Please call me kindly to the remembrance of Baron von Suttner, and I remain, dear madam, most respectfully and truly yours,
Andrew D. White
July 6. At the last session an important article was added to the project of the arbitration tribunal. It was proposed by D’Estournelles, and is to the effect that the signatory powers, in case of a conflict threatening between two or more countries, shall consider it their duty to remind these powers that the Court of Arbitration stands open to them.
Servia and Roumania make a lively protest against the word “duty.” Roumania, represented by Beldimann, moreover protests regularly, consistently, and forever.
After a persuasive speech by Léon Bourgeois, D’Estournelles’s motion is adopted.
July 7. We take our departure. Ever so many friends accompany us to the railway station. The coach is filled with farewell bouquets. Good-by, thou lovely city of gardens! Will coming generations make pilgrimages to thee because the first International Court of Arbitration came into existence here? Enriched by the memories of lovely days and interesting people, and by uplifting impressions, I take my departure from thee, historic place....
We were obliged, on account of private affairs, to leave before the close of the Conference, but I received from there every day papers, letters, and dispatches, which kept me informed of the progress and the acte final of the Conference.
I jot down here the most important of these records.
On the seventh of July the session of the third committee (on peaceful adjustment of international controversies) adjourned until the seventeenth, that in the meantime further instructions might be received from the governments. Sir Julian Pauncefote makes a trip to London. The articles which principally give occasion for seeking further instructions are those that treat of the International Commission of Inquiry. The text up for debate runs:
In cases of an international nature, involving neither honor nor vital interests, and arising from a difference of opinion on points of fact, the signatory powers recommend that the parties, having been unable to come to an agreement by the usual means of diplomacy, should, as far as circumstances allow, institute an international commission of inquiry, which shall clear away these differences by getting at the facts through an impartial and conscientious investigation.