802 SYMPOSIUM ON INTERNATIONAL LAW. 



conferences at the Hague, to which the nations went in 1899 and 

 1907, ready to make concessions each of its own personal interests 

 in the effort to attain to results beneficial to all. 



Whilst the reduction of the heavy burden of the armaments then 

 resting upon the peoples of Europe was the motive of the Emperor 

 of Russia in calling the First Conference together, and whilst the 

 Conference did not find itself able even to bring that subject to 

 serious consideration by the Powers, it reached definite results in 

 other directions which must be regarded as very remarkable steps 

 forward in the progress of mankind. 



With its memorable declaration that, " in order to obviate as much 

 as possible the recourse to force in the relations between states, the 

 contracting Powers agree to use their best efforts to insure the 

 pacific settlement of international disputes ; " and " for the purpose 

 of facilitating immediate recourse to arbitration in cases which have 

 not yielded to diplomatic effort," the conference established a per- 

 manent court, accessible at all times and competent for all arbitral 

 questions, as a world tribunal before which nations may appear as 

 litigants and have their cases heard. 



The Conference of 1907 enlarged the field of peaceful endeavor 

 still further by providing for more extended efforts toward arbitral 

 adjustment through the good offices and mediation of other Powers; 

 so that, 



"in case of serious disagreement or dispute, before an appeal to arms, the 

 Powers agree to have recourse, as far as circumstances will permit, to the 

 good offices or mediation of one or more friendly Powers. And, indepen- 

 dently of this recourse, the contracting Powers deem it expedient and desir- 

 able that one or more Powers, strangers to the dispute, should, on their own 

 initiative and as far as circumstances may allow, proffer their good offices or 

 mediation to the states in conflict;" 



a very great variance from the older customs of Europe which is of 

 especial importance because of the concessions which it implies. 

 For, in the extreme sensitiveness of national honor and the jealously 

 guarded distinction of national personality, a war was looked upon 

 formerly as a subject that related solely to the belligerents engaged 

 and their friends and allies, in which no one would venture to inter- 

 fere who was not interested in it, anv more than one would inter- 



