302 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XXII 



tary arbitration, with the exception that an obligatory 

 system was agreed upon as regards sundry petty matters 

 in which arbitration would assist all the states concerned ; 

 and that if he disliked this latter feature, but would 

 agree to the others, we would go with him in striking it 

 out, though we should vastly prefer to retain it. 



He said, &quot;Yes; you have already stricken out part of 

 it in the interest of the United States,&quot; referring to the 

 features concerning the Monroe Doctrine, the regulation 

 of canals, rivers, etc. 



&quot;Very true,&quot; I answered; &quot;and if there are any spe 

 cial features which affect unfavorably German policy or 

 interests, move to strike them out, and we will heartily 

 support you.&quot; 



He then dwelt in his usual manner on his special hobby, 

 which is that modern nations are taking an entirely false 

 route in preventing the settlement of their difficulties by 

 trained diplomatists, and intrusting them to arbitra 

 tion by men inexperienced in international matters, who 

 really cannot be unprejudiced or uninfluenced; and he 

 spoke with especial contempt of the plan for creating a 

 bureau, composed, as he said, of university professors 

 and the like, to carry on the machinery of the tribunal. 



Here I happened to have a trump card. I showed 

 him Sir Julian Pauncefote s plan to substitute a council 

 composed of all the ministers of the signatory powers 

 residing at The Hague, with my amendment making the 

 Dutch minister of foreign affairs its president. This he 

 read and said he liked it; in fact, it seemed to remove a 

 mass of prejudice from his mind. 



I then spoke very earnestly to him more so than ever 

 before about the present condition of affairs. I told 

 him that the counselors in whom the Emperor trusted- 

 such men as himself and the principal advisers of his 

 Majesty ought never to allow their young sovereign to 

 be exposed to the mass of hatred, obloquy, and oppo 

 sition which would converge upon him from all nations 

 in case he became known to the whole world as the sov- 



