SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 69 
retaries, General Strachey, Delegate of Great Britain, M. Janssen, 
Delegate of France, and Dr. Luiz Cruls, Delegate of Brazil. I was 
unable to attend the meeting when these votes of thanks were 
passed. It is most gratifying to me here to place on record my sense 
of the unvarying courtesy and ability on all occasions shown by the 
presiding officers of the Conference and by the Secretaries. 
The resolutions of greatest public importance are numbers one and 
two, four and five. Numbers one and two relate to the determina- 
tion of a Prime Meridian ; numbers four and five to the establish- 
ment of the Universal Day. P 
The question of the Prime Meridian was not settled without argu-~ 
ment and divergence of view. It was one, indeed, on which some 
national sensitiveness was to be looked for. The Delegates of 
France approached the discussion with marked earnestness. They 
presented a resolution claiming that the Meridian to be selected 
should possess a character of absolute neutrality. “It should,” ran 
the resolution (page 36), ‘‘ be chosen exclusively so as to secure to 
science and to international commerce all possible advantages, and 
especially cut no great continent, neither Europe nor America.” 
Under the circumstances I felt it my duty to submit the remarks 
given in the protocol of the fourth session (pp. 75, 80}).* I endeay- 
oured to argue that our deliberations should take into consideration 
future demands and emergencies, while at the same time our decis- 
ions should cause as little interference as possible with present cus- 
toms, and that we should consult the convenience of the greatest 
number ; that we should especially regard national sensitiveness. I 
contended that to choose and recommend a neutral Meridian would 
simply be an attempt to establish an entirely new Meridian, one not 
in use by any individual nationality or by the shipping of any coun- 
try. Even if such were recommended by the majority of Delegates 
there would be no guarantee, indeed there was no probability, that 
it would be accepted by any one of the twenty-five nationalities 
represented at the Conference. Eleven Meridians are already in use 
as zeros of longitude. The proposition, if it led to any result, 
would create a twelfth Meridian, and it would practically increase 
the difficulty we were endeavouring to remove. 
The advantages to sea-going vessels having one common zero of 
longitude were incalculable. They had been alluded to by the Presi- 
dent of the Conference in his opening address. I expressed my con- 
currence with his views, and pointed out that by the judicious estab- 
lishment of the Prime Meridian we could the more readily reach the 
question of Universal Time. It was not from any national reason 
that the Meridian of Greenwich suggested itself as the one to be 
chosen. It was because of its convenience and its general use by 
the great majority of sea-going ships. 
* Appended, page 74. 
