AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: IV- 1899 309 



purpose, and this finally ended in the agreement that 

 Holls should go with Zorn. 



In view of the fact that Von Billow had agreed that the 

 German delegates should stand side by side with us in 

 the conference, I immediately prepared a letter of in 

 troduction and a personal letter to Billow for Holls to 

 take, and he started about five in the afternoon. This 

 latter is as follows : 



(Copy.) 

 (Personal.) 



June 16, 1899. 

 DEAR BARON VON BULOW : 



I trust that, in view of the kindly relations which exist 

 between us, succeeding as they do similar relations begun 

 twenty years ago with your honored father, you will 

 allow me to write you informally, but fully and frankly, 

 regarding the interests of both our governments in the 

 peace conference. The relations between your delegates 

 and ours have, from the first, been of the kindest; your 

 assurances on this point have been thoroughly carried 

 out. But we seem now to be at &quot; the parting of the ways, 

 and on the greatest question submitted to us, the great 

 est, as I believe, that any conference or any congress has 

 taken up in our time, namely, the provision for a tri 

 bunal of arbitration. 



It is generally said here that Germany is opposed to 

 the whole thing, that she is utterly hostile to anything 

 like arbitration, and that she will do all in her power, 

 either alone or through her allies, to thwart every feasi 

 ble plan of providing for a tribunal which shall give 

 some hope to the world of settling some of the many dif 

 ficulties between nations otherwise than by bloodshed. 



No rational man here expects all wars to be ended 

 by anything done here ; no one proposes to submit to any 

 such tribunal questions involving the honor of any na 

 tion or the inviolability of its territory, or any of those 

 things which nations feel instinctively must be reserved 

 for their own decision. Nor does any thinking man here 



