AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: III-1899 301 



very agreeable. I took in to dinner Madame Behrends, 

 wife of the Russian charge, evidently a very thoughtful 

 and accomplished woman, who was born, as she told me, 

 of English parents in the city of New York when her fa 

 ther and mother were on their way to England. I found 

 her very interesting, and her discussions of Russia, as 

 well as of England and the Netherlands, especially good. 

 In the smoking-room I had a long talk with M. Leon 

 Bourgeois, who, according to the papers, is likely to be 

 appointed minister of foreign affairs in the new French 

 cabinet. He dwelt upon the difficulties of any plan for 

 a tribunal, but seemed ready to do what he could for the 

 compromise plan, which is all that, during some time past, 

 we have hoped to adopt. 



June 15. 



Early this morning Count Munster called, wishing to 

 see me especially, and at once plunged into the question 

 of the immunity of private property from seizure on the 

 high seas. He said that he had just received instructions 

 from his government to join us heartily in bringing 

 the question before the conference ; that his government, 

 much as it inclines to favor the principle, could not yet 

 see its way to commit itself fully ; that its action must, of 

 course, depend upon the conduct of other powers in the 

 matter, as foreshadowed by discussions in the conference, 

 but that he was to aid us in bringing it up. 



I told him I was now preparing a draft of a memorial 

 to the conference giving the reasons why the subject 

 ought to be submitted, and that he should have it as soon 

 as completed. 



This matter being for the time disposed of, we took 

 up the state of the arbitration question, and the con 

 sequences of opposition by Germany and her two allies 

 to every feasible plan. 



He was very much in earnest, and declared especially 

 against compulsory arbitration. To this I answered that 

 the plan thus far adopted contemplated entirely volun- 



