1899 Hague Peace Conference
Research by Debbie Niwa
October 11, 2008
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Nov. 26, 1903: The Hague "Palace of Peace"
Sep. 13, 1913: A Glimpse of the Palace of
Peace, Just Dedicated;
Also mentioned in Chapter
5: Declaration of Brussels, Red Cross,
Geneva convention, ex-President Harrison,
international law, International Bureau, Pious
Fund Case, Catholic church, Great Britain and
Germany against Venezuela (1902-1903), Hague
Tribunal, marble statuary called "Peace Through
Justice", Russian Czar invited the nations to
send representatives to The Hague in 1898,
President Roosevelt, Columbian Exposition at
Chicago (1893), Faneuil Hall, Old South
Meeting House, Secretary of State John Hay,
"the reduction of the armaments of the nations;
education and the peace sentiment," "methods of
peace" ...
-----------------------------------------------------
[EMPHASIS ADDED BELOW. -- Debbie]
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION
Great progress was made during the nineteenth century toward the settlement of differences between nations through arbitration. The United States was party to 50 out of the total number of 120 arbitration treaties. Questions settled in this manner, such as boundary, damages inflicted by war or civil disturbances and injuries to commerce, would formerly have led to war. Twenty of these cases have been between the United States and Great Britain, and a settlement was effected when, at times, it seemed as if war could not be averted.
The work of the Hague Peace Conference, which met May 18, 1899, constituted a fitting close to the efforts which were put forth during the century to bring about conciliation through arbitration. The conference assembled in response to an invitation issued by the Czar of Russia 'on behalf of disarmament and the permanent peace of the world.' One hundred and ten delegates were present, representing twenty-six different powers of which the United States was one. The delegates were divided into three commissions, each having separate subjects for consideration.
The first commission adopted unanimously the resolution that 'the limitation of the military charges which so oppress the world is greatly to be desired,' but agreed that this could not be now accomplished through an international compact.
In the second commission a revision of the Declaration of Brussels concerning the rules of war was made. It was agreed by the entire conference that a new convention for this purpose should be called, and that the protection offered by the Red Cross, as agreed upon in the Geneva convention, should also be extended to naval warfare.
The proposition
expressing the desire that international conflicts
might in the future be settled through arbitration
was considered by the third commission. Said
ex-President Harrison: "the greatest achievement
of the Hague conference was the establishment of
an absolutely impartial judicial tribunal."
Some of the chief features of this permanent court
of arbitration were as follows: (1) Each nation
which agreed to the plan was to appoint, within
three months, four persons of recognized
competency in international law, who were to serve
for six years as members of the International
Court; (2) an International Bureau was
established at The Hague for the purpose of
carrying on all intercourse between the signatory
powers relative to the meetings of the court and
to serve also as the recording office for the
court; (3) nations in dispute may select from the
list of names appointed as above, and submitted to
them by the bureau, those persons whom they desire
to act as arbitrators; (4) the meetings of the
court are to be held at The Hague unless some
other place is stipulated by the nations in the
controversy.
The permanent International Court of
Arbitration was declared to be organized and
ready for operation by April 1901. At that
time there were seventy-two judges appointed by
twenty-two of the signatory powers. It is readily
seen that the advantages of such a court are that
unprejudiced arbitrators are selected, rules of
procedure are defined, and decisions rendered are
more liable to be accepted in future cases and
thus a code of law will be formed. So many cases
have been submitted to this tribunal that it has
been said that a government which will not now try
arbitration before sorting to arms is no longer
respectable. This court was convened for the
first time May 18, 1901.
The first case coming before the tribunal --
the Pious Fund Case -- was presented by the
United States and Mexico, September 15,
1902. Up to 1846 the Mexican government had paid
annual interest on some property administered by
it but belonging to the Catholic church.
Part of it was situated in what is now California.
After 1848, when this California estate came under
United States jurisdiction, Mexico refused to pay
that part of the church outside of Mexico its
share. This difference between our Government and
Mexico the Hague Tribunal took up.
Agreeably to chapter 3, title 4, of the
agreement, each party named two arbitrators, and
the latter, acting together, an umpire. In case of
an equality of votes a third power, designated by
agreement of the parties, was to select the
umpire. The arbitrators chosen were M. de Martens,
of the Orthodox Greek church; Sir Edward Fry, an
English Protestant; M. Asser, a Jew, and M. Savornin-Loman, a Dutch Protestant. Decision was
reached within the prescribed thirty days and
announced October 14, 1902. It favored the United
States contention, giving its proportion of the
Mexican payments to the Catholic church in
California.
A second case,
involving issues of war and peace, arose from the
action of Great Britain and Germany against
Venezuela in the winter of 1902-1903. Subjects
of these as well as of other powers had claims
against Venezuela. That country was in financial
straits and its creditors pressed. December 9,
1902, British and German war-ships sunk or seized
some Venezuelan vessels; next day they landed
marines at La Guayra, who took possession of the
custom house; the 14th they bombarded and
demolished a fort and Puerto Cabello. Through the
good offices of the United States the matter of
debts was referred to the Hague Tribunal. The
German claims were decided by two representatives
of Germany and two of Venezuela, or, if they
disagreed, by an umpire whom the United States
selected. So with the other claims. The tribunal
fixed the order in which Venezuela should pay the
different countries, and the United States was
charged with overseeing the payments, a percentage
of Venezuelan customs receipts being reserved for
that purpose.
In 1903 Andrew Carnegie donated $1,500,000
for the purpose of erecting a 'palace of peace,'
the permanent headquarters of this court. The deed
of trust states: 'The establishment of a permanent
Court of Arbitration by the treaty of the 20th of
July, 1899, is the most important step forward, of
a world-wide humanitarian character, that has ever
been taken by the joint powers, as it must
ultimately banish war, and further, being of
opinion that the cause of peace will greatly
benefit by the erection of a court house and
library for the permanent Court of Arbitration,'
etc.
The site of this building, which will be ready
for occupancy in 1912, is near The Hague. Its
exterior will resemble some of the old city walls
to be seen in Holland. The various governments
which were party to the treaty have contributed
materials for the completion of the interior and
objects of art for decoration. The United
States presented a large marble statuary called
"Peace Through Justice."
Two notable congresses were held in the
United States during the year 1904, for the
purpose of promoting the peace of the world. The
Inter-Parliamentary Union held a meeting,
the twelfth in its history, in connection with the
World's Fair at St. Louis. This
organization was founded at Paris in 1888
by thirty members of the French Chamber of
Deputies and ten members of the British
Parliament, for the purpose of promoting the
cause of peace and arbitration. Scoffed at from
the beginning, the Union continued to grow until
it included parliamentary delegates from every
European country having a constitutional form of
government.
The meeting of the Union at St. Louis was the
first to be held in the United States, for this
country took no part in the organization until
1904. Russia and Turkey, having no parliaments,
are not represented in meetings of the Union. It
is a noteworthy fact, however, that the Czar sent
an official representative to the meetings in 1890
and it was due to his report of the meeting, more
than to any other cause, that the Czar invited
the nations to send representatives to The Hague
in 1898.
In the congress at St. Louis, representatives
from deliberative bodies of fifteen nations were
present. Among these delegates were some of the
well-known public men from Great Britain, France,
Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands,
the United States, and various other countries.
They were practical men and not dreamers.
Two important
resolutions resulted from the gathering. One of
these called upon the powers to intervene and put
an end to the war between Russia and Japan.
The other invited the President of the United
States to call a second peace conference. The
resolution, addressed to President Roosevelt,
stated that there were a number of questions left
unsettled from the first Hague conference and that
new problems had arisen since that time which
demanded readjustment, such as the use of wireless
telegraphy in the time of war.
On October 3 of the same year an
international peace congress was held in Boston.
Numerous congresses of this nature have been held
from time to time since the meeting of the first
one in London in 1843. Since the year 1888
when a congress was held in Paris, an
international peace congress has met each year
with the exception of 1895, the year the Boer war,
and in 1898 and 1899, on account of the
Spanish-American war. The first of these
congresses in America was held in conjunction with
the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, 1893.
There were in attendance at Boston distinguished
statesmen, clergymen, scholars, and professional
men, and a number of noted women, representing the
many peace and arbitration societies in Great
Britain, Germany, Austria, and numerous other
countries.
On the Sunday before the opening of the
congress, special services were held in many of
the Boston churches and the peace movement
was discussed by distinguished preachers from
Europe and America. In the deliberative sessions,
which were held in Faneuil Hall, the Old
South Meeting House, and other places, the
first session being opened by an address by
Secretary of State John Hay, the following
topics, among others, were discussed: the work and
influence of the Hague Tribunal; the
reduction of the armaments of the nations;
education and the peace sentiment. But here, as in
every previous congress, the two topics to receive
primary consideration have been arbitration and
disarmament. At times there has been the urgent
appeal to the nations to abandon the brutality and
injustice of war and to adopt the humane and just
methods of peace.
In response to the resolution adopted at St.
Louis, President Roosevelt, on October 20. 1904,
invited the nations which had taken part in the
first Hague conference to another conference at
the same place. But in his message to Congress of
that year he defined very clearly his own
position, condemning in no uncertain terms the
thought of peace at any price. "There are kinds of
peace," he said, "which are highly undesirable,
which are in the long run as destructive as any
war. The peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of
craven weakness, the peace of injustice -- all
these should be shunned as we shun unrighteous
war."
Favorable replies to the invitation sent by
President Roosevelt were received from all the
nations. Russia, then in the midst of war with
Japan, while approving, stipulated that the
conference should not be called until the end of
that war. When peace was restored, in the summer
of 1905, Emperor Nicholas II issued an
invitation to fifty-three nations to send
representatives to such a conference. For the
first time, nearly every independent nation on the
globe was represented among the delegates in an
international gathering of this nature. It met
at the Hague during the summer of 1907.
Delegates from
the United States were instructed to favor
obligatory arbitration; the establishment of a
permanent court of arbitration; the prohibition of
force in the collection of contract debts;
immunity from seizure of private property at sea;
a clearer definition of the rights of neutrals,
and the limitation of armaments.
While belief was reasserted by the conference
that there should be the obligatory arbitration of
all questions relating to treaties and
international problems of a legal nature, the
principle was not adopted, although thirty-two
nations of the forty-five represented favored it.
The resolution adopted, which provided for the
collection of the contract debts, is as follows:
"In order to avoid between nations armed conflicts
of a purely pecuniary origin arising from
contractual debts claimed of the government of one
country by the government of another country to be
due to its nationals, the signatory powers agree
not to have recourse to armed force for the
collection of such contractual debts. However,
this stipulation shall not be applicable when the
debtor State refuses or leaves unanswered an offer
to arbitrate; or, in case of acceptance, makes it
impossible to formulate the terms of submission;
or, after arbitration, fails to comply with the
award rendered."
Provision was made for an international prize
court, to which appeal might be made from the
prize courts of the belligerent powers. The
declaration was adopted prohibiting the throwing
of projectiles and explosives from balloons.
Before the end of the year 1908, one hundred
and thirty-five arbitration treaties had been
concluded. The United States was a party to twelve
of these. Most of the treaties bind the signatory
powers to submit to the Hague Tribunal all
differences in so far as they do not affect "the
independence, the honor, the vital interests, or
the exercise of sovereignty of the contracting
countries, and provided it has been impossible to
obtain an amicable solution by means of direct
diplomatic negotiations or by any other method of
conciliation."
[End of chapter]