PERMANENT COURT OF ARBITRATION.--The diplomatic representatives of the signatory powers accredited to The Hague, including the Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs as president,[N] are to constitute an administrative council. This council shall organize and establish an International Bureau of Arbitration, of which it shall retain the direction and control, pursuant to the provisions of the conference. This bureau shall serve as the office of the court, and contain the archives, and the routine business shall be conducted therein. The signatory powers will each appoint four persons, who shall be men of recognized ability in international law and of high character, and the whole number of persons so appointed shall form a list or panel of members of the court, or the international bench. In case of a difficulty arising between two or more powers which they desire to submit to arbitration, they agree to notify the bureau, and the bureau will ask them to choose a certain number of judges from the panel, and these shall constitute the special bench.[O] An agreement is then to be drawn up stating the object of the litigation and the powers of the arbitrators. This agreement implies the engagement of the parties to submit in good faith to the sentence. [N] The amendment to Lord Pauncefote’s plan, by which the Dutch Foreign Minister was made the president, is due to Mr. White, President of the American Commission. [O] In case states, between whom a dispute may arise, do not of their own accord have recourse to the tribunal, Section 27 permits the powers to remind such states that the Permanent Court is open to them, and the giving of this reminder is declared to be a duty in the superior interests of peace, and is to be regarded only as an exercise of “good offices.” To this section the United States agreed on condition that its consent should not be regarded as a departure from the well-known principles underlying the foreign policy of the Republic.