AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: IV-1899 321 



day or two over the Venezuela arbitration tribunal at 

 Paris. He told me that Sir Eichard Webster, in opening 

 the case, is to speak for sixteen days, and De Martens 

 added that he himself had read our entire Venezuelan 

 report, as well as the other documents on the subject, 

 which form quite a large library. And yet we do not in 

 clude men like him in the working-classes ! 



In the evening to a reception at the house of M. de 

 Beaufort, minister of foreign affairs, and was cordially 

 greeted by him and his wife, both promising that they 

 would accept our invitation to Delft. I took in to the 

 buffet the wife of the present Dutch prime minister, 

 who also expressed great interest in our proposal, and 

 declared her intention of being present. 



Count Zanini, the Italian minister and delegate here, 

 gave me a comical account of two speeches in the session 

 of the first section this morning ; one being by a delegate 

 from Persia, Mirza Riza Khan, who is minister at St. 

 Petersburg. His Persian Excellency waxed eloquent over 

 the noble qualities of the Emperor of Russia, and espe 

 cially over his sincerity as shown by the fact that when 

 his Excellency tumbled from his horse at a review, his 

 Majesty sent twice to inquire after his health. The whole 

 effect upon the conference was to provoke roars of 

 laughter. 



But the great matter of the day was the news, which 

 has not yet been made public, that Prince Hohenlohe, the 

 German chancellor, has come out strongly for the arbi 

 tration tribunal, and has sent instructions here accord 

 ingly. This is a great gain, and seems to remove one 

 of the worst stumbling-blocks. But we will have to pay 

 for this removal, probably, by giving up section 10 of 

 the present plan, which includes a system of obligatory 

 arbitration in various minor matters, a system which 

 would be of use to the world in many ways. While 

 the American delegation, as stated in my letter which 

 Holls took to Billow, and which has been forwarded to 

 the Emperor, will aid in throwing out of the arbitration 



II.-21 



