342 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XXIV 



great uneasiness. He was very anxious that we should 

 withdraw the declaration altogether, and said, &quot;It will be 

 charged against you that you propose to evade your du 

 ties while using the treaty to promote your interests&quot;; 

 but I held firm and pressed the matter, with the result 

 above stated. I feared that he would object in open con 

 ference ; but his loyalty to arbitration evidently deterred 

 him. However, he returned to the charge privately, and 

 I then promised to make a public statement of our rea 

 sons for the declaration, and this seemed to ease his 

 mind. The result was a recasting of my proposed speech, 

 and this Mr. Lavino threw into the form of a long tele 

 gram to the &quot; Times. &quot; 



July 26. 



At ten to a meeting of our American delegation, when 

 another bombshell was thrown among us nothing less 

 than the question whether the Pope is to be allowed to 

 become one of the signatory powers; and this question 

 has now taken a very acute form. Italy is, of course, ut 

 terly opposed to it, and Great Britain will not sign if 

 any besides those agreed upon by the signatory powers 

 are allowed to come in hereafter, her motive being, no 

 doubt, to avoid trouble in regard to the Transvaal. 



Mr. Low stated that in the great committee the pre 

 vailing opinion seemed to be that the signatory powers 

 had made a sort of partnership, and that no new part 

 ners could be added without the consent of all. This is 

 the natural ground, and entirely tenable. 



I would have been glad to add the additional require 

 ment that no power should be admitted which would 

 not make arbitration reciprocal that is, no power which, 

 while aiding to arbitrate for others, would not accept ar 

 bitration between itself and another power. This would, 

 of course, exclude the Vatican; for, while it desires to 

 judge others, it will allow no interests of its own, not 

 even the most worldly and trivial, to be submitted to any 

 earthly tribunal. 



The question now came up in our American delegation 



