Volume 2 / Part 7 — PART SEVEN [CONTINUED] (continued 5)

And now, with minds keyed high, and with joyous hearts, we got ready to go to The Hague.

245

LVIII THE FIRST PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE

My Hague diary · Arrival · First interview · Stead’s interviews with the Tsar and with Bülow · Our call on the Austrian delegation · Divine service in the Russian chapel · Opening session · Johann von Bloch · Party at Beaufort’s · Yang-Yü and his wife · Baron d’Estournelles · Léon Bourgeois · We give a dinner · Richet’s call · Luncheon with Frau Moscheles · Andrew D. White · Extract from Staal’s opening speech · Call on our ambassador’s wife · Count Costantino Nigra · Reception at court · Lord Aberdeen · Sir Julian Pauncefote · Bloch plans a series of lectures · Plenary assembly of May 25 · The Russian, English, and American motions

In 1900 I published a comprehensive book^[30] in which I gathered together all the events of my sojourn at The Hague, all the reports regarding the proceedings, the text of the most important speeches, and the accurate statement of the various conventions. Those who may wish to have a detailed account of the character, the course of events, and the direct results of that historic assemblage I would refer to that publication. Here I shall merely introduce my personal recollections; I shall copy in their original form extracts from my private journal which I used and elaborated for that book, of course excluding everything that was too confidential and therefore uninteresting.

246At the same time I shall introduce minutes of the proceedings and observations on world politics, for, if I am to give the history of my life conscientiously, these things require much space. They were not applied as accidental embroidery, but have been woven into the very fabric of my existence. Whatever has taken place either in behalf of the cause of peace or in opposition to it, anywhere in the world,—and especially what occurred in those days at The Hague, where the Conference was called together in the name of that cause,—was not a mere experience from without, it was an essential part of my life.

May 16. Arrival at The Hague. The city steeped in the magic of spring. Radiant sunshine. Lilac perfumes in the cool air. Our rooms in the hotel all ready. Nine o’clock in the evening. We are still sitting in the dining-room. The correspondent of the Neues Wiener Tagblatt is announced. Receive him and he takes his place at our table. He begins the interview with great liveliness:

“Have just been having a talk with the representative of a first-class power. There seems to be no great doubt as to the prospective outcome,—amplification of the Geneva Convention—”

“If nothing more than that should be accomplished, it would be an outrageous trick played on the hopes of the nations, and also a disappointment for the Tsar, whose wishes for an arbitral tribunal—”

247The correspondent laughingly interrupted me:

“We spoke about this also. Now that is simply childish. The states would not comply with a decision which did not please them.”

“Such a case has never once occurred.”

“For the reason that, up to the present time, arbitration has settled only trivialities; but when vital questions are concerned—”

Forever and ever the time-worn arguments. I heard it come in its regular sequence, “the vital question,” although no one knows exactly what he means by it. What, indeed, can these “vital” concerns be that are best promoted by killing off men by the hundred thousand?

May 17. Stead arrived. Directly from St. Petersburg, where he had an audience with Nicholas II, lasting an hour and a half, and spoke quite candidly about Finland. The Tsar also empowered him to speak on the same theme—in favor of Finnish liberties—the next day in a public assembly.

Stead also stopped over in Berlin on his way hither, and had a conversation with Bülow, bringing up among other things the case of Professor Stengel and his antipeace pamphlet. Herr von Bülow at first denied that the professor had written the brochure, and was quite hot about it.

“It is not true,” he declared, “it is pure invention.”

“That cannot well be said, for the pamphlet is in its third edition....”

248“It was a simple lecture,” the minister now opined, “delivered in a gathering of friends, and issued by the publisher behind the author’s back.”

That is scarcely thinkable either; but this much is clear,—the pamphlet, if not its author, is disavowed. The appointment had been made, it was claimed, without any knowledge of the lecture. And if that were the case, Herr von Stengel should have declined the appointment. Any one who has publicly called an endeavor a daydream does not proceed to take part in the dreaming. Suppose then the intention or the orders were to oppose it! But even if these orders were not directly given, still it is melancholy that an opponent of the cause should be sent as a delegate.

The Grelixes have arrived too. Felix Moscheles tells of the campaign of agitation which he and Stead have undertaken all through the English cities. He was one of the deputation that communicated the results of the crusade to the Russian ambassador, who had already been appointed to head the Russian delegation. Herr von Staal said to Moscheles: “The Conference is admirably prepared for by these public demonstrations of the people’s desire for peace. If I may be pardoned for using the vulgar phrase, Vous avez mis du foin dans nos bottes.”^[31]

In the afternoon a round of calls. When our carriage draws up before the Hotel Paulez, Count Welsersheimb 249comes out and invites us up to his drawing-room, saying that the whole Austrian delegation is assembled there. In fact, the little room is filled with our fellow-countrymen, among them Herr von Merey, head of a division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,—slender, aristocratic, agreeable; Viktor von Khuepach zu Ried, lieutenant colonel on the general staff; Count Soltys, commander; Professor Lammasch, abrupt but at the same time polite; Count Zichy, not a delegate but Austrian ambassador at Munich. The conversation turns naturally on the Conference. I have the impression that those present are filled with lively interest regarding this phenomenon “Conference,” but an interest mingled with astonishment and skepticism, with an amazed and curious excitement, such as the marvels of nature seen for the first time are wont to arouse.

May 18. The eighteenth of May, 1899! This is an epoch-making date in the history of the world. As I write it down I am deeply impressed with this conviction. It is the first time, since history began to be written, that the representatives of the governments come together to find a means for “securing a permanent, genuine peace” for the world. Whether or not this means will be found in the Conference that is to be opened to-day has nothing to do with the magnitude of the event. In the endeavor lies the new direction!

May 19. This is the way yesterday went: In the morning, divine service in the Russian chapel in 250celebration of the Tsar’s birthday. My Own and I were invited. The place is small and scarcely a hundred people were present, the men in gala uniform, the ladies in semi-informal dress. The high mass begins. The congregation, all standing, reverent and devout, follow it. It seemed to me as if it were my part not to pray for Nicholas II, but to address to him the petition: “O thou brave of heart, remain firm! Let not the ingratitude and the spite and the imbecility of the world penetrate to thee to disturb and paralyze; even if an attempt is made to belittle and misinterpret and even block thy work, remain firm!”

The priest holds out the cross to be kissed: the mass is over. Now greetings and introductions are exchanged. I make the acquaintance of Minister Beaufort’s wife.

Drive to the opening session of the Conference. Brilliant sunshine. Numerous carriages proceed through the shaded avenues to the “House in the Wood,” as if in a festive parade in the Prater or the Bois. At the grated gate a military guard of honor makes the customary salutes. I am the only woman permitted to be present.

What I experienced here was like the fulfillment of a lofty ambitious dream. “Peace Conference!” For ten long years the words and the idea have been laughed to scorn; its advocates, feeble private persons, are regarded as “Utopians” (the favorite polite circumlocution for “crazy fellows”); and now, at the summons of 251the most powerful of the war lords, the representatives of all the sovereigns are gathering, and their assembly bears that very name, “Peace Conference.”

From the opening address of Minister Beaufort:

By his initiative the Emperor of Russia has desired to fulfill the wish expressed by his predecessor, Alexander I, that all the rulers of Europe should come to an understanding together, so as to live like brethren and to support one another mutually in their necessities.

It seems to me that Nicholas II desired more than that; the question does not affect so much the necessities of all rulers as those of all nations. The armaments are burdensome to the nations, not to the rulers. The so-called dynastic interest lies more in military pomp and the prestige of warlike power.

And Beaufort again:

The object of the Conference is to seek for means to put a limit to incessant armaments and alleviate the heavy distress that weighs on the nations. The day of the assembling of this Conference will be one of the most notable in the history of the closing century.

After Beaufort’s speech Ambassador Staal is chosen president of the Conference. Then follow the other nominations; the whole piece of business lasts only half an hour,—it was intended to be merely a formal opening ceremony. The first session is appointed for the twentieth, and at the same time it is announced that journalists will not be admitted to the deliberations. (Alas!)

May 19. Bloch arrived. We greet each other like old friends. A man of sixty, with short-cropped, grizzly 252beard, a bright, kindly expression, unconstrained, elegant manners, a thoroughly natural, simple mode of speech. I inquire of him as to the reception of his book by the Tsar. Bloch tells us the story, and the delegates and journalists in the drawing-room listen with interest:

Yes, the Tsar has studied the work thoroughly. When he received me in audience, the maps and tables from the book lay spread out on the tables, and he had me carefully explain all the figures and diagrams. I explained until I was tired out, but Nicholas II did not grow weary. He kept asking new questions or throwing in observations which testified to his deep appreciation and interest. “So this is the way the next war would develop,” he said; “those would be the results, would they?”

The Ministry of War, to which a copy had to be submitted, furnished the Emperor with a report and voted to authorize its publication. In justifying its report it said: “Such a comprehensive and technical book will not be much read; it is therefore far less dangerous than the Suttner novel, Die Waffen nieder. Inasmuch as the censor passed the latter, Bloch’s ‘War of the Future’ may a fortiori be admitted.”

In the evening a party at Beaufort’s. Like all parties in court or diplomatic circles, and yet so entirely different. Something new has come into the world, namely, the official treatment of the theme “Universal Peace,” and that necessarily—being indeed the raison d’être of this reception—introduces the topic for general discussion.

A question which very commonly serves to start the conversation is this: What do you expect from the Conference? This question was quite frequently put to me, or else this: Are you not happy to see your hopes so realized?

253“Yes, very happy,” I could answer truthfully enough; “I had not once hoped to see so much and that so speedily done.” To the first question I had to reply that I expected from this Conference only that it would be a beginning, a first step, a foundation stone laid.

I am becoming acquainted with the majority of the participants, even with the delegate from China and his wife. He is at the same time ambassador to the court of Russia.

“In St. Petersburg I heard you much talked about,” said Yang-Yü to me, through his interpreter, Lu Tseng-Tsiang; “Count Muravieff told me about his talk with you.”

The Chinese delegate’s young wife wears her native costume, including an embroidered silk robe, a tiny cap on her head, and paper flowers on each side of her temples. She is a pretty young woman, yet quite of the type which you see on Chinese porcelain; at the same time she is so heavily rouged that her face resembles a changeless enameled mask. She is very friendly and shakes hands vigorously with all who are presented to her. She is accompanied by her son, a lad of twelve or thirteen, who speaks English and French and interprets for her.

Meet many of the old friends, Descamps, Beernaert, Rahusen, and others.

A stranger approaches me: “Baroness, I am happy to meet you again.” It is Baron d’Estournelles. We have not met before, but our preceding correspondence 254justifies the word “revoir.” He is a genial man, with fine head, dark mustache, and diplomatic manners; we have a heart-to-heart conversation. His speech sparkles with witty observations, but a profound earnestness inspires him for the Cause.

At my request he introduces to me his chief, Léon Bourgeois. The former French Prime Minister is the youngest head of a delegation, and when seen among all the white-haired ambassadors, veterans in diplomacy, such as Staal, Münster, Nigra, and Pauncefote, he with his black head resembles (as Stead says) a starling among sea gulls.

M. Bourgeois tells me about Frédéric Passy, whom he has lately seen and talked with. Our doyen would gladly have come to The Hague, but he had to give it up on account of an eye trouble. He submitted to an operation in the hope that he might be able to come to the city of the Conference with restored eyesight; but Bourgeois says that the operation, although it was successful, has not been attended by so prompt a recovery as had been expected.

May 20. Again a round of calls. The drive through the streets of The Hague is exactly like going through a park. Not only in the bosch, where the huis put at the service of the Conference stands, but everywhere are gigantic old trees; everywhere are green grassplots; and everywhere, in this May time so rich in flowers, are heard the lovely carols of the birds. Almost every house has a garden, and houses for rent are 255not to be seen; every house, built in the style of a villa or a small château, is the home of only one family. Of course this is true only of the aristocratic quarter, which surrounds the royal palace and leads from the squares where the best hotels, like Vieux Doelen and others, are situated, down to Scheveningen.

Our drawing-room is always full of callers, and from early in the morning with interviewers; to-day, among others, the editors of the Frankfurter Zeitung, the Écho de Paris, and Black and White.

From Paris comes the news that the operation on Frédéric Passy has had such unfavorable consequences that not only is he suffering intolerable pain but even his life is in danger. Great consternation in our whole circle. Of all the living champions of peace Frédéric Passy is without question the most loved and honored by all who know him and his work.

At the first plenary session to-day Herr von Staal is to define in his address the goal and direction which his imperial master wishes the Conference to take. How regrettable that the press is excluded! The president’s speech would be telegraphed this very day to all the newspapers in the world.

May 21. Whitsunday. Dr. Trueblood from Boston arrived. He tells us that he knows for a certainty that the United States government has committed to its delegates a thoroughly formulated plan for a court of arbitration.

A sculptor from Berlin, Löher is his name, shows 256us the model of a peace memorial which he would like to exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Thus in new regions, in forms more and more varied, the new ideal is cherished.

At the same time, to be sure, how deeply rooted, how mighty is the old ideal still, that of war,—everywhere prevalent, even among those attending this Conference; just read Professor Stengel’s pamphlet!... And the fearful thing is, ideas progress slowly, while events march swiftly. If a case like that at Fashoda, if the controversy in the Transvaal, suddenly precipitates a conflict while the Conference is still in session, how it would disturb its theoretical labors!

We give a small dinner. Our guests are Okoliczany, the Austrian ambassador at The Hague, Count Welsersheimb, Baron d’Estournelles, Count Gurko, and Councilor von Bloch. It was a satisfaction to me to hear Baron d’Estournelles talk with my countrymen about the hopes and views with which the members of the French delegation are inspired. A satisfaction for this reason, that I had been compelled to hear many Austrians, not here but in Vienna, ask, “How can the Conference succeed? Even though we are sincere lovers of peace, the French, who know no other thought than revenge, and who are represented at the Conference only out of politeness to the Tsar, will assuredly make every endeavor to prevent any results, even if they do not purposely conjure up a conflict!”

257If by chance Herr von Okoliczany and Count Welsersheimb had this notion of their French colleagues in the Conference, they have certainly this evening been set right.

My guests also listen with lively interest to Bloch’s remarks and elucidations. Of course all know about his great book, have read criticisms of it, and have had a chance to turn the leaves of the six volumes as they lie on my drawing-room table; and so they give the most eager attention to what the author himself relates regarding the establishment of his work and its results. In this exposition Bloch speaks so calmly, modestly, and to the point! It is felt that his conviction rests on scrupulously investigated facts; he is conscious in his own mind that he has gathered the simple truth and given it out in its full scope.

D’Estournelles announces a visitor. To-morrow Charles Richet is coming to The Hague as D’Estournelles’s guest. This very day Richet’s latest book had reached me,—a succinct history of the peace movement. The French savant, editor of the Revue scientifique, is with us heart and soul; he and Frédéric Passy are members of the board of directors of the French Peace Society. It is therefore a twofold pleasure to hear that the representative of France here at The Hague is a friend of his; more than a friend, an admirer. C’est un grand cœur, une belle intelligence; such is D’Estournelles’s judgment on Charles Richet.

May 22. Another “meeting again” (Wiedersehen) 258with an old acquaintance whom I had never seen; Charles Richet calls on us and brings us greetings from our poor Passy. He has hopes that he will get well, but none that he will come to The Hague. Richet proves to be a great enthusiast in our cause. I wanted to keep him for luncheon, but he and D’Estournelles are invited to the French ambassador’s.

In the meantime we had an invitation to a luncheon given by Frau Grete Moscheles to Andrew D. White, head of the American delegation and ambassador to Berlin.

The information which Dr. White gave us filled us all with the keenest satisfaction: “I am guilty of no indiscretion,” he said at dessert, “if I tell you that at the first session of the arbitration committee we shall bring forward a complete plan for an international tribunal,—and this at the command of the United States government. I cannot as yet give the details, but the fact itself will, and should, be no secret.”

May 23. In spite of closed doors, Staal’s opening address is already known. An English paper has printed it. I extract the specially significant passages:

The name “Peace Conference,” which has been conferred on our meeting by the instinct of the nations, anticipating the decisions of the governments, designates correctly the object of our endeavors; the “Peace Conference” cannot be unfaithful to the mission intrusted to it; it must bring forth a tangible result such as the whole world confidently expects from it.

... Let me be permitted to say that diplomacy, following a general process of development, is no longer what it formerly was,—an 259art in which personal cleverness plays the chief rôle,—but is on the point of becoming a science with definite rules for the settlement of international difficulties. This is to-day the ideal aim which it must keep before its eyes, and it will unquestionably be a great advance if there is a successful attempt made here to settle some of those rules.

Therefore we must take special pains to generalize and to codify the application of the principles of arbitration as well as of mediation and friendly offices. These ideas, so to speak, form the very kernel of our task, the common aim of our endeavors, that is to say the solution of international controversies by peaceful means.

... The nations cherish a burning desire for peace, and we are responsible to mankind and to the governments that have empowered us with their authority, we are responsible to ourselves, to do a profitable work in establishing methods of employing some of the means for securing peace. In the front rank of these means stand arbitration and mediation.

Charles Richet and his son breakfast with us. One thing Richet said makes a deep impression on me: “On all sides we are compelled to hear it said that the time has not yet come to carry out our ideals. This may be so, but certainly the present is the time to prepare for it.”

In the afternoon a call on Frau von Okoliczany. This lady—born Princess Lobanof—has the reputation of having been a dazzling beauty. She is still beautiful. Figure, shoulders, arms of statuesque harmony of lines. The white cashmere tea gown in which she received us has loose sleeves which leave her fair, round arms free. Hands have their individual physiognomies, as is well known; Frau von Okoliczany’s beautiful hands accompany her vivacious conversation 260with what might be called vivacious pantomime, and the motions of her arms are eloquent.

A caller comes in,—Count Costantino Nigra. Can it be possible that this slender, tall man, with his thick, wavy hair still blond, with his regular features showing scarcely any marks of age, is already seventy years old? Of course the conversation turns on the Conference and its objects. Count Nigra gives the impression of being thoroughly imbued with the solemnity of the task, and of being hopeful of its results.

Of course it is his duty, not only from a diplomatic point of view but almost from that of propriety, to speak in this way. One would hardly dare to take part in official, nay more, secret, deliberations, and then make light of them in a drawing-room conversation. Only to Baron von Stengel did it happen to be sent to a Conference the object of which he had shortly before characterized as “a daydream.”... But apart from diplomatic punctiliousness, you are instinctively aware when any one speaks frankly and from conviction, and I get the impression that Count Nigra is going to work earnestly and zealously for the cause.

May 24 D’après les ordres de

Sa Majesté la Reine

Le Maréchal de la Cour a l’honneur d’inviter

Monsieur le Baron, Madame la Baronne Berthe Suttner

née Comtesse Kinsky, et Mademoiselle de Suttner^[32]

à une Soirée au Palais

Mercredi le 24 Mai à 9½ heures

en Gala

261One court function is like another: the long line of carriages which drive in à la file through the palace gates; the broad, covered steps adorned with flowers, where the liveried lackeys stand on either side and with dumb show indicate the way; the lofty, gilded drawing-rooms with polished parqueted floors; the numberless uniforms and gala court costumes of the men, the trailing light robes of the ladies, who are adorned with diamonds, flowers, and heron plumes; the atmosphere full of excitement and expectation.

The first halls through which we pass are rather empty; we are shown by the master of ceremonies through a vast, half-filled room, and farther still into a salon which is quite densely crowded. Here people are standing almost tête-à-tête. Nods of recognition and greetings are exchanged; there is lively conversation. Some one remarks that it is different at the English court. There the appearance of the Queen is awaited in religious silence.

A half hour elapses. In the adjoining drawing-room the guests take their places round the center, which is left vacant. These are the diplomats and their wives, for whom their majesties will hold court. The Chinaman and his wife again make the most striking appearance in this circle. They are in silken robes with rich embroidery of flowers, but Mrs. Yang wears for the adornment of her head only the usual paper flowers hanging down over her temples.

“Leurs Majestés les Reines!”

262A lane is made in the circle and in come Queen Wilhelmina and Queen Emma surrounded by their courtiers. Both are in white. A white veil flows down from the Queen mother’s diadem. The girl Queen wears the broad band of the Order of Catherine, which this day was conferred upon her by Herr von Staal in the name of the Tsar.

The circle is completed. The Queen stands for a moment before each lady and gentleman, bows, speaks a few words, bows again, and passes on.

After this diplomatic court is over, the other presentations are made. Frau von Okoliczany leads me up to her Majesty and calls me by name.

A brief conversation in French ensues. The young Queen, graciously smiling, asks me, just as she probably asks most of the others, if this is the first time I have ever visited The Hague and how I like it. I include in my reply the observation that my sojourn in Holland is made particularly happy by the greatness of the cause that brought me there. The gracious little sovereign nods at that but says nothing.

I was presented also to Queen Emma by our ambassador’s wife.

After the two royal women have spoken with all present, the whole company withdraws into a third salon, an enormous room, probably the ballroom, where a long table, covered with flowers, fruits, cold dishes, tea, and other liquid refreshments, stands along one side, while near the other are little round tables at which 263the guests may sit. An orchestra in the gallery plays various concert pieces. As I listened I was surprised to hear the intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana.

But not much attention is given to the music. Ear and eye and mind are occupied with other things. Did I begin by saying that this court function was like all others? That was wrong. This is a court function such as has never been seen before since courts began,—a court function which only a year ago, if prophesied, would have been laughed to scorn as the wildest freak of the imagination.

“Baroness, the Minister of War desires to be presented to you.”

Then again,—“Gracious lady, permit me to introduce myself; my name is Kramer, Secretary in the Ministry of War, and I am eager to tell you that the ideal for which you stand in your novel I have been cherishing in silence for two and thirty years, and now I am heartily rejoiced to see its accomplishment drawing nearer.”

I had a long conversation with Lu Tseng-Tsiang, Secretary of the Chinese Embassy in St. Petersburg.

“For us Chinese especially,” he remarked, “the attainment of the object set by the Conference would be most highly desirable, for we are particularly threatened by the most serious dangers of the European policy of force.”

Herr von Staal talks with me and Herr von Descamps about Johann von Bloch and his book. “C’est 264un homme remarquable,” he observes. “He wants to prove that peace is no longer a Utopia, but that, in the present state of arms and armies, it is Utopia for civilized nations to wage war. And,” adds the Russian diplomat, “he may be right.”

May 25. A card is brought me, announcing the Earl of Aberdeen. I have been for some time in correspondence with Lady Isabel Aberdeen, who is to preside at the forthcoming Congress of Women in London.

The earl, formerly Governor of Canada,—still a young man of tall, slender figure, with a short, black beard,—brings me greetings from his wife. He tells me that he has been taking an active part in the great campaign of meetings organized by Stead, and has spoken at the gatherings. Charles Richet joins us, also a few German newspaper correspondents, who hitherto have heard and written only things derogatory to the cause of peace; they lay stress especially on the principle that the only guaranty for peace lies in the thorough armament of Germany, since all the other nations are hungry for war. It was a great satisfaction to me that they could hear the Frenchman and the Englishman defend the cause in perfect unanimity and with the most powerful arguments. At the same time, these two men are no “obscure cranks,” but one of them is among the highest dignitaries of the British Empire and the other is one of the most distinguished savants of the University of Paris.

In the afternoon, at the reception at the Russian 265Embassy, we meet Sir Julian Pauncefote. He is seventy-one years old, but of robust physique; his head and beard are already white, his beard cut in Austrian style with the chin shaven; figure tall and slender; expression of face friendly and noble. Just as services rendered on the battlefield justify promotion to a superior command in a campaign of war, so distinguished deeds in behalf of peace give a suitable title to appointment as a delegate to this Conference. Sir Julian in his diplomatic career has to his credit two great victories in the campaign of peace.

He was ambassador in Washington when Cleveland’s message on the Venezuela question startled the world, and everywhere the tidings flew that war between the United States and England was unavoidable. If a Chamberlain had been in his place at that post, possibly matters might have gone to hostilities. Sir Julian was able to conduct affairs in such a calm and conciliatory tone that the matter was submitted to the court of arbitration which, at this very moment, under the chairmanship of Professor von Martens, is deliberating on it in Paris. Secondly, Sir Julian is the man who, together with the United States Secretary of State Olney, on the eleventh of January, 1899, signed the famous arbitration treaty between America and Great Britain—the first treaty of the sort that was ever drawn up. He is not responsible for the fact that the ratification which had to ensue failed by three votes of the requisite two-thirds majority.

266Just as Dr. White had told us a few days before of the plan of the Americans, so now Sir Julian assures us that his delegation, too, will come out with a definite proposal in the third committee (that on arbitration). He cherishes the strongest hopes of a positive result. I bring the conversation to the stillborn Anglo-American treaty. He replies that the matter will certainly be taken up again. “What does not succeed on the first throw, my dear Baroness, succeeds on the second or the third.”

In the evening a party at the house of the Queen’s head chamberlain. Again make the acquaintance of many great people, among them distinguished “foreigners.” The German delegation is the only one from which no one does me the honor of greeting me. Count Münster treats me as if I were a rattlebrain. When Professor Stengel spoke in his pamphlet of the “comical persons” of the peace movement, from whose grotesque behavior and ideas he could not sufficiently warn people, he evidently included me in the number.

May 26. Bloch has conceived the idea of having a series of lectures to which the public shall be invited. No other place, no other opportunity, is so well suited for representing the “Utopia of War.” The documentary and statistic-bolstered facts and conclusions which these lectures will contain must be of especial interest, he says, to the military delegates. My Own and I are assisting him in his arrangements, going round with him in search of halls, giving orders, and the like.

267A visit from the correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung. He has just come from Herr von Stengel, who assured the reporter that he had protested only against the excrescences of the peace movement (well, yes, the comical persons),—that, nevertheless, as a delegate he should do his best to help the cause along. Very good!

The correspondents of Figaro and of the Écho de Paris interview me. Mr. Leveson-Gower, Secretary of the British Embassy, in behalf of the North American Review asks me to furnish an article on the movement for the July number.

At three o’clock, in Hotel Vieux Doelen, on business. Meet Stead there.

“At last I see you,” I cried. “I always expect news from you, as you are on such intimate terms with the delegates....”

“And you shall have it. More important and better news to-day than you could have hoped. Here is a copy of the report which I have just sent to the English newspapers. Read it and rejoice with me. The Conference has done a wonderfully fine stroke of work.”

Here is an extract from the report:

Plenary Meeting of May 25

On the Order of the Day the subject of the third committee is “Peaceable Adjustment of International Controversies.”

Herr von Staal introduces the Russian proposals as a basis for the deliberations. It is a document consisting of eighteen articles bearing the title, “Elements for the Elaboration of a Convention to 268be concluded between the Powers taking Part in the Conference.” These elements are (1) Good offices and mediation, (2) International arbitration, (3) International commissions of inquiry.

Before the discussion of the articles begins, Sir Julian Pauncefote rises in the name of his government and moves that a supplementary article be added to the Russian plan, namely, the organization of a permanent court of arbitration. In a brief but very impressive speech the English delegate advocates this motion. He refers to the arguments which are contained in his colleague Descamps’s “Address to the Governments.”^[33]

The words and the positive action of the chief of the English delegates evidently cause a great sensation. As he ends his speech, a solemn silence reigns. Many of the members look at one another in sheer astonishment—many of them, perhaps, for the first time appreciate that serious matters are to be treated, brought forward by practical statesmen acting with sincerity.

Still greater is the surprise when Herr von Staal declares that the Russian government also has in readiness a plan, in twenty-six articles, for the establishment of a permanent court of arbitration.

Next comes Dr. White with the American proposition. In the introduction it says: “The proposition shows the earnest desire of the President of the United States that a permanent international tribunal be established for the adjustment, by means of arbitration, of the controversies between nations, and shows the readiness of the President to assist in its establishment.” How radical this proposal was in its intentions can be seen in the third and fourth articles.

“Article III. The tribunal is to be permanent, and ready at any moment to undertake all cases that are submitted.

“Article IV. All controversies of every kind^[34] shall be subject to decision by mutual agreement, and every case submitted must be accompanied by a pledge to abide by the decision of the tribunal.”

269Indeed a fine stroke of work! So here at the very beginning are positive, concrete plans in the name of four governments, proposed for discussion and settlement. What a pity that such initiatives have not come also from Austria, Germany, and France!

What a pity, too, that the reports of this session, together with the exact texts of the propositions, are not instantly telegraphed into all the four quarters of the world and published and discussed in all the newspapers, so that some understanding of the great interests here involved may begin to dawn upon the world, and it may be a witness and a judge as to the way and manner, how and by whom, these interests are here represented!

270

LIX THE FIRST PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE (continued)

J. Novikof · Reception at the Baroness Grovestins’s · Dr. Holls · Utterances of the nationalistic press · Excursion to Scheveningen · We give a small dinner · Threatening letter to Herr von Staal · At Ten Kate’s · Reports from Descamps · Beernaert on the Geneva Convention · Letter from Levysohn · Results in the matter of mediation · New acquaintances · First of Bloch’s evening lectures: subject, “The Development of Firearms” · Stead publishes a daily chronicle on the Conference · Young Vasily’s album · Removal to Scheveningen · Baron Pirquet brings a letter from the Interparliamentary Union of Brussels · Bloch’s second lecture: subject, “Mobilization” · My birthday · Dinner at Okoliczany’s · Lieutenant Pichon · Letters from aëronauts · Discussion on the permanent tribunal · President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner · An amusing incident · Bloch’s third lecture: subject, “Naval Warfare” · A conversation with Léon Bourgeois · His call to Paris · False reports and denials · What Emperor Nicholas said to Stead · Rumor of the blocking of the arbitration business · Bloch’s final lecture: subject, “The War of the Future”

May 28. Novikof arrived. What kind of a man do you think is the author of sociological-philosophical works of seven hundred royal-octavo pages each, with such titles as Les luttes entre sociétés humaines et leurs phases successives, La théorie organique des sociétés, and the like? I have read these books and this is the idea of the man which I had in my mind: White bearded, with spectacles, in externalities a trifle neglectful of appearances,—for if a person sticks all day long poring over learned books and carries round 271socialistic problems in his head, he can scarcely be expected to bother himself with the petty vanities of the toilet; I imagined him very earnest but free from pedantry,—for his style is fresh and sparkling,—and probably a bit gloomy, for if one looks so searchingly into the motive powers of the world, has been busied so incessantly with the phenomena of wretchedness and suffering, a mood of melancholy might well be expected.

And the actual Novikof? An elegant man of the world, the jolliest of companions, with far too youthful an appearance for his forty-nine years; full of wit and entrain in his conversation. I believe these characteristics, charming as they are, injure him to a certain extent. Any one who has not read his books would not suspect what a man he is, would not take up the reading of them with that feeling of awe with which one should bury one’s self in scientific works.

In the forenoon a reception at the house of the Baroness Grovestins. Almost all the delegates are present. On the stairs I meet Count Münster and his daughter. In the drawing-room the family of the Chinese delegate forms the center of a numerous group. Madame Yang wears the selfsame coiffure as at the court, the same paper flowers down her temples, and though it is daytime she is painted like a mask, just as if she were under a chandelier. And yet there is a touch of lovableness in her pretty little face. Her gestures when she extends her hand are something 272like a wooden doll’s; but then she shakes the hand of the other person so heartily that it seems to mean, “For life, old comrade!” Her son of twelve and her little daughter of eight, both also in Chinese costume, accompany her, and they bear the brunt of the conversation, for they speak both English and French.

These children will not be brought up as pure, unadulterated Chinese. Behind their wall lies henceforth for them a piece of the world,—a world, moreover, in which all nations are joined to treat together in the name of universal peace; this idea will remain all their lives bound up with the recollection of the sweetmeats which Fräulein von Grovestins, with pretty speeches, offers them on a Delft plate. Gradually all Chinese walls—there are others than that one which bounds the Middle Kingdom—will fall. We already see them tottering.

Make new acquaintances, among them Dr. Holls, the second American delegate.^[35] He sits down with me on a small corner sofa. We talk German together. He is by profession a lawyer in New York; comes from a German-American family; has a tall, thick-set, angular figure, and his eyebrows are outlined high on his forehead like circumflex accents. He confirms the news 273that I have heard from Stead. He informs me that public interest in the Conference is nowhere else so keen as in his own country. Cablegrams are received every day; resolutions and letters of sympathy come from all the states and from the most diverse circles. Each one of these messages is gratefully acknowledged, and they not only are instrumental in strengthening the American delegates but also make a strong impression on the representatives of other countries, who cannot fail to see in this interest displayed by the Republic of the West a significant sign of the times. I express my regret that this information does not immediately make the round of the European press.

“Yes,” assents Holls, “the exclusion of journalists was a great mistake. The majority of the European states are represented here by diplomats who see in mystery and secrecy the factors of successful diplomacy. We Americans and a few others were opposed to it—but the majority decided. Now it may result that the representatives of the great newspapers will feel insulted and go away—a few have already done so. Their editors will retaliate by belittling or ignoring the Conference.”

May 29. By way of exception, no party. Spend the evening at home with a group of friends,—Fried, the Grelix couple, the painter Ten Kate, and Novikof. We get a scornful satisfaction in reading aloud a package of extracts from the German nationalistic press.

As the various Neueste Nachrichten and the various 274Lokalanzeiger in Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, and elsewhere comment on the Conference, we find unqualified such expressions as “The disgusting drama at The Hague,” “The Conference of Absurdities,” “The noxious nuisance now under way, which must arouse righteous indignation in all right-thinking men and genuine Germans,” “For the development of universal history the comedy at The Hague will signify about as much as a visit from ‘Charley’s Aunt’ would signify in the life of a single individual.”

And even Vorwärts (et tu, Brute!)—which is not nationalistic but scouts the Conference because it was called together by an autocrat and is composed of aristocrats and bourgeois—even Vorwärts writes: “How long will the augurs restrain themselves before they burst out into Homeric laughter and separate amid the laughter of the world?”

Give heed, ye contemporaries! If ye fail to take seriously such a serious work of beneficence, and to remind those who are engaged in it—even though there be among them men of contrary opinion—of the seriousness of their task, to hold them responsible for its accomplishment, to take them at their word,—take care, I say, lest ye yourselves have to repent not amid the laughter but amid the tears of the world!

May 30. Excursion to Scheveningen. From the city, which lies in the midst of a garden, you drive a couple of miles through avenues lined all the way with trees, like a park, down to the seashore. Along the 275way, to right and left, are multitudes of villas behind flowering gardens. In Scheveningen itself, along the shore, multitudes of hotels. Everything as yet is deserted. A cold, salty wind blows from the North Sea, which under a gray sky rolls in gray billows. The wicker chairs are not yet brought down on the beach and the bathing machines are not in their accustomed places. On the broad terrace of the Kurhaus, around the silent music pavilion, already stand countless rows of tables and chairs, but all unoccupied. On the sea no ships or boats are to be seen; the bathing season does not seem to be open yet even for the sea gulls.

Only a few carriages and pedestrians enliven the beach and the streets. Scheveningen is indeed for all the residents of The Hague, and now specially for the members of the Conference, a general goal for promenading. We exchange greetings with many acquaintances. Our fellow-countryman, Count Welsersheimb, has come down on his bicycle, and chats with us as he wheels for some distance beside our carriage. Herr von Okoliczany, accompanied by his slender daughter, rides by. The Chinese flag is seen waving over the Hotel Oranje; Yang-Yü, with his family, is the only delegate who has already left The Hague and taken up his residence at Scheveningen.

All those dikes, those structures! How painstaking and courageous the Dutch people have been in rescuing their land from the waters! Those are battles 276worthy of men—against the weight and the wrath of the elements. Should the dike-building against the wrath of our fellow-men be alone unaccomplishable?

We gave a small dinner, the party consisting of Rahusen, president of the Chamber; Von Khuepach, the Austrian military delegate; the second Russian delegate, Vasily^[36]; Novikof, Bloch, and we three,—a small circle at a round table, the most advantageous arrangement for general and animated conversation. When the coffee was brought, we were joined by the correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse, Dr. Frischauer, whom I had invited, but who was prevented from coming sooner.

After dinner a soirée at the Karnebeeks’. Frau von Staal tells me, in the course of a conversation, how her husband is besieged every day with addresses, memoranda, pamphlets, and deputations from all parts of the world.

“And I suppose with numberless letters also, many of them right crazy ones?”

“Oh, yes, even with threatening letters! Anonymous warnings that there is a plan on foot to assassinate him.”

“Why! that is horrible! How does Herr von Staal take that?”

“He smiles at it!”

277The artist Ten Kate to-day gives us a jolly dinner at the hotel Twe Steeden, where he lives during his sojourn at The Hague—his own home is the estate Epé. His lovely wife does the honors. Among the guests are Mesdames von Waszklewicz and Selenka, Herr von Bloch, Novikof, Dr. Trueblood, and A. H. Fried,—in short, a little Peace Congress in itself; and it is still more a Peace Congress when after dinner the door opens and in comes the Chevalier Descamps.

“Excuse the intrusion,” he exclaims; “my rooms are situated above this dining-room. Your jolly voices reached me up there, and when I asked who were celebrating a wedding downstairs I learned who were here, and so I come, uninvited, but as the bringer of good tidings; we had a splendid session to-day.”

He is surrounded and interrogated. He tells us the third committee has been that very afternoon wrestling with the question of the arbitration tribunal, and indeed, as Descamps assures us, in a very satisfactory manner. The plan broached in the well-known “memorandum to the governments” has been taken as a basis of the new scheme; and the firm intention of the majority of the members of the committee to bring the matter to a positive result was manifested in that session. Descamps himself has been intrusted with the report on the project. So the matter is certainly in good hands.

A call from Beernaert and his wife. He tells me with satisfaction the result of the session from which 278he has just come. The second committee, of which he is chairman, has voted to recommend the Brussels Treaty (an extension of the Geneva Convention of 1864).

“It delights me that you are delighted,” I replied, “but I tell you frankly that the question of the humanization of war—especially in a Peace Congress—cannot interest me. The business concerns the codification of peace. Saint George rode forth to kill the dragon, not merely to trim its claws. Or, as Frédéric Passy says, On n’humanise pas le carnage, on le condamne, parce qu’on s’humanise” (“Carnage is not humanized, it is condemned because men grow more human”).

“Vous êtes une intransigeante—an irreconcilable,” he remarks with a smile, and consoles me with the simultaneous progress of the Conference on the arbitration question, of which I know he is the steadfast promoter.

I received the following letter from the editor of the Berliner Tageblatt, to whom I had expressed my regret and astonishment that no correspondence from the Conference was to be found in a paper of such wide circulation:

Berlin, May 31, 1899

My dear Baroness:

Your kind letter of yesterday’s date compels me to inform you that, in the first place, we are not unrepresented at the Hague Congress, so that we are informed of everything necessary and worth knowing; and, in the second place, that, in view of the hostile treatment the members of the Congress have seen fit to accord the press, I consider it unbecoming to degrade journalism by dancing attendance on the various statesmen.

279Since the gentlemen, nevertheless, can only by the aid of publicity show any proof of their industry and their good behavior,—a proof which they must have to show to their superiors,—I quietly wait until things come to me, and communicate to my readers only what is worth their knowing.

If such a man as Mr. Stead complains that nothing is told him, you will easily comprehend that men who are not accustomed to be received by the Tsar feel somewhat cool toward the actions of diplomacy.

All this will not prevent me from joyously recognizing even the slightest advance toward better things made during the deliberations of the Congress, but I consider my paper and my readers too good to snap up the crumbs that may fall from the news table of the Congress.

I trust that you will be able to appreciate this attitude of an independent and liberal newspaper, and that you will not, after this statement, find anything strange in our position.

With the expression of the most especial consideration I have the honor of remaining

Yours most sincerely

Dr. Artur Levysohn

An unwarranted standpoint. Events of the day have to be communicated by the press in accordance with their significance and entirely apart from the sensibilities of the journalists. Consideration for the public must turn the scale.

To-day the bathing season and the Kurhaus at Scheveningen were opened. Herr von Bloch invited us to a dinner at the Kurhaus. Among those present were the journalists, Dillon and Dr. Frischauer. He tells us, from information communicated to him by Professor Martens, that the principle of mediation has been incorporated into the text of the Convention; 280especially the duty of neutral states to offer “good offices” at the threat of war or after the outbreak of hostilities, and this henceforth shall never be regarded as an “unfriendly act.” Count Nigra is to be thanked for this last paragraph.

June 2. Dr. Frischauer takes his departure. He comes to say good-by to us, and authorizes me to send to the Neue Freie Presse in the form of telegrams and letters everything interesting that may happen.

In the evening the usual Friday reception at the Beauforts. Make several new acquaintances; among them Turkhan Pasha. In his elegant external appearance he reminds me of Rudolf Hoyos; he has been for many years Minister of Foreign Affairs, and bears the title of Vizier. He enjoyed the dubious fortune of having been military governor of the island of Crete. He speaks the purest French, is courteous and gracious, but a slightly satirical tone dominates his conversation.

I also meet Noury Bey, the second Turkish delegate, a man at least forty years of age, with very delicate features and reddish beard; he is inspector in the Ministry of Public Works. Last year he was sent as delegate from Turkey to the anti-anarchist Congress at Rome. Both the Ottoman dignitaries give me the impression of not regarding the success of the business here as especially likely or desirable.

Chedomille Myatovic, former Servian Minister of Foreign Affairs and now Minister Plenipotentiary at 281London, is on the other hand an enthusiastic adherent of the ends proposed by the Conference.

Augustin d’Ornellos Vasconsellos, the delegate from Portugal, tells me that he has translated Goethe’s Faust into his vernacular.

I meet De Mier, Mexican ambassador in Paris. Except the United States and Mexico, no American country is represented here.

June 3. The evening of Bloch’s lecture. The public invited. Almost all the delegates present. Many journalists, Dutch and foreign. Subject, “The Development of Firearms.” Behind the lecturer’s desk a white background for the stereopticon pictures. Bloch speaks with great naturalness and simplicity; never seeks oratorical effects. It is evident that he does not care to “deliver an address,” but only to say what he has to say. He wants to show a picture of the war of the future. And where would he find a more suitable public than the audience assembled here,—diplomats and military men who would be called upon to deliberate over some such war or to wage it, but are now called upon to avoid it?

The historic development of firearms, from the first flintlock down to the latest models, is displayed before the audience by means of pictures and charts. The projectile of the new infantry weapon sweeps away everything that it encounters, within a range of six hundred meters. But still greater improvements beckon. In all armies experiments are being made 282with rifles of smaller caliber. It is calculated that if in the Franco-Prussian War the present-day guns had been used, the losses would have been at least four times as great; if the newest models had been used, the losses would have been thirteen times as great. To be sure, such a transformation in the armies of the Dreibund and of the Zweibund would cost four billion francs.

(Now, in view of such a fine result—just consider, thirteen times more dead and maimed than with the primitive musket—four billions would not indeed be too much, and this sum is easily raised by somewhat increasing the living expenses of the laboring people!)

That parenthesis is mine, not Bloch’s. His lecture is quite objective; he makes no bitter attacks; he adduces figures and data; the drawing of conclusions he leaves to the reason and the conscience of his hearers.

The lecture is interrupted by a half hour’s recess. In an adjoining hall, tables are loaded with all kinds of refreshments, which are passed round. Bloch is host, and the lecture halls are transformed into drawing-rooms, where greetings are exchanged, new acquaintances are made, and impressions of the lecture are compared.

June 5. The editor of the Dagblad has granted Stead the first pages of his paper for the publication of a daily chronicle of the Conference. To-day the first number appeared. Excellently prepared. Will be of great use. A splendid man, this Stead. First his nine 283months’ campaign in writing and speaking, and now this labor!

A seventeen-year-old son of Vasily’s calls on me. He brings an album, on the cover of which appears in relief the word “Pax,” and he is getting all the members of the Conference and the friends of peace who are here to write their names in it. How many high military officers will immortalize themselves in the Pax album! And the impression made on this youth will certainly never be effaced. In what an entirely different way the generation that will succeed us will approach the idea of universal peace—they who will have been witnesses of this idea rising up and forcing its way into official circles and into the foreground of contemporary history. In our youth such a thing was either quite unknown or made a matter of ridicule. If this boy who is making a collection of contemporary autographs under the rubric “Pax” shall sometime obtain office and honors, perhaps have to speak a weighty word in the political questions of the future, then he will think very differently from our grizzled politicians about the cause of national justice, and if at that day a new official Peace Congress should be called, in which he and his like should have to give their votes, then the proceedings would be attended by many less doubts and difficulties than can possibly be the case with the present Conference, the first of its kind.

June 6. We move down to Scheveningen to the Hotel Kurhaus. It does not take us long to get settled. 284At the end of two hours our corner drawing-room looks as cozy as if it had been occupied for two years—thanks to the kindness of the manager, Herr Goldbeck, who permits us to arrange everything in our rooms just as we please. The prettiest furniture of the as yet rather empty hotel is put entirely at our service. Great studio windows occupy nearly all of two walls. One, opposite the door, frames a picture of the sea; at the other the red silken shades are pulled down and cause the whole room to be bathed in a ruddy glow. Flowers in vases, in jardinières, and in pots; splendid baskets of fruit, pineapples, melons, grapes,—the last a delicate attention of Herr von Bloch’s; books, pamphlets, maps, newspapers.

At yesterday’s session M. Descamps reported on the work of the committee. Léon Bourgeois presided. How pleasant that now Stead’s chronicle contains all these details of the sessions and the authentic texts of the articles proposed. Now one can follow the course of events quite accurately. An agreement has been reached regarding several articles of the Russian proposal concerning good offices and mediation.

Only there stands in the articles the fatal clause, “If circumstances permit.” Here is clearly seen the result of compromise, which is generally contained in the text of resolutions of such committees, composed of advocates and opponents of any cause. Only under the condition of a rider which robs the main article of its universal validity will those of the other party give 285up their opposition. The back door is saved, and that is the main thing with them.

Arrival of Baron Pirquet. He has been in Brussels, where the council of the Interparliamentary Union held a session in order to lay out a programme for the Conference that is to take place in August at Christiania; and he brings a letter from the Union to the colleagues that are attending the Hague Congress.

Pirquet breaks the news to me that my cousin Christian Kinsky, in whose house we had spent so many pleasant hours, had died suddenly a few days before.

In the evening Bloch’s second lecture. He depicts the difficulties that would attend the mobilization of the modern millionfold armies. After the first fortnight of a war of the future a tenth part of the armies—not counting the wounded—would be in the hospitals. He also cites a statement made by General Haeseler: “If the improvement of firearms continues, there will not be enough survivors to bury the dead.”

This lecture, like the first, was interrupted by a recess for conversation and refreshments. We talked with Léon Bourgeois about events in Paris. There, it seems, a band of young men of title (Boni de Castellane and others) attacked the President’s hat with their canes. Bourgeois grants that this is disgusting; “but,” he adds, “it is no more dangerous than the foam on the seashore.”

June 7. At yesterday’s session the deliberations of the first committee (on the laws of war, weapons, etc.) 286had the floor. Concerning this I make no entry in my diary. The securing and organizing of peace have nothing to do with the regulation of war, nothing at all—quite the contrary! It is desired—that is, it is desired by many—that the opposition between the two ends be abolished; they desire that the one be substituted in place of the other! They are driving in the wedge that shall split the work of peace.

Imagine a congress convened for the enfranchisement of slaves; would a convention then be necessary in regard to the treatment of the negroes, concerning, for instance, the number of blows that might be meted out to them when they should show themselves lazy in the work of the sugar plantations?

Or in the movement against torture as a means of securing justice, would the agreement that the oil to be dropped into the victim’s ears should be heated only to thirty degrees instead of up to the boiling point have been a stage on the way to the goal, or rather a tarrying on that other way which was to be abandoned?

June 9. My Own waked me with a kiss and a warm “I thank thee!”

“What for?”

“That thou wert born!”

Yes, quite right,—it is my birthday. That does not interest me, but what is going to be born here,—national justice; that takes my whole mind captive. Yesterday was devoted to the work of the third 287committee on Article X of the proposal for a court of arbitration,—namely, the article that shall determine the cases in which appeal to the court of arbitration is to be obligatory, cases which “do not touch either vital interests or the honor of states.” There again the back door, or rather a barn door, for the entrance of war. He has good defenders here, the brutal fellow!

Great dinner at the residence of our ambassador, Okoliczany. My neighbors are the Russian chargé d’affaires and M. Pichon, assistant secretary of the French Delegation,—a young lieutenant with a saucy little mustache. But he has understanding, and sympathy for our cause, and is a great admirer of D’Estournelles. He acknowledges that the world is progressing, and that a coming civilization will have no more room for war; only he defends the colonial policy of war. He himself has been in the Sudan.

June 10. It is hard for me to keep up with my correspondence. I have never before in the course of a whole year received so many letters, telegrams, and voluminous writings as now, while I am here at The Hague. They announce schemes, proposals, infallible methods for securing peace. And all of this I am expected to make comprehensible to the delegates! Inventors of airships and flying machines send me their plans and prospectuses. By the conquest of the atmosphere the boundaries with their customhouses and fortifications must needs disappear, opine these aëronautical letter writers.

288Or is it true that the ministers of war are hurrying to build air fleets? and to form flying regiments of uhlans? All new inventions are invariably employed by the war authorities. And yet I am firmly persuaded that every technical improvement, especially all means of easier communication, ultimately lead to universal peace.

Yesterday the arbitration committee took up Article XIII of the Russian plan, calling for immediate consideration of the question of a permanent tribunal, and that, too, of a tribunal not merely in posse but in esse.

While they are here treating theoretically about arbitration, it is said that the matter is to be put to a practical test once again. President Kruger has proposed to Sir Alfred Milner that certain differences of opinion should be submitted to arbitration. Sir Alfred objected that such an action would put in question England’s sovereignty.

June 11. At the Grovestins’s Sunday reception something amusing happened to me. A Spanish lady, Señora Perez, asked me what I thought of peace. I must have made a dubious face, for she anticipated my answer, saying, “Do not decide, I beg of you, until you have read a book entitled Die Waffen nieder. Have you heard of it?”

“Oh, yes, until I am sick of it.”

“Oh, no, no; first read it, and then express your opinion. The author is said to be at The Hague.”

“The author is sitting next you.”

289As so often happens, Señora Perez had missed my name when we were introduced.

Bloch gives a small dinner at the Hotel Royal. After dinner we drive to his third lecture. Subject, “Naval Warfare.” The fate of wars is decided not at sea but on land. Between two evenly matched fleets there will be no decisive victory, but mutual destruction of the fleets. The impossibility of protecting marine commerce in times of war. Comparison of the expenses for the fleet with the value of commerce; the pretended protection costs a hundred times more than the worth of what is protected.

Count Nigra sits near me. Bloch’s deductions greatly interest him. We speak of the results to be expected.

“The world finds it hard to understand,” said Nigra, “how momentous are the foundations here being laid for the building of the future; nor does it understand that the calling of the Conference is in itself an event of supreme importance.”

During the intermission an alarming rumor circulates, to the effect that in the debate about the court of arbitration the “dead point” was reached,—a decisive opposition on the part of one of the great powers.

June 12. During the morning our quiet excursion in celebration of our twenty-third wedding anniversary. In the evening a few guests at dinner,—Bihourd, the French ambassador at The Hague, Captain Sheïn, of the Russian navy, Léon Bourgeois, Bloch, and Theodor Herzl.

290I hardly ever had a more interesting table companion than Bourgeois. What made our conversation so particularly enjoyable was our complete agreement in matters concerning peace. The former—and perhaps the future, who knows?—French Premier is enthusiastic for the objects of the Conference. The task which he has to fulfill here seems to him far more productive and important than the formation of a cabinet. In Paris a ministerial crisis is at hand and Bourgeois will probably be recalled; but he firmly intends to return so as to bring to an end to the best of his ability the work here, “which promises to be useful to the world and at the same time to his fatherland.”

We talk among other things of the French national press. I regret the hectoring tone, especially in that portion of the press which the people at large read.

“That is not so bad,” he replies. “Nowhere else do the people—especially the workingmen—read the newspapers so much as with us; but they have no faith in them. The French laborer buys a newspaper, reads it, chatters about it, but doesn’t pin his faith to it. His mind is open, awake, and he is thirsty for everything that is free and upright. Race hatred disgusts him. I know what is thought in the workingmen’s circles, for I myself come from them.”

I ask him about the “dead point” in the arbitration question.

“I cannot say anything just now,” is his reply, “but be assured—nothing will be left untried.”

291We conclude the evening in the great music hall, where a concert arranged by Manager Goldbeck is given in honor of the delegates. Bourgeois is obliged to depart before the other guests; he must go back to the city, he explains apologetically.

After a while Count Nigra comes up to me: “Do you know the news? The French ministry fell some hours ago. M. Bourgeois has just been summoned to Paris by telegraph.”

June 13. The Neues Wiener Tagblatt prints a dispatch from The Hague: “The negotiations regarding the court of arbitration, as we learn by telegraph from Brussels, have completely gone to pieces.”

I send a line to Chevalier Descamps, requesting him, if the above-mentioned news is false, to write a denial and let me send it immediately to the paper. Descamps himself comes to bring me the answer. The news is false, and he allows me to make the desired correction. At the same time he begs me to write this very day to Émile Arnaud, asking him if he will not cease attacking in the Indépendance belge the projected system of a permanent bureau and pleading for permanent treaties instead; one at a distance cannot judge what at the moment is to be attained, and what an obstacle it is in the way of the workers here if what has been secured with difficulty meets with the opposition of its own friends.

June 14. Up to the present time the question of armaments has been considered in the Conference 292only from one side, namely, to the end that agreements may be reached as to renouncing further perfection of weapons. Yet the idea was regarded as impracticable. In spite of a very eloquent plea of General den Beer Poortugael, who proposed that all the armies should retain the present type of arms, the committee came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to carry out such a regulation. Nothing as yet has been said about Emperor Nicholas’s own proposition as to limitation of armaments. The debates steer clear of this question so far. A favorable result would be all the more desirable, since lately Admiral Goschen declared in the House of Commons that the projected increase of the British fleet would be immediately stopped if at the Hague Conference a limitation of armaments should be determined upon.

Stead tells me what Emperor Nicholas said to him four weeks ago:

“Why are they always talking about disarmament? I never used the expression; it does not appear in the rescript. I know only too well that immediate disarmament is excluded. It is, indeed, difficult to speak of the diminution of armaments. Surely the most practical step, and the first that should be taken, would be an attempt to come to an agreement to refrain from increasing armaments for a term of years. After four or five years we should learn to trust one another and to keep our word. By this means we should secure a basis for a proposal to reduce the armaments.”

293These words lead to the conclusion that the Russian delegates will offer in the Conference a motion for stopping the increase of armaments.

Meantime the rumor grows more and more prevalent that the question of a court of arbitration has come to a pause, owing to the declarations of the German delegates that the principle of arbitration is directly contrary to the principle of state sovereignty, which Germany in no circumstances will renounce.

I receive from Berlin the telegraphic query, “How about Zorn’s^[37] speech?”

I send the telegram to the professor named, who is staying also at the Kurhaus, and receive for answer, “I know nothing about a speech by Zorn.”

Stead, in his to-day’s chronicle, contradicts the alarming rumors and writes:

Whatever may be the attitude which the German government may ultimately assume, nothing could be more correct than the attitude of the German delegates. They are working with their colleagues in what we hope will prove a great establishment for assuring universal peace, and it is to be greatly regretted that their coöperation has been so misrepresented during the last few days.

In the evening Bloch’s last lecture. Subject, “The War of the Future from the Economic Standpoint.” Almost all the delegates, also President Staal, present. I learn that some Russian military members of the Conference were very indignant over Bloch’s lectures, and demanded his arrest.

294

LX THE FIRST PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE (concluded)

Turning point in the arbitration question · Professor Zorn · Madame Ratazzi · Professor Martens · Mirza Rhiza Khan · Letter from Frau Büchner · Trip to Amsterdam · At the photographer’s · Limitation of armaments · Two important sessions · Colonel von Schwarzhoff · Limitation rejected · Baron Bildt and Bourgeois · Ball at Staal’s · The Grotius celebration · Letter from Andrew D. White · Article 27 · Departure · International Inquiry Commission · Beldimann in opposition · Again the Inquiry Commission · Beldimann’s ultimatum · Acte final

June 15. In the afternoon a reception given by Monsieur and Madame d’Estournelles. The whole Congress comes and goes. Dr. White is buried in a conversation with Count Münster. Then he comes to me.

“If you can bring any pressure to bear on influential persons, Baroness, do it now. Every possible measure must be employed to clear away the difficulties that are springing up.... The most important question before our Congress—that of a court of arbitration—has reached a turning point; that is what I was talking with Count Münster about.”

I promised to go to one of my friends staying at The Hague, and in high favor with the German Emperor’s uncle, the Grand Duke of Baden, and urge him to apply to the prince in these critical circumstances.

295Our host introduced me to Professor Zorn. First of all I thank him for his denial in regard to “Zorn’s speech,” of which he still knows absolutely nothing.

“In fact, no such speech was ever made,” replied the professor. “I took part in the discussion, but I made no speech and made no such remarks as many newspapers attributed to me.”

The conversation turns on the Bloch lectures.

“Pure fallacies,” said the professor. “Military men think that a war of the future will be less bloody than those of the past.”

“Less bloody! with these weapons, with this tenfold faster firing per minute—”

“All the fewer missiles will hit—”

“Oh, no, the war of the future cannot be palliated; what the future needs is peace.”

“That is found only in heaven!”

In the evening a great party at the Okoliczanys’. A new person makes her appearance,—Madame Ratazzi, Türr’s sister-in-law, born Bonaparte Wyse. I saw this woman thirty years ago at Homburg, the greatest beauty I ever met. And now? Alas! how miserable to look on des ans l’irréparable outrage (the irreparable ravages of the years).

Long conversation with our host. He holds the opinion that, sooner or later, even without any conference, Europe must arrive at the formation of a union; the ceaseless expense for armaments, necessitated by lack of unity, the constant rivalries of commerce, the 296policy of protection,—all this, unless a change ensues, exposes Europe to the danger of being ruined by America. A peace alliance uniting our part of the world is a necessity. This is the same thesis as our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Goluchowski, advanced in a noteworthy exposé before the Congress was called together.

General den Beer Poortugael joins me. I express my admiration of his latest speech. He assures me that the limitation of armaments must be striven for, not only because the nations expect this result from the Conference, but also because it is the only way to escape the threatened catastrophe. Remarkable words from the lips of a general!

June 16. In the evening a reception at Beaufort’s. I make the acquaintance of Professor Martens. He arrived to-day from Paris, where he is acting as president in the Venezuela arbitration tribunal. He will attend only one session and then return immediately to Paris. Speaking of the condition of things here, he tells me that, even though many of the powers should hesitate or delay to sign the convention, this would do no harm, because the protocols will be left open, even for the powers that are not represented here.

Another exotic acquaintance, Mirza Rhiza Khan, the delegate from Persia.^[38] He is forty-five years old, 297has Oriental features, a thick black mustache, and sparkling eyes; his white uniform is decorated with numberless orders; on his cap is the Persian lion. In 1889 he accompanied the former shah, Nasr-ed-Din, as his adjutant general on his tour through Europe. Now he is ambassador to St. Petersburg. He was educated in Constantinople and Tiflis, and tells us of the Princess Tamara of Georgia, whom he knows very well; she is now at the Caucasian baths of Botjom.

June 17. An artistic festival arranged by the government in honor of the Conference, comprising living pictures, musical productions, and national dances. Make the acquaintance of Baron von Stengel. He is very stiff and repelling. We exchange only a few words—something about “loyal opposition” and “there must needs be different views”; a few indifferent observations about the performances of the evening and we soon separate.

A Dutch army physician introduces himself to me. He had read my novel while in Borneo. The sufferings that he had witnessed there in the practice of his calling exceed all belief. He had been mortally unhappy, and so the book had made a double impression on him, and had awakened in him a longing for the accomplishment of everything which the Conference at The Hague has in view.

June 18. I receive from the daughter-in-law of Professor Lüdwig Buchner, who had died not long ago, the following letter in reply to a letter of condolence:

298Darmstadt, June 17, 1899

My dear Baroness,

A year of the loftiest triumph! May all that are to follow be as rich in success! This is what all your most faithful admirers desire with glowing enthusiasm.

Your kind sympathy called forth by the departure of our beloved father has been a great comfort to us. Many mourn for him with us. He, the faithful champion of the truth, will be survived by his works. Happy as his life was, his death was no less enviable. Even in the midst of his fullest creative powers he glided without a sound, without a sigh, from gentle slumber into the Unknown. Many times, when tormented by his trying cough, weary from sleepless nights, he spoke of his approaching end; and so it found him with the calm of a true philosopher. Everything had been put in readiness with the greatest care for this event. He was enabled to pass away calmly; a rich life lay behind him. He had employed his great intellectual gifts wholly for the good of his fellow-men. The kindness and fidelity of his heart were rewarded by the purest joys of a sweet family life. He knew that his loving, self-sacrificing wife was surrounded by a grateful band of children, in whose happiness the deeply bereaved woman will find her best consolation. We all console one another, in our deep sorrow for the irremediable gap in our family circle, by thoughts of the beautiful, happy life which he was permitted to enjoy so long.

For the ninth of June I wish you with my whole heart happiness and health, and I hope that you may retain all your joyous powers of creation, which have allowed you in the past to overcome so many difficulties. In such a victorious career your inspiration will never be paralyzed, and you will march forward on the road to that victory which is to secure the happiness of mankind!

With the deepest respect

Your wholly devoted

Marie Büchner

The debates on the arbitration tribunal have come to a pause; they will not be resumed until fresh instructions have been received. Dr. Holls and Professor Zorn 299have gone to Hannover, where the German Emperor is at present sojourning. Mr. White intrusted to Dr. Holls a long letter to Bülow.

In the course of the afternoon we receive many callers, including Frau von Okoliczany and her daughter, Mevrouw Smeth, and Mirza Rhiza Khan. The Persian delegate tells me that he has been endeavoring to introduce the Latin alphabet into Persia, but that it has met with great opposition, especially among the priests, who declare that it is a sin to make use of any other letters than those in which the Koran is written.

Baron and Baroness d’Estournelles also call on me to-day. We talk about Professor Zorn. D’Estournelles assures me that this German delegate is striving with all his might to bring the matter of the arbitration tribunal to a favorable conclusion: Il pense comme vous et moi.

Now I doubt that. I will go as far as to believe, as Stead states also in the Dagblad, that Professor Zorn is determined that the matter of the arbitration tribunal shall not be shipwrecked; but that he is as radical in his views as D’Estournelles or as I—he himself would repudiate the idea!

June 19. Trip to Amsterdam with a large party. We drove three times around the whole city and hurried through the museums, allowing the pictures by Van Dyck and Franz Hals and Rubens to flash before our eyes. Only before Rembrandt’s great painting, 300“The Night Watch,” which we had recently seen presented as a living picture, we remained for half an hour in contemplation. At your very first entrance into the suite of galleries it shines upon you from the farthest background. You would think that the sun was shining on it; but its brilliancy comes from its colors.

In the museum is a splendid case filled with Indian treasures, consisting of rings and chains and all sorts of jewels taken as loot from conquered rajahs; therefore simply freebooters’ booty. Mankind does not look upon it as such.

We visit also the diamond-polishing works. A whole house filled with workmen. On every floor a different phase of the transformation which this precious form of carbon goes through before it becomes an ornament. On the top floor, reached by a very narrow wooden staircase, sit the most skillful of the laborers, who give the last finish to the stones. They allow the foreign visitors to look; they explain the processes. The trouble seems too great! What effort and what patience to make this dull, hard substance glitter with a hundred facets!

The manager shows us on a velvet ground the models in crystal of all the largest and most famous diamonds that are in the possession of the various crowned heads,—the Kohinoor and others. I did not heed the names attached to these little globules of glass representing millions in value.

301“Since so many diamonds have been mined in the Transvaal,” said one of the polishers, “we can scarcely keep up with our work; and yet there are thousands of us diamond cutters in Amsterdam.”

“Just see!” remarked Herr von Bloch to us, “just see how the world hangs together! Suppose war should break out in the Transvaal, the consequences would be that here in Amsterdam thousands of workingmen’s families would suffer from want!”

We had dinner—all excursions culminate in eating—at a restaurant from which there was a view of a canal full of life and movement. It was a beautiful, lively picture from the open window near which I sat. On the other side of the canal are old houses, truly Dutch in appearance, and a church with a very lofty belfry. Boats and scows were moving up and down heavily laden with flowers,—mainly tulips, roses, and lilies. Suddenly the bells in the tower began to ring; the tones kept interweaving, and for ten minutes a melodious, silver-clear chime of bells continued to play.

Not until late at night did we return to The Hague. At the waiting room of the railway station we meet Dr. Holls. He has just come back from Germany, whither he had gone accompanied by Professor Zorn, with a mission to smooth out at the main source the difficulties that had arisen in the matter of the arbitration tribunal.

“Any news? Any news?” we ask in the greatest excitement.

302“I cannot tell you anything yet,” replied Dr. Holls. “Only I will mention the title of one of Shakespeare’s plays, ‘All’s well that ends well.’”^[39]

June 21. Léon Bourgeois, who had only just come from Paris, is recalled again by Loubet and commissioned to form a cabinet. Will he be able, will he be willing, to renounce the task of being prime minister? I have it from his own lips that this is his purpose; he is going to do his very utmost to return to The Hague in order to see the business of the arbitration tribunal through to the end.

To-day I went with the painter Ten Kate to the photographer. A sculptor, a friend of his, wants to chisel my bust, and for this purpose I must be taken en face and en profil, in three-quarters profile and from behind, wrapped statuesquely in some soft, flowing white material, with my hair arranged in Grecian style and with a palm branch as an ornament for the breast. The process lasted several hours.

I was posed and pulled into shape. Then the photographer, whose name is Wollrabe, goes to his camera, looks in, shakes his head, and hobbles back to me—he has a wooden leg—to pull my left shoulder a little toward the right, to lift my chin, and to twitch my draperies down; and in this he has the critical and practical aid of Master Ten Kate. “There, now it’s all right” (So, jetzt ist es jutt). Hop, hop, hop to the 303camera. Again a shaking of the head and hop, hop, hop back to me again. After a little tugging,—“There, now it’s all right.” And so half a dozen times for each exposure. And all the while I must preserve the earnest physiognomy of a statue, in spite of the great temptation to laugh at the forest-goblinlike, to-and-fro stumping of the so-hard-to-be-satisfied Wollrabe, who, by the way, has wonderfully beautiful pictures in his studio, among them the best extant portrait of the young queen.

One ought to be, indeed, especially young and beautiful to be painted and chiseled. And not only the hop, hop, hop of my photographer with his funny bird name—“Wool-raven”—strikes me as comical, but also his white-draped model, adorned with the vegetable of peace—but I must not laugh!

June 23. The article proposed in the programme for “an agreement concerning the use of certain weapons and forbidding new purchases and inventions” has been decided in the negative. Stead, speaking with me regarding this matter, says:

“Do not for a moment imagine that this is a bad thing. Rudyard Kipling wrote me at the beginning of the peace crusade, ‘War will last until some inventive genius furnishes a machine which will annihilate fifty per cent of the combatants as soon as they face one another.’ Therefore I think that the Conference, while it has decisively rejected a whole series of proposals—even those that came from the Tsar—in the 304line of prohibiting the improvement of cannon and other weapons, has been acting in behalf of peace and not of war.”

“I think so too,” I reply; “only that is not their reason for doing as they have. The military men who have voted the measure down have done so for the special purpose of promoting militarism.”

To-day the Congress is considering a weighty point, Section 1 of Muravieff’s second circular:

An understanding not to increase for a fixed period the present effective of the armed military and naval forces, and, at the same time, not to increase the budgets pertaining thereto.

This is the question that is of greatest importance for the champions of peace, for it touches the evil of armed peace.

This condition—according to Türr, la peur armée—has this basis: the presupposition on which the relations of nations are established is that the neighbor has the morals of a bandit and the conscience of a pirate!

Bad news from London,—the House of Commons has granted four million pounds for purposes of war.

Under date of June 27 I confided to my diary the text of the whole “armament” debate, which took place on the twenty-third and twenty-sixth of the month. Here I will introduce only the most notable passages. This is sufficient to bring out the attitude of the various governments toward this question.

305First Session, June 23. Herr Beernaert, Chairman

We have now reached the serious problem which the Russian government placed first of all, so worded that it instantly aroused the attention of the world.

This time it is not the nations, but a mighty monarch, who believes that the enormous burdens that are the result of the armed peace in which Europe has been existing since 1871 are calculated “to paralyze public welfare at its sources, and that their constant increase involves an oppressive load which the nations will have ever greater and greater difficulty in enduring.”

Count Muravieff’s circular has stated the problem in a little more condensed form as follows: “What are the means by which a limit might be set to the increase of armaments? Could the nations pledge themselves against an increase or even in favor of a reduction?”

I hope that our honored president, his Excellency von Staal, who has asked for the floor, will give us an explicit explanation of these points.

Herr von Staal said:

... “The question before us—limitation of the military budget and of the military establishment—deserves a thorough investigation, all the more from the fact (let me repeat it) that this constitutes the chief purpose of our assemblage, namely, to lighten as far as possible the terrible burden which oppresses the nations and checks their material as well as their moral development.

“Do I need to say that there is no question here of Utopian and chimerical measures? It does not mean that we shall proceed to disarmament. What we desire is a limitation, a period of quiescence, in the constantly accelerating race of armaments and expenditures.

“We make this proposition in the conviction that if an agreement is reached, a gradual reduction will take place. Immovability does not belong to the domain of history, and if we succeed in preserving a certain stability for a few years, it may be taken for granted that the advantageous tendency toward diminution of military expenditures will be confirmed and developed. The movement would perfectly correspond to the ideas which inspire the Russian rescript.

306“But we have not yet got that far. At the present moment the question before us is only for a cessation, for a fixed period of years, in the increase of the military budgets and of the contingents.”

General den Beer Poortugael:

“Gentlemen: Here we find ourselves facing the chief object of Muravieff’s circular. It is truly worth while for us to concentrate our powers to the highest endeavor. We must regard the great interests of the nations, so intimately bound up with his recommendation, and I believe that I am not going too far when I say that the question must be treated with a certain reverence.

“The armies and military budgets that have been steadily growing larger and larger for the last quarter of a century have now attained gigantic, terrifying, dangerous dimensions. Four millions of men under arms and army budgets of five billions of francs a year! Is that not terrible?

“Truly, this increase of armies, of fleets, of budgets, of debts, seems to have been brought out of a Pandora’s box, the gift of a wicked fairy who desires the misfortune of Europe. War is sure to arise from this method of foresight, which is meant to safeguard peace. The increase of contingents and of expenses will be the real cause of war.

... “To the states which, through our military organizations, are bound together like mountain climbers in the Alps by a rope, the Tsar has said, ‘Let us make a common endeavor, let us pause on this path which leads to the abyss, else we are lost.’

“A halt, then! Fellow-delegates, it is our duty to use our utmost endeavors. It will be worth while. Let us call a halt!”

This speech, spoken in an impassioned voice, aroused amazement. Many could not refrain from applause; others could hardly help shaking their heads. Some one is said to have remarked, “Bebel, out and out!”

Now the Russian motion was submitted.

THE PROGRAMME

Colonel von Schilinsky’s remarks:

... “It may be asked, gentlemen, whether the nations represented at the Conference will be perfectly satisfied if we bring them the arbitration tribunal and laws for seasons of war, but nothing for 307seasons of peace,—this armed peace, which bears so heavily upon them that often the statement is heard that an open war would be better than this concealed war of armaments, this perpetual rivalry where every nation exhibits greater armies in time of peace than it ever did before during the greatest wars.

... “Moreover, this continued increase of military power fails to attain its object, for the relative strength of the various countries remains the same. If any government increases its troops, forms new battalions, its neighbor follows its example without delay, so as to preserve the proportions; the neighbor’s neighbor does the same, and so it goes on without end. The effective increases, but the proportions remain about the same.

... “Moreover, we are proposing nothing new. The limitation of contingents and of the budget has long been customary in many countries. For example, there is the Septennat in Germany. This means that the total number of the troops in time of peace is fixed for seven—now five—years. In Russia also the war budget is established on a five years’ basis. So it is a question of well-known measures which have been used for a long time, which alarm no one, and which bring about good results; it is a question of applying these regulations for even a shorter time, if you please. The only novelty about it is the resolution, the courage to state that it is time to call a halt.

And Russia moves that we call a halt.”

After Colonel von Schilinsky had spoken, Captain Sheïn made a similar proposal for the navy. All this perfectly corresponds with what Emperor Nicholas said to Stead, and also with the utterances that Muravieff had made in my presence.

The truth is, the Russian government, in the presence of the whole world, in behalf of the welfare of all nations, has officially proposed to the other governments that they should come to an agreement henceforth not 308to increase armaments. At the same time, it has clearly opened up the prospect of a subsequent reduction. The accompanying proposals for a permanent tribunal, the arbitration code, and the propositions regarding mediation as well,—all this shows that, whatever the decisions of the Conference may be, the promoters have done their part honorably.

Session of June 26. The Commission assembles again. Léon Bourgeois has arrived. Colonel von Schwarzhoff is opposing the Russian motion. He takes sides also against General den Beer Poortugael; he cannot, he says, accept these ideas, and is unwilling that his silence should be construed as assent. The German people is not oppressed by the weight of taxes; it is not on the sheer edge of the abyss; it is not hastening to ruin,—quite the contrary. As regards the universal duty to bear arms, the German does not regard it as a heavy burden but as a sacred and patriotic duty, to the fulfillment of which he owes his existence, his prosperity, and his future. Then he speaks of the difficulties which beset the plan of limiting armaments, and explains that it would meet with insuperable technical obstacles.