The interest of the Hague Conference during the past week
has been centred in the Comite d'Examen on obligatory arbitra- tion. The Portuguese proposals, specifically enumerating eighteen subjects which the contracting Powers would engage Without reserve to submit to arbitration, were subsequently amended by the British delegates, and in this form were carried in the case of most of the clauses by large majorities, Germany and Belgium, however, voting against the whole list without exception. Germany, though admitting that obligatory arbitration could be adopted, is not prepared to accept or formulate any list whatever ; and America, which, in default of special instructions, took no rat in the voting on the
British list, has since submitted a list substantially on the lines of the amended Portuguese catalogue. But the position of America, as the Times correspondent points out, is seriously compromised by her inconsistency in asking the rest of the world to agree to a scheme of obligatory arbitration which, in view of the reserved powers of the Senate, could not be really obligatory for America herself. In spite of these divergences, it is hoped that before it separates the Conference will not content itself with a mere vu, but will succeed in drawing up a general Convention of obligatory arbitration, and the votes taken on Thursday seem to point to the ultimate acceptance of a middle plan which, without abandoning the idea of a list, yet leaves the list open for subsequent adhesions and additions.
