Hague Tribunal, The, an international arbitration commission. In response to an invitation from the Czar of Russia, an international peace congress met at the Hague in 1899. The congress made three suggestions: First, the establishment of a tribunal for the settlement of international disputes; secondly, the enactment of certain rules and regulations for the conduct of war on land; and third, the adoption of rules forbidding the throwing of projectiles and explosives from balloons and the use of soft bullets. The proposals of the congress met with the approval of the governments of Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Persia, Roumania, Russia, Siam, and Spain. The arbitration tribunal was accordingly established. It has settled a number of important questions. The States General of the Netherlands have recently (1905) appropriated the sum of $280,000 to purchase twelve acres of ground at the Hague. Andrew Carnegie has donated $1,500,000 to provide a suitable building in which this peace tribunal may maintain permanent offices. The following statement is from the Statesman's Year Book: The Permanent Court of Arbitration was established under the act of July 29, 1899, signed (and subsequently ratified) on the part of twenty-four powers. Under Protocol of June 14, 1907, for the accession of non-signatory powers, the number of powers represented in the court has been largely increased. The purpose is to facilitate arbitration for international disputes which it has been impossible to settle by diplomacy. The court is competent for all arbitration cases unless the parties agree to constitute a special tribunal, and its jurisdiction may be extended to disputes to which one or both of the parties are non-signatory powers, if the parties so agree. When the signatory powers desire to have recourse to the Permanent Court for the settlement of a dispute, the arbitrators called upon to form the competent tribunal for the purpose must be chosen from the general list of members of the court. If the parties disagree on the composition of this tribunal, its members must be appointed in accordance with the course prescribed in the act. The court has an International Bureau under the direction and control of a Permanent Administrative Council composed of the diplomatic representatives of the Signatory Powers accredited to the Hague, and of the Netherlands minister for foreign affairs, who acts as president. The Permanent Court consists of persons of known competency in questions of international law, of whom four at the most are selected by each of the Signatory Powers; each appointment is for six years and may be renewed. The American members of the court are: Hon. Melville W. Fuller, chief justice of the United States of America (November, 1906); Hon. John W. Griggs, ex-attorney general (November, 1906); Hon. George Gray, judge of circuit court (November, 1906); Hon. Oscar S. Straus, minister of commerce and labor (January, 1908). See ARBITRATION; GROTIUS; DUM-DUM BULLET.