SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 69 



retaries, General Strachey, Delegate of Great Britain, M. Janssen, 

 Delegate of France, and Dr. Luiz Cruls, Delegate of Brazil. I was 

 unable to attend the meeting when these votes of thanks were 

 passed. It is most gratifying to me here to place on record my sense 

 of the unvarying courtesy and ability on all occasions shown by the 

 presiding officers of the Conference and by the Secretaries. 



The resolutions of greatest public importance are numbers one and 

 two, four and five. Numbers one and two relate to the determina- 

 tion of a Prime Me'ridian ; numbers four and five to the establish- 

 ment of the Universal Day. 



The question of the Prime Meridian was not settled without argu - 

 m.ent and divergence of view. It was one, indeed, on which some 

 national sensitiveness was to be looked for. The Delegates of 

 France approached the discussion with marked earnestness. They 

 presented a resolution claiming that the Meridian to be selected 

 should possess a character of absolute neutrality. " It should," ran 

 the resolution (page 36), "be chosen exclusively so as to secure to 

 science and to international commerce all possible advantages, and 

 •Especially cut no great continent, neither Europe nor America." 



Under the circumstances I felt it my duty to submit the remarks 

 given in the protocol of the fourth session (pp. 75, 80),* I endeav- 

 oured to argue that our deliberations should take into considera-fefron 

 future demands and emergencies, while at the same time our decis- 

 ions should cause as little interference as possible with present cus- 

 toms, and that we shotild consult the convenience of the greatest 

 number ; that we should especially regard national sensitiveness. I 

 contended that to choose and recommend a neutral Meridian would 

 simply be an attempt to establish an entirely new Meridian, one not 

 in use by any individual nationality or by the shipping of any coun- 

 try. Even if such were recommended by the majority of Delegates 

 there would be no guarantee, indeed there was no probability, that 

 it would be accepted by any one of the twenty-five nationalities 

 represented at the Conference. Eleven Meridians are already in use 

 as zeros of longitude. The proposition, if it led to any result, 

 would create a twelfth Meridian, and it would practically increase 

 the difficulty we were endea,vouring to remove. 



The advantages to sea-going vessels having one common zero of 

 longitude were incalculable. They had been alkided to by the Presi- 

 dent of the Conference in his opening address. I expressed my con- 

 currence with his views, and pointed out that by the judicious estab- 

 lishment of the Prime Meridian we could the more readily reach the 

 question of Universal Time. It was not from any national reason 

 that the Meridian of Greenwich suff^ested itself as the one to be 

 chosen. It was because of its convenience and its general use by 

 the great majority of sea-going ships. 



* Appended, page 74. 



