Ambassador Hill to the Secretary of State.
Berlin, March 26, 1910.
Mr. Hill reports that the foreign office has requested him to telegraph the following to the department:
Berlin, March 25, 1910.
The undersigned has the honor to confidentially inform his excellency, Mr. David Jayne Hill, ambassador of the United States of America, in supplement to his note of the 10th instant, that the discussion in Paris between representatives of the United States, Germany, France, and Great Britain has resulted in the adoption of the two inclosed proposals of a supplementary protocol to the prize court convention and a convention for the establishment of the arbitration convention proposed at the Second Hague Peace Conference, which are to be submitted by the said representatives to their Governments for their approval.
The Imperial Government assents to these proposals and to the procedure also recommended by the representatives. According to this the United States Government, in case the four powers agree, is first to submit the supplementary protocol to the prize court convention to the Government of the Netherlands with the request that it be communicated to the other signatory powers to this agreement; this request would be [Page 614] supported by the ministers of Germany, France, and Great Britain accredited to The Hague. When the supplementary protocol shall have been signed, and upon the subsequent ratification of the convention, the good offices of the Government of the Netherlands are similarly to be requested with a view to having the proposal of an arbitration convention laid before the powers represented at the Second Hague Peace Conference. There would, however, take place previous to such action, probably in June, a further discussion between the representatives of the four powers for the purpose of reaching a definite agreement respecting article 8, which was only provisionally accepted by the representatives of the United States and Great Britain, and of making such minor textual changes as may be necessary.