The twentieth Peace Congress was officially opened on Wednesday in
the historic Ridderzaal or Hall of Knights at The Hague by M. Heemskerk, the Minister of the Interior. Professor de Louter, of Utrecht, who was chosen President, deplored the meagre results of the diplomatic victories of
recent years. Social life more than diplomacy, he maintained, was successfully ranging itself against war. The Balkan conflict showed war to be more terrible than ever, and therefore pacificists must work harder than ever. He saluted America as the foremost nation in the peace movement, and the Palace of Peace as an expression of the homage of the New World to the old. Professor Quidde, of Munich (the author of the famous " Caligula " brochure), condemned Germany for the last increase of armaments in Europe, and brought forward a resolution embodying his project for a general treaty for the limitation of armaments. The Congress also passed a resolution that the Panama differences between Great Britain and the United States. should be referred to the Hague Court of Arbitration. On Thursday the Conference was occupied with discussing plans —admittedly impracticable—for an international police.
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