Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life (Vol. 2 of 2)Suttner, Bertha von
History
Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life (Vol. 2 of 2)
Suttner, Bertha von
Peace; Suttner, Bertha von, 1843-1914; Women -- Austria -- Biography
President Ullman makes a report on the Nobel foundation. The first
distribution is to take place on the tenth of December, 1901. The
interest accruing up to that time is to be employed as a capital fund
for the creation of a Nobel Institute in Christiania, that is, a central
school for the study and development of international law. From the
annual income of the bequest (200,000 Swedish kroner) 50,000 kroner are
to be reserved for the support of the Institute.
For the first time the United States of America is represented at an
Interparliamentary Conference. Mr. Barrows reports that in his country
there are many people who have never seen an officer and many officers
who have never seen their regiment assembled. He believes that he is
warranted—especially in view of the instructions and proposals intrusted
to the delegates to the Hague Conference—in declaring that the jingo
spirit, which was aroused by the last war with Spain, and which is in
such absolute opposition to the fundamental principles of the land of
the star-spangled banner, will never get the upper hand.
So this was the first time that an American representative appeared in
the arena of the Interparliamentary Union; but of late the New World is
taking the first place in the universal peace movement. From that
direction will come for the Old World the impulse, the example,—perhaps
the necessity,—for the creation of United Europe.
Mr. Barrows was followed by Count Albert Apponyi. He informed the
meeting that Koloman von Szell, the former leader of the Hungarian
Interparliamentary group, had now become prime minister. Fiery, eloquent
as always, flowed Apponyi’s speech, and when he had finished, Björnson
went up to him and pressed his hand.
In the evening a garden party at Minister of State Steen’s. Here I met
Ibsen. Long ago I had written him to get his views in regard to the
peace cause. He then replied that his life was wholly devoted to the
dramatic art and he had no views at all on the question at issue. I now
wanted to ask if his presence was a sign of an awakened interest in the
movement, but some one came between us and I had no other chance to
resume the interrupted conversation.
The next afternoon we made the acquaintance of all the members of the
French group present. M. Catusse, the recently accredited ambassador of
France at Stockholm, whom we had met before both at Nice and at The
Hague, had invited all his French colleagues to take tea with him, and
my husband and I were also asked. We found more than a dozen members of
the Chamber and the Senate, among them the former premier, Cochery.
We spoke of Léon Bourgeois. He had left The Hague for Paris on account
of the last cabinet crisis, and there he had informed several of the
gentlemen that he should be unwilling to undertake the formation of a
new cabinet, because he considered the work that he had to complete at
The Hague more important.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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