2. And on the subject of this special resolution the Congress should try to find a diplomatic method of acting which shall permit Holland to play the part which the Swiss Federal Council plays for the Geneva Convention. It is a fine rôle.
Affairs do not proceed promptly in diplomacy. The Swiss Federal Council convoked the governments by a diplomatic invitation dated June 6, 1864. But the recommendation signed by France went to the same states a few days later in June.
Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris, and I had arranged that on April 22, 1864; and from that time the Swiss Federal Council at Bern has had all the protocols in its possession. Only last year it received notices of assent to the Geneva Convention from the Transvaal, the Republic of Uruguay, Nicaragua, and Honduras; and that has been pending since 1864. Holland should play for the “resolution” resulting from Article 8 of the programme of the Congress the same rôle as the Swiss Federal Council does for the Convention. For this purpose the delegates taken individually must be persuaded to separate the protocols; one protocol for the first seven articles of the programme (or any other way, as they please) and an entirely separate and independent protocol for the “resolution” proceeding from Article 8.
And now, with minds keyed high, and with joyous hearts, we got ready to go to The Hague.
LVIII
THE FIRST PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE
My Hague diary · Arrival · First interview · Stead’s interviews with the Tsar and with Bülow · Our call on the Austrian delegation · Divine service in the Russian chapel · Opening session · Johann von Bloch · Party at Beaufort’s · Yang-Yü and his wife · Baron d’Estournelles · Léon Bourgeois · We give a dinner · Richet’s call · Luncheon with Frau Moscheles · Andrew D. White · Extract from Staal’s opening speech · Call on our ambassador’s wife · Count Costantino Nigra · Reception at court · Lord Aberdeen · Sir Julian Pauncefote · Bloch plans a series of lectures · Plenary assembly of May 25 · The Russian, English, and American motions
In 1900 I published a comprehensive book[[30]] in which I gathered together all the events of my sojourn at The Hague, all the reports regarding the proceedings, the text of the most important speeches, and the accurate statement of the various conventions. Those who may wish to have a detailed account of the character, the course of events, and the direct results of that historic assemblage I would refer to that publication. Here I shall merely introduce my personal recollections; I shall copy in their original form extracts from my private journal which I used and elaborated for that book, of course excluding everything that was too confidential and therefore uninteresting.
At the same time I shall introduce minutes of the proceedings and observations on world politics, for, if I am to give the history of my life conscientiously, these things require much space. They were not applied as accidental embroidery, but have been woven into the very fabric of my existence. Whatever has taken place either in behalf of the cause of peace or in opposition to it, anywhere in the world,—and especially what occurred in those days at The Hague, where the Conference was called together in the name of that cause,—was not a mere experience from without, it was an essential part of my life.
May 16. Arrival at The Hague. The city steeped in the magic of spring. Radiant sunshine. Lilac perfumes in the cool air. Our rooms in the hotel all ready. Nine o’clock in the evening. We are still sitting in the dining-room. The correspondent of the Neues Wiener Tagblatt is announced. Receive him and he takes his place at our table. He begins the interview with great liveliness:
“Have just been having a talk with the representative of a first-class power. There seems to be no great doubt as to the prospective outcome,—amplification of the Geneva Convention—”