NETHERLANDS. 



Government for the revision of the Geneva con- 

 vention, expresses the wish that a special con 

 ferenc-e be shortly convened for the purpose of re- 

 vising; this convention. 



- V. The conference has resolved unanimously, 

 with the exception of a few abstentions, that the 

 following questions should be reserved for ex- 

 amination by future conferences: (1) A proposal 

 tendim' to declare the inviolability ot private 

 propertv in war at sea: C2> a proposal regulating 

 the question of the bombardment of ports, towns, 

 ami villages by a naval force.' 



The following additional protocol, fixing the 

 conditions of adhesion, was appended to the nnal 



Considering that a certain number of the gov- 

 ernments represented at the Peace Conference 

 have not vet found themselves able to sign the 

 conventions and declarations, the text of which 

 has IHMMI tixed by the conference, the undersigned, 

 as plenipotentiary delegates, at the moment of 

 proceeding to sign the final act have agreed as 

 follow: The conventions and declarations, the 

 text of which is annexed to the final act, can 

 l>e si ned by the governments represented at the 

 conference either at once or at a future date, but 

 at the latest by Dec. 31, 18JM). After Dec. 31, 

 1SJMI. adhesion to the conventions can be made 

 in conformity with the final dispositions of the 

 aforesaid conventions. Adhesion to the declara- 

 tions can be made by means of a notification ad- 

 dressed to the Government of the Netherlands, 

 and communicated by it to all the governments 

 who have signed the declaration." 



The Peace Conference ended its labors and sepa- 

 rated on July 29. The final act was signed by 

 all of the 26 pQwers represented. The conven- 

 tion on arbitration was signed immediately by 

 10 powers, but Germany, Austria-Hungary, China, 

 Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Servia, 

 Switzerland, and Turkey withheld their signa- 

 tures in order to study its provisions more care- 

 fully. The same states abstained from signing 

 the 'convention on the laws of war and the con- 

 vention adapting the principles of the Geneva 

 convention to maritime warfare, and were joined 

 by Portugal. The declaration interdicting balloon 

 projectiles was signed by all the states that gave 

 their adhesion to arbitration and by Turkey. 

 The same powers, with the exception of the United 

 States, signed the declaration concerning the pro- 

 hibition of projectiles containing asphyxiating 

 gases. The declaration concerning the interdic- 

 tion of expanding bullets was signed by the same 

 states without Portugal. 



The Dutch East Indies. The total area of 

 the Dutch possessions in the East Indies is esti- 

 mated at 730,400 square miles, and the popula- 

 tion at 34,000,000. The island of Java, the prin- 

 cipal one. contains, with the adjacent island of 

 Maduro, 25.697,701 inhabitants, as estimated at 

 the end of 1897, on an area of 50.554 square miles. 

 The estimate for the island of Sumatra is 3,209,- 

 037 inhabitants, on an area of 101,012 square 

 miles. The island of Celebes has an area of 71,470 

 sjuare miles, with 1,997,800 inhabitants. The 

 Riau-Lingga Archipelago has 107,801 inhabitants, 

 area 10,301 square miles; Banca, 93.000 inhabit- 

 ants, area 4,446 square miles; Billiton. 41,558 in- 

 habitants, area 1,803 square miles; Molucca Is- 

 lands, 399.208 inhabitants, area 43,804 square 

 miles; Timor Archipelago, 119,239 inhabitants, 

 area 17,698 square miles; Bali and Lombok, 1,044,- 

 757 l inhabitants, area 4,065 square miles; Borneo, 

 1.180.578 inhabitants, area 212.737 square miles; 

 Dutch New Guinea, extending to 141 of east 

 longitude, about 200,000 inhabitants, area 151,789 



square miles. The number of Europeans and per- 

 sons assimilated to them in 1896 was 67,156, of 

 whom 35,134 were males and 32,022 females. Of 

 the males 29,666 were Dutch, of whom 23,295 were 

 born in the East Indies; of the females 25,389 

 were Dutch, 22,435 of them born in the East 

 Indies. There w r ere 1,183 Germans, 243 French, 

 236 English, and 236 Belgians, and the others 

 were Swiss, Austrians, Armenians, etc. The Chi- 

 nese numbered 460,000; Arabs, 24,000; other Ori- 

 entals, 27,000. The number of Christians among 

 the natives and foreign Orientals was 19,193 in 

 Java and 290,065 in the other possessions. In 

 March, 1899, the ordinances were revised by the 

 vote of the States General so as to place Japan- 

 ese in the Dutch East Indies on the same footing 

 as Europeans. 



The revenue in 1898 amounted to 139,412,904 

 guilders, and expenditure to 154,519,438 guilders, 

 leaving a deficit for the year of 15,106,534 guil- 

 ders. Of the receipts 36.3 per cent, came from 

 taxation, 24.1 per cent, from monopolies, 22.4 per 

 cent, from sales of products, and 17.2 per cent, 

 from other sources. The budget for 1899 makes 

 the revenue 132,742,514 guilders and the expendi- 

 ture 146,085,944 guilders, leaving a deficit of 13,- 

 343,430 guilders. Of the revenue 7,543,168 guil- 

 ders come from sales of Government coffee in the 

 Netherlands and 6,626,600 guilders from sales in 

 India, 148,500 guilders from sales of cinchona 

 and 7,164,729 guilders from sales of tin in the 

 Netherlands, 470,000 guilders from the profits of 

 the Billiton company, 925,000 guilders from rail- 

 roads in the Netherlands and 10,975,000 guilders 

 from railroads in Java, 8,807,000 guilders from 

 sales of salt, 18,860,000 guilders from sales of 

 opium, 17,211,500 guilders from import, export, 

 and excise duties, 19,806,100 guilders from land 

 revenues, 824,567 guilders from other sources in 

 the Netherlands, and 33,380,350 guilders from 

 other sources in India. 



The area planted to rice in Java and Maduro 

 was 4,828,642 acres in 1896; to maize, arachis, 

 cotton, and various crops, 3,595,226 acres; to 

 sugar cane, 213,349 acres; to tobacco, 258,930 

 acres; to indigo, 54,252 acres. The production 

 of coffee in 1896 was 42,164,666 pounds by the 

 Government, 10,663,066 pounds by free cultiva- 

 tion, 58,309,333 pounds on leased Government 

 lands, and 4,928,000 pounds on private properties. 

 The production of cinchona was 293,603 kilo- 

 grammes by the Government, 3,440,393 kilo- 

 grammes on leased lands, and 63,932 kilogrammes 

 on private lands. The production of tobacco was 

 13,360,013 kilogrammes in Java and 15,704,703 

 kilogrammes in Sumatra. The production of tea 

 in Java was 3,916,398 kilogrammes; of indigo, 

 721,719 kilogrammes. The production of sugar 

 in 1896 was 501,122 tons, and in 1897 it was 546,- 

 750 tons. The farm animals in Java at the be- 

 ginning of 1896 were 2,643,000 buffaloes and 

 2,572,000 oxen and cows. The quantity of tin 

 produced in 1896 was 15,600 tons; of mineral 

 oil, 111,387,385 litres. The Government imports 

 of merchandise in 1896 amounted to -6,746,332 

 guilders and of specie to 615,000, private imports 

 of merchandise to 152,055,300 guilders and of 

 specie to 8,932,001 guilders; total value of im- 

 ports, 168,348,633 guilders. The Government ex- 

 ports of merchandise were 14,325,256 guilders; 

 private exports of. merchandise were 184,413,534 

 guilders and of specie 891,921 guilders; total 

 value of exports, 199,630,711 guilders. 



There were entered during 1896 at the ports 

 of the Dutch East Indies 213 sailing vessels, of 

 133,812 tons, and 3,692 steamers, of 1,469,808 tons. 

 The length of railroads open at the beginning 



