW WHITE, Dean of American diplomats. You have probably read his Memoirs and learned from them that he left The Hague filled with the brightest hopes as to the results of the Conference. When I consider all these statesmen, who in the name of twenty-six governments strove toward a common goal, I try to explain to myself this concrete and highly interesting fact. All these statesmen, diplomats, and soldiers were neither mere savants inexperienced in the practical side of life, nor professors with a passion for theories, nor idle dreamers. All these men met here at the First Hague Conference with the single desire, not of playing politics, but of accomplishing a task for the benefit of human culture and civiliza[741] tion. All were inspired by the dominant idea that they were working for the future; that they were laying the first stones of the foundation of an immense edifice, over whose portal the nations would inscribe Order, Law, and Justice! Then, gentlemen, I ask myself how can this really extraordinary fact be explained? How has this metamorphosis come about? How can we explain the fact that statesmen and soldiers such as those whom I have mentioned were able to meet here at the First Conference, with one and the same enthusiastic purpose: to organize international relations and to ensure a better future to the nations? Permit me, gentlemen and honored colleagues, to tell you the explanation which my imagination has suggested, but which my reason has approved and my heart fully ratified. The great Apostle of Christ relates that when he visited Athens, he found the Athenian men and women bringing offerings to an altar sacred to the Unknown God, whom they were praying to relieve their misery. Methinks that in that "Huis ten Bosch," in that chamber filled with magnificent paintings, there also stood an altar, above which I did not read the inscription stating that it was sacred to the "Unknown God." No; I saw emblazoned the inscription that that altar was sacred to the "God of Right, of Justice, and of Peace." This God of Right, of Justice, and of Peace was not an "Unknown God" to the members of the First Conference. No; he possessed their souls and was rooted in their hearts. The labors of the Conference have convinced me of this. Allow me to say to you: Here is the spirit of the First Conference, which was inspired by the God of Right, of Justice, and of Peace, and upon this altar of the "Huis ten Bosch" the delegates of all the nations have laid their prepossessions, which might have altered their personal relations, and the political combinations and prejudices, if they had any, which might have hindered the progress of their work. The Fourth Commission will keep this altar in sight and will draw its inspiration from right, justice, and peace, and when we shall have reached our declining years, we shall be able to say with Mr. STAAL that the best days of our life were those which we spent at The Hague. (Applause.) The President then makes known the membership of the Bureau: Honorary Presidents: His Excellency Mr. DE VILLA URRUTIA. President: Vice Presidents: Secretaries: Messrs. His Excellency Mr. KEIROKU TSUDZUKI. His Excellency Mr. MARTENS. His Excellency Sir ERNEST SATOW. Mr. HEINRICH LAMMASCH. His Excellency Mr. M. S. HAGERUP. P. DELVINCOURT, of France, Secretary of Embassy, First Class. C. CROMMELIN, of the Netherlands, Secretary of Legation, First Class. BARON NOLDE, of Russia, Gérant d'Affaires in N. THEOTOKY, of Greece, Secretary of Legation. The Praiment proposes that Mr. Faxazr be placed at the head of the Secretariat of the Fourth Commission, an déce for which he is peculiarly qui fed by his laming and ability. He wI £ this cfce as a colleague of the members of the Commission (Attent ) (742) The PaastDENT proposes that the appointment of the reporter be postponed to a later date, when the Commission shall have given its work a Selving direction. The PREIDENT asks whether the delegates have any proposals to submit concerning the work of the Commission His Excellency Lord Reay makes the following statement: In order to diminish the difficulties encountered by neutral commerce in time of war, the Government of His Britannic Majesty is ready to abandon the principle of contraband in case of war between the Powers which may sign a convention to this effect. The right of search would be exercised only for the purpose of ascertaining the neutral character of the merchant ship. The President makes record of this statement, which will be printed and distributed.1 Speaking of the organization of the work, the PRESIDENT hesitates to recommend an immediate division of the Commission into subcommissions. It is not difficult to subdivide the program of the Fourth Commission, but it will be necessary to know in advance what direction the Commission will give to the different questions which have been submitted to it. The discussion of the program must take place in plenary session; but this discussion must necessarily have its limitations and must not give rise to any misunderstanding. The PRESIDENT therefore proposes a questionnaire, comprising fourteen questions, to which he suggests no reply. These questions will be discussed in a plenary session of the Commission, where everyone will have an opportunity to express his opinion. Then will be the time to consider whether it is advisable to form subcommissions or a committee of examination to prepare a draft to serve as a basis for the elaboration of a definitive text. The method of work proposed by the PRESIDENT meets with no objection on the part of the Commission and is adopted. The PRESIDENT therefore proposes that the discussion of the question be postponed to the next meeting. His Excellency Mr. Léon Bourgeois proposes that the questionnaire be examined and asks that he be permitted to add some other questions. His Excellency Sir Edward Fry seconds the request of his Excellency Mr. LEON BOURGEOIS. The President acquiesces in this request, remarking that the questions proposed shall be inserted in the Commission's program. His Excellency Sir Ernest Satow makes the two following declarations: 1. In order to facilitate the work of the Commission in the matter of the conversion of merchant ships into war-ships, appearing in the first paragraph of the Fourth Commission's program of work, I shall have the honor to submit, in the name of the British delegation, certain proposals which have for their object the formulation of a precise definition of a war-ship.3 2. Destruction of a neutral prize by the captor is prohibited. The captor Annex 27. * Annex 1. Annex 2. |