5
Dec. 45
This
Convention was signed at The Hague by 44
nations, and it is in effect as to 31 nations,
28 signatories, and 3 adherents. For our
purposes it is in force in to the United States,
Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Prance,
Germany, Luxembourg, Japan, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, and Russia.
By the provisions
of Article 91 it replaces the 1899 Convention as
between the contracting powers. As Greece and
Yugoslavia am ponies to the 1899 Convention and
not to the 1907, the 1899 Convention is in
effect with regard to them, and that explains
the division of countries in Appendix C.
Again
I only desire that the Tribunal should lock at
the first two articles:
"1.
With a view to obviating as far as
possible recourse to force in the
relations between states, the
contracting powers agree to use their
best efforts to insure the pacific
settlement of International differences."
Then
I don't think 1 need trouble to read 2. It is
the same article as to mediation, and again,
there are a number of machinery provisions.
The third treaty is the Hague
Convention relative to the opening of
hostilities, signed at the same time. It is
contained in the exhibit which 1 put in. Again I
ask that judicial notice be taken of it. The
British Document is TC-3. The German reference
is the Reichsgesetzblatt for 1910,
Number 2, Sections 82 to 102, and the reference
in Appendix C to Charge 3.
This
Convention applies to Germany, Poland, Norway,
Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg,
and Russia. It relates to a procedural step in
notifying one's prospective opponent before
opening hostilities against him. It appears to
have had its immediate origin in the
Russo-Japanese war, 1904, when Japan attacked
Russia without any previous warning. It will be
noted that it does not fix my particular lapse
of time between the giving of notice and the
commencement of hostilities, but it does seek to
maintain an absolutely minimum standard of
international decency before the out. break of
war.
Again, if I might refer the
Tribunal to the first article:
"The
contracting powers recognize that
hostilities between them must not
commence without a previous and explicit
warning in the form of either a
declaration of war, giving reasons, or
an ultimatum with a conditional
declaration of war."
Then
there am a number again of machinery provisions,
with which I shall not trouble the Tribunal.