ITEMS OF INTEREST April 13, 1907 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The chief result of the first Hague Conference, which met on the 18th of May, 1899, and was in session until the 29th of July, was the Convention which provided for the setting up of the "Permanent International Court of Arbitration." By April, 1901, a sufficient number of the signatory Powers had ratified the Convention to secure the establishment of the Court. The Minister of Foreign Affairs for The Netherlands, Dr. William H. de Beaufort, declared the Court organized and opened in April, 1901. Since that time all the rest of the twenty-six signatory Powers, except Turkey and Montenegro, have ratified the Convention and appointed representatives in the Court, which now has seventy-six members. Norway, after her separation from Sweden, being a party to the Convention, appointed members of the Court, so that at the present time twenty-five nations are represented in it.

Four controversies have been settled by the Court: The Pious Fund Case, between the United States and Mexico; the Japanese House Tax Case, between Japan on one side and Great Britain, France, and Germany on the other; the Venezuelan Preferential Payment Case, between the three Powers which blockaded the ports of Venezuela and seven pacific Powers having claims against the Venezuelan Government; and the Muscat controversy between Great Britrights and France over their respective treaty rights in that country.

One of the most important measures which will come before the second Hague Conference will be to extend the Hague Court to all the governments of the world, and by a general arbitration treaty to insure the reference to it of controversies which may hereafter arise among the nations.

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