NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE First Committee of the Hague Conference discussed the project of obligatory arbitration in a full-dress debate on Saturday last. After a great oratorical display, the proposed Convention, which applies the principle of obligatory arbitra- tion to a list of specified and, we are obliged to add, extremely unimportant subjects, was voted by a majority of 30 to 6, with four abstentions and four absentees. The minority consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, China, Greece, Roumania, and Turkey, while Japan, Luxemburg, Montenegro, and Switzerland abstained. The best argument advanced on behalf of the proposed Convention was that it embodied a noble principle ; but the most effective speech was that of Baron Marschall, who dwelt with great force on the practical objections to the scheme, and the dangerous ambiguity of its wording.. It is only right to add that in protesting against a plan which subordinates the decisions of firmly established national Courts to the judgment of a novel tribunal, the German delegate was using a two-edged weapon, as it tells with equal force against the International Prize Court scheme which Germany supports.
