Article June 1, 1899 Issue

President M. de Staal's Address

By a process of elimination the work of the Peace Conference is being reduced within practical limits. M. de Staal's speech is accepted as a definite abandonment by Russia of all attempts to secure action toward the limitation of armaments, naval or military, so far as this convention is concerned. The committee on this subject will devote its attention exclusively to the minor points assigned to it, namely, the use of new explosives, projectiles, submarine boats and other engines of destruction. There is little hope of agreement on any restrictions concerning these, and therefore the scope of Count Muravieff's circular is already reduced one half.

The important work will be concentrated on the sole question of arbitration, and one man's opinion is as good as another's regarding the prospect of agreement on any plan. It is probably too much to expect that any complete permanent scheme will be definitely adopted at the present session, but a large body of the delegates hope some progress will be made toward that end. A considerable number believe that a partial or tentative plan of optional arbitration with provisions for the necessary tribunal, can be devised and referred to the governments for their action or taken up at an adjourned session of the conference.

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