The Hague Conference was opened on Monday in the Binnenhof,
a simple but dignified building. The delegates wear ordinary morning dress, and are arranged in the alpha- betical order given by their names in French,—an arrangement which, curiously enough, places Britain and France side by side. After M. Nelidoff, chief of the Russian representatives had been elected President of the Conference, he addressed the members. The task set forth in the programme of the Conference was divided into two parts. On the one hand, they had to seek a means of bringing about an amicable settlement of differences that might arise between different States; and, on the other, to endeavour, in the event of war breaking out, to mitigate its onerous effects alike on the combatants and on those indirectly affected. M. Nelidoff's speech ended by a wise warning to the Conference not to be too ambitious.
