You will doubtless observe that the invitation to this congress, issued by
Russia, is addressed to the different European cabinets; and that if the
inclosed is the only invitation addressed to the United States, it comes in
a very indirect manner.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Count de Houdetot
to Mr. Washburne.
Mr. Minister: I have the honor to inform your
excellency that it appears from a letter addressed by his highness
Prince Gortchacow to his excellency Prince Orloff, and dated Saint
Petersburg, April 6, [18,] 1874, that His Majesty the Emperor of all the
Russias has deigned favorably to receive the suggestions presented by
the society for the amelioration of the condition of prisoners of war
with the greater satisfaction, inasmuch as they harmonize with a humane
thought which has long been entertained by His Imperial Majesty, and as,
at the very time when this project reached the imperial [Page 411] cabinet, His Majesty bad already given
orders for the examination of a similar project, conceived in the same
spirit, but on a more general plan.
The examination of this project haying been concluded, and the imperial
cabinet having just proposed to all the European cabinets to send
delegates to a convention which is to meet at Brussels on the 15th
[27th] of July, 1874, said delegates to be invested with full powers to
discuss the principles and elaborate the details of an international
agreement, embracing all the matters inherent to a state of war, the
preparatory conference, which was to meet at Paris on the 18th instant,
is rendered unnecessary, since its principal purpose was to induce some
government to take the initiative, which has now been taken by the
imperial cabinet of Russia. The project emanating from the imperial
cabinet, and that which I have had the honor to communicate to your
excellency in the name of the society whose president I am, will be laid
before the conference at Brussels simultaneously for examination, and
will serve as the basis of a general arrangement, which, if unanimously
adopted by all civilized nations, would result in diminishing, as far as
this is possible, the calamities of international conflicts, by
precisely defining the rights of governments and armies in time of
war.
As the result of an interview which I have had the honor to have with
Prince Gortchacow at Stuttgart, the society for the amelioration of the
condition of prisoners of war has been authorized by the imperial
cabinet to beg your excellency to be pleased to inform your Government
that, if it shall see fit to take part in the Brussels conference, and
will notify the imperial cabinet to that effect, its delegates will be
most gladly received there.
I have the honor to beg you, Mr. Minister, to be pleased to communicate
the contents of this letter to your Government, and I avail myself of
this occasion to thank your excellency for the favor which you have been
pleased to show us.
I have the honor to be, Mr. Minister, with respect, your excellency’s
very humble and very obedient servant,
Count de HOUDETOT,
President of the executive committee, for the
society and by authority.