9-36 of the Convention as amended in 1907.
_Par._ 4 .-- The amended Convention, as a whole, is still, like its predecessor, purely facultative.

The Russian proposal to make resort to arbitration universally obligatory in a list of specified cases, unless when the "vital interests or national honour" of States might be involved, though negatived in 1899, was renewed in 1907, in different forms, by several Powers, which eventually concurred in supporting the Anglo-Portuguese-American proposal, according to which, differences of a juridical character, and especially those relating to the interpretation of treaties, are to be submitted to arbitration, unless they affect the vital interests, independence, or honour, of the States concerned, or the interests of third States; while all differences as to the interpretation of treaties relating to a scheduled list of topics, or as to the amount of damages payable, where liability to some extent is undisputed, are to be so submitted without any such reservation.

This proposal was accepted by thirty-two Powers, but as nine Powers opposed it, and three abstained from voting, it failed to become a convention.

The delegates to the Conference of 1907 went, however, so far as to include in their "Final Act" a statement to the effect that they were unanimous: (1) "in recognising the principle of obligatory arbitration"; (2) "in declaring that certain differences, and, in particular, such as relate to the interpretation and application of the provisions of International Conventions, are suitable for being submitted to obligatory arbitration, without any reservations." _Par._ 5 .-- The Convention between France and Great Britain, concluded on October 14, 1903, for five years, and renewed in 1908, and again in 1913, for a like period, by which the parties agree to submit to The Hague tribunal any differences which may arise between them, on condition "that they do not involve either the vital interests, or the independence, or honour of the two contracting States, and that they do not affect the interests of a third Power," has served as a model or "common form," for a very large number of conventions to the same effect, entered into between one State and another.

The Convention of April 11, 1908, between Great Britain and the United States is substantially of this type.
But see now the three letters which follow.
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Sir,--The League is unquestionably "a brave design." Sympathy with its objects and some hope that they may be realised have induced myself, as, doubtless many others, to abstain from criticising the way in which the topic has been handled by the representatives of the victorious Powers.
Recent discussions seem, however, to render such reticence no longer desirable.
It begins to be recognised that, as some of us have all along held to be the case, a serious mistake was made by the Paris delegates when they combined in one and the same document provisions needed for putting an end to an existing state of war with other provisions aiming at the creation in the future of a new supernational society.