“Telegraphic conference to-day, after a long debate, by a unanimous vote, adopted Mr. Cyrus Field’s proposition to recommend the different governments represented at the conference to enter into a treaty to protect submarine wires in war as well as peace, and recommended that no government should grant any right to connect its country with another without the joint consent of the countries proposed to be connected.”
In speaking of this convention he said:
“It represented twenty-one countries, six hundred millions of people, and twenty six different languages.”
The proposal of Professor Morse was so obviously in the interest of peace and humanity that it may seem that its adoption was a matter of course. In fact, however, the opposition to it was at first so strong and general that it would have been defeated but for the personal exertions of Mr. Field in its behalf, and his own narrative of how the adoption was brought about is so interesting as to deserve being given in full. In his report, dated Rome, January 14, 1872, to the directors of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, he said:
“The International Telegraph Conference adjourned this afternoon after a session of six weeks and three days....
“The conference opened on Friday morning, December 1st, but I did not arrive here till the 20th ultimo. On my arrival I was very sorry to learn that the representative from Norway had on the 4th of December proposed to the conference that they should recommend to their different governments to enter into a treaty to protect submarine cables in war as well as peace, and that his proposition had met with such opposition that he had withdrawn it, as he was sure it could not pass. As soon as I got all the facts, I determined my course. It was to get personally acquainted with every delegate and urge my views upon him before bringing them before the conference. Finally, on Thursday, the 28th ultimo, I presented my views in a carefully prepared argument to the conference. Every single member was in his seat, and finally, after a long discussion, in which there were forty-nine separate speeches, my propositions were carried without a dissenting voice. The representatives of nine governments, although personally in favor of it, were not willing to take the responsibility of voting without positive instructions from their governments, so they simply abstained from voting.
“The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy, Visconte Venosta, will prepare a circular and send it to the different governments, inviting them to enter into an international treaty to protect submarine cables in time of war.
“I shall leave here to-morrow morning for New York via Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, and London. In each of these cities I hope to persuade the American minister to help on this treaty, which I believe will add much to the security of submarine telegraph property.”
Soon after he reached London he received this note from Mr. Gladstone; he refers, doubtless, to the letter already given in this memoir, setting forth the view he entertained, during the early part of the civil war, of the hopelessness of endeavoring to restore the Union by arms. It had not, however, been published in 1872, nor has it appeared until the publication of this volume.
“11 Carlton House Terrace,
“February 10, 1872.