SECTION 1

_Friendly Measures_

Of the letters which follow, the first was suggested by a
petition presented in October, 1899, to the President of the
United States, asking him to use his good offices to terminate
the war in South Africa; the second by discussions as to the
advisability of employing, for the first time, an International
Commission of Enquiry, for the purpose of ascertaining the
facts of the lamentable attack perpetrated by the Russian fleet
upon British fishing vessels off the Dogger Bank, on October
21, 1905. The Commission sat from January 19 to February 25,
1905, and its report was the means of terminating a period of
great tension in the relations of the two Powers concerned (see
_Parl. Paper_, Russia, 1905, No. 3): this letter deals also
with Arbitration, under The Hague Convention of 1899.

It may be worth while here to point out that besides direct
negotiation between the Powers concerned, four friendly methods
for the settlement of questions at issue between them are now
recognised, _viz_ (1) Good offices and mediation of third
Powers; (2) "Special mediation"; (3) "International Commissions
of Enquiry"; (4) Arbitration. All four were recommended by The
Hague Convention of 1899 "For the Peaceful Settlement of
International Disputes" (by which, indeed, (2) and (3) were
first suggested), as also by the amended re-issue of that
convention in 1907. It must be noticed that resort to any of