nition upon the organization that proposed to itself the role of an auxiliary, to assist in the care of the sick and wounded in war and promote the general walfare of the American Army have been detailed. That the promoters of the movement should fail at first to fully realize their ideals in this novel and colossal undertaking is not surprising. It is well-nigh certain that the Medical Bureau, which, in 1861, gave its qualified indorsement to the proposal for a commission for inquiry and advice had little faith in a favorable outcome. But it was manifest to all in authority in Washington that the patriotic impulses of the public to assist in the cause of the Union by aiding their sons, brothers and fathers who were flocking to the colors, could not be restrained. The movement for extending aid through personal contributions of money, supplies, and services had to be reckoned with, and the legally organized military machinery for supplying the troops and caring for the men in camps and hospitals had to be adjusted to this condition, and so the public were told by the President, the Secretary of War, and the Surgeon General that its aid and assistance in safeguarding the health of the forces and in devising means for general relief, would be welcomed.

Of what may be called battlefield relief, i. e., the collecting and transportation of the wounded to the field dressing stations, establishments which with their means of field transports in European armies are called ambulances, the Sanitary Commission undertook nothing. These establishments in European and the Japanese armies, maintained by the Red Cross, are very extensive, but this is a recent development, the detachments being made up of trained officers and men and the equipment a duplicate of what the war ministry provides for the official sanitary service. The volunteer personnel is under strict discipline and all are strictly subordinated to the chief of the regular sanitary corps. Had the Civil War continued another year, there can be no doubt that the ambulance service at the front would have been composed in part of Sanitary Commission Auxiliary Relief Corps detachments and equipment.

The evacuations of the battlefields and field hospitals by means of steamers and railway trains, manned, equipped, and supplied by

the Commission became an important part of its work, and was of vast assistance. The hospital cars of 1863 and 1864, planned and constructed under the supervision of the Commission agents, were models of adaptability and convenience. Much the largest part of the Commission's finances, however, were applied in general relief of the troops in camps and hospitals, supplying food, clothing, meeting deficiencies, and assisting in many ways. Soldiers' relief stations were established on the principal lines of communication. where food and medical attention were dispensed; and wagon and railway trains and steamers, freighted with supplies, were constantly in service between the bases and the theaters of active operations.

There was no function of relief assumed by the Commission that the Red Cross has not also assumed, save hygiene. The sole deficiency in the organization and achievements of the former was in respect of ambulance service on battlefields. Until the RussoJapanese war of 1904-5 such service was not efficiently rendered on a considerable scale for troops in campaign, and will never be efficient unless its personnel and equipment are conformable as to training, discipline and pattern of equipment to the same features of the regular service and all strictly subordinated, as respects direction and control, to the Chief of the Sanitary Corps with the army in campaign.

While the Red Cross, sometimes referred to as an international organization, was the outcome of the work of the international meetings at Geneva, 1863-1864, yet the Red Cross of each country has no powers, rights, privileges, immunities, or responsibilities, that are not derived from the franchise or recognition conferred by the gov ernment of the state where it exists.

Since 1863 eight international conferences have been held in European capitals, composed of official delegates from the states and their Red Cross Central Committees. At these meetings there have been general consultations, exchange of ideas, consideration of plans for strengthening the organization, and the formulation of proposals or recommendations for organic changes or improvements. The Ninth International Conference will be held in Washington in

Before the meeting of the Geneva Congress of 1864 seven states had established national Red Cross Societies. By 1866 five others, the United States included, had done the same. By 1870 the number of national associations was twenty-one, but in some instances the action taken seems to have been premature for by the date last stated five associations had lapsed. These have since been re-established and twenty-eight of the independent nations of the world have now extended recognition to their national organizations. GEORGE W. DAVIS.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS ON OPENING THE NORTH ARBITRATION ARBITRATION AT THE

ATLANTIC FISHERIES

HAGUE, JUNE 1, 1910.

Your Excellencies, Gentlemen: Ten years have elapsed since the Permanent Court of International Arbitration has been established by the first Conference of the Peace which has met under the reign of a glorious and all beloved Queen in this charming town.

In those few years already this novel institution has done a great deal of good all over the world. It has shown that, instead of appealing to brute force with all its casualties, cruelties, and injustices, differences, important differences between mighty States may be adjusted according to the laws of equity, justice, and humanity.

Tribunals instituted in virtue of the Conventions of 1899 and 1907 have decided disputes touching all four continents, divided in various realms, differences which have arisen in the North of Europe, in Northern and in Southern America, in Japan, in Arabia, and in Morocco.

The greatest Powers of the world have submitted by their free will to this Court, and nations of minor forces have found their protection before it.

Governments which once had appealed to this High Court have intrusted it a second and a third time with the decision of their conflicts; arbitrators who had been chosen in one case, have been nominated to decide other affairs, certainly the most convincing evidence, I think, that nations have been contented with the work that has been done here.

Matters of great importance have been adjusted in these modest, provisional rooms, some of them involving the most delicate questions of sovereignty and national pride, all implicating intricate problems of international law.

But perhaps never till now has there been intrusted to an arbitral tribunal a question of such gravity and of so complex a nature as in

the present case of almost secular standing. Many of the documents in this case are prior to the independence of the United States of America, some of them go as far back as the seventeenth century. Upwards from 1818, during more than ninety years, the questions implicated in the present arbitration have been the subject of almost uninterrupted diplomatic correspondence and transaction, and more than once they have brought the two great seafaring nations of Europe and America to the verge of the extremities of war.

And now these two nations, to which the world is indebted for so much of its progress in every sphere of human thought and action, have agreed to submit their longstanding conflict to the arbitration of this Tribunal.

In doing so, they have expressed their full confidence in this peaceful mode of resolving international differences, which the first Conference of 1899 has recognized as the most efficacious and at the same time the most equitable method of deciding controversies which have not been settled by diplomatic means.

In doing so, these Governments have set an example for the whole community of nations and have acquired a new merit in the sublime cause of international justice and peace, to the progress of which they have contributed perhaps more than any other nation, especially under the peaceful reign of a great King, whose premature and sudden loss his vast Empire lamented in the last weeks, and under the presidency of that illustrious Statesman who has the historical merit of having initiated the first meeting of this Court in the "Pious Fund" case.

Having been appointed by agreement of the Parties to be the Umpire in this arbitration and being therefore called to the high honor of presiding at these debates, it is my first duty to thank Their Excellencies the President and the Members of the Administrative Council of the Permanent Court for honoring the opening of these proceedings by their presence.

Then I may be permitted to offer a most hearty welcome to my eminent Colleagues and to the honorable and distinguished Agents and Counsel of the two litigant Parties.