AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: V 1899 337 



In the afternoon to the &quot; House in the Wood,&quot; the 

 committee on arbitration meeting again. More speeches 

 were made by the Bulgarians and Servians, who are 

 still up in arms, fearing that the commission d enquete 

 means intervention by the great states in their affairs. 

 Speeches to allay their fears were made by Count Nigra, 

 Dr. Zorn, Holls, and Leon Bourgeois. Zorn spoke in 

 German with excellent effect, as did Holls in English; 

 Nigra was really impressive; and Bourgeois, from the 

 chair, gave us a specimen of first-rate French oratory. 

 He made a most earnest appeal to the delegates of the 

 Balkan states, showing them that by such a system of 

 arbitration as is now proposed the lesser powers would 

 be the very first to profit, and he appealed to their loy 

 alty to humanity. The speech was greatly and justly 

 applauded. 



The Balkan delegates are gradually and gracefully- 

 yielding. 



July 21. 



In the morning to the &quot; House in the Wood,&quot; where a 

 plenary session of the conference was held. It was a 

 field day on explosive, flattening and expanding bullets, 

 etc. Our Captain Crozier, who evidently knows more 

 about the subject than anybody else here, urged a dec 

 laration of the principle that balls should be not more 

 deadly or cruel than is absolutely necessary to put sol 

 diers Jiors de combat; but the committee had reported a 

 resolution which, Crozier insists, opens the door to worse 

 missiles than those at present used. Many and earnest 

 speeches were made. I made a short speech, moving to 

 refer the matter back to the committee, with instructions 

 to harmonize and combine the two ideas in one article 

 that is, the idea which the article now expresses, and 

 Crozier s idea of stating the general principle to which 

 the bullets should conform namely, that of not making 

 a wound more cruel than necessary; but the amendment 

 was lost. 



II. 22 



