File No. 500.A3/122.

[Untitled]

To the Diplomatic Officers of the United States accredited to the Governments which took part in the Second International Peace Conference at The Hague.

Gentlemen: In the Department’s circular of January 31, 1914, you were instructed, with a view to facilitate the consideration and preparation of the program of the Third Hague Peace Conference, to propose to the Governments to which you are respectively accredited that the duties of the International Preparatory Committee recommended by the Second Hague Conference shall be committed to the Administrative Council or the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, and that the meeting of the Third Conference be held in the year 1915.

The proposition which you made to the Governments under this instruction has generally met with favor. It has been accepted in its entirety by the Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Guatemala, Norway, Panama, Persia, Servia, Siam, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Venezuela, while other countries have accepted it in principle but consider it impossible to hold the conference next year.

The Government of the United States after a reconsideration of all the circumstances is inclined to the view that there is serious difficulty in the way of convoking the conference at an earlier date than the middle of 1916, especially in view of the fact that some of the Governments have announced their inability to carry through the inquiries and studies necessary to allow of their formulating definite views and propositions on the various subjects to be included in the program of the conference in time for a meeting of the conference in 1915. The Government of the United States is therefore willing, while regretting the postponement of the meeting of the conference, to withdraw that part of its proposition which contemplated the holding of the conference in 1915, and it now suggests that the conference be held in June of the year 1916.

With respect to the proposition that the duties of the International Preparatory Committee shall be committed to the Administrative Council of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, it has been pointed out by some of the Governments that the Administrative Council is too large and unwieldy a body to be charged with the preparatory work of the conference, and that it is essential, in order to cope satisfactorily with the work entrusted to it, that the members of the body should not be too numerous. It has been suggested by the Government of His Britannic Majesty that this may be obviated by the full Administrative Council electing from among its members a restricted number who would form the International Committee.

To its proposition that the duties of the Preparatory Committee shall be committed to the Administrative Council the Government of the United States desires to adhere as being a method by which both time and expense may be saved. It is immaterial to this Government, however, whether those duties be undertaken by the full council [Page 11] or by a restricted number of its members, as suggested by the British Government. But as there are thirty-six powers represented at The Hague, so that the committee would be composed of thirty-six representatives and the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs, and as, in view of the technical nature of the subjects to be discussed, some Governments might desire to have their representatives assisted by technical delegates, the Government of the United States concedes that there is much merit in the British suggestion, and it is willing to amend its proposition so as to accept the suggestion.

Accordingly, the President desires you to propose to the Governments to which you are respectively accredited, as a substitute for the proposition which you made to them under the Department’s circular instruction of January 31, 1914, that the duties of the International Preparatory Committee shall be committed to a committee to be selected from among the members of the Administrative Council of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague by the members of the Council and that the date for the meeting of the Third Peace Conference at The Hague be fixed for the month of June, 1916.

I am [etc.],

W. J. Bryan
.