The Russian Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Washington, D. C., March 22 / April 4, 1907.
The undersigned, ambassador of Russia, by order of his Government, has the honor to make the following communication to his excellency the Secretary of State of the United States:
[Page 1108]Before the Second Peace Conference is called, the Imperial Government deems it an obligation to submit to the powers which have accepted its invitation a statement of the present situation.
All the powers to which the Imperial Government communicated in April, 1906, its tentative programme of the labors of the new conference have declared their adhesion thereto.
However the following remarks have been made with respect to that programme:
The Government of the United States has reserved to itself the liberty of submitting to the Second Conference two additional questions, viz, the reduction or limitation of armaments and the attainment of an agreement to observe some limitations upon the use of force for the collection of ordinary public debts arising out of contracts.
The Spanish Government has expressed a desire to discuss the limitation of armaments, reserving to itself the right to deal with this question at the next meeting at The Hague.
The British Government has given notice that it attaches great importance to having the question of expenditures for armament discussed at the conference, and has reserved to itself the right of raising it. It has also reserved to itself the right of taking no part in the discussion of any question mentioned in the Russian programme which would appear to it unlikely to produce any useful result.
Japan is of opinion that certain questions that are not especially enumerated in the programme might be conveniently included among the subjects for consideration, and reserves to itself the right to take no part in or withdraw from any discussion taking or tending to take a trend which, in its judgment, would not be conducive to any useful result.
The Governments of Bolivia, Denmark, Greece, and the Netherlands have also reserved to themselves, in a general way, the right to submit to the consideration of the conference other subjects similar to those that are explicitly mentioned in the Russian programme.
The Imperian Government deems it its duty to declare, for its part, that it maintains its programme of the month of April, 1906, as the basis for the deliberations of the conference, and that if the conference should broach a discussion that would appear to it unlikely to end in any practical issue it reserves to itself, in its turn, the right to take no part in such a discussion.
Remarks similar to this last have been made by the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments, which have likewise reserved to themselves the right to take no part in the discussion by the conference of any question which would appear unlikely to end in any practical issue.
In bringing these reservations to the knowledge of the powers and with the hope that the labors of the Second Peace Conference will create new guaranties for the good understanding of the nations of the civilized world, the Imperial Government has addressed to the Government of the Netherlands a request that it may be pleased to call the conference for the first days of June.
The undersigned embraces this opportunity to renew, etc.