AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: III-1899 295 



so sign it. I assured him and De Staal that we of 

 the United States would stand by them to the last in the 

 matter. 



Late in the evening went to a reception of M. de Beau 

 fort, the Netherlands minister of foreign affairs, and 

 discussed current matters with various people, among 

 them Count Nigra, whom I thanked for his eloquent 

 speech in the afternoon, and Baron de Bildt, who feels, 

 as I do, that the right thing for us is to go on, no mat 

 ter who falls away. 



June 10. 



This morning I gave to studies of the various reports 

 sent in from the subcommittees, especially those on ar 

 bitration and on the Brussels Conference rules. Both 

 have intensely interested me, my main attention being, 

 of course, centered on the former ; but the Brussels rules 

 seem to me of much greater importance now than at first, 

 and my hope is that we shall not only devise a good work 

 ing plan of arbitration, but greatly humanize the laws 

 of war. 



At four o clock in the afternoon met the four other 

 ambassadors and two or three other heads of delegations, 

 at the rooms of M. de Staal, to discuss the question of 

 relaxing the rules of secrecy as regards the proceed 

 ings of committees, etc. The whole original Russian 

 plan of maintaining absolute secrecy has collapsed, just 

 as the representatives from constitutional countries in 

 the beginning said it would. Every day there are pub 

 lished minute accounts in Dutch, French, and English 

 journals which show that, in some way, their represen 

 tatives obtain enough information to enable them, witK 

 such additional things as they can imagine, to make read 

 able reports. The result is that various gentlemen in 

 the conference who formerly favored a policy of com 

 plete secrecy find themselves credited with speeches which 

 they did not make, and which they dislike to be considered 

 capable of making. 



