was the chief reason back of the invitation for a second Hague
Conference, which was issued by the Czar at the suggestion of President
Roosevelt. Forty-seven nations--nearly all the nations of the world---
were represented when the conference assembled on June 15, 1907.

Attempts were made to reopen the questions of disarmament and compulsory
arbitration, but without success. Germany again stood firmly against
both suggestions. The conference consequently confined its efforts
almost entirely to drawing up a code of international laws--especially
those regulating the actual conduct of war--known as "the Hague
Conventions." They contain rules about the laying of submarine mines,
the treatment of prisoners, the bombardment of towns, and the rights of
neutrals in time of war; they forbid, for example, the use of poison or
of weapons causing unnecessary suffering. Even on these questions
Germany stood out against certain changes which would have made war
still more humane. But her delegates took part in framing the Hague
Conventions; and Germany, like all the other powers later engaged in the
Great War, accepted those conventions by formal treaty, thus binding
herself to observe them.

RESULTS OF THE HAGUE CONFERENCES.--Leaders of the movement for
universal peace felt that in spite of the small success of the Hague
Conferences a definite beginning had been made. Many of them were very
hopeful that later conferences would lead to larger results and that
even Germany would swing into line. There were plans to hold a third
conference in 1914 or 1915. As we look back upon the years between 1907
and 1914, it seems hard to understand the general blindness of the world
to the certainty of the coming struggle. Armaments were piled up at a
faster rate than ever. Naval armaments also entered into the race. From
the point of view of bringing about permanent peace in the world we must