XII.--Establishment of an international prize court; XIII.--Rights and duties of neutral states in maritime war. In addition to the adoption of these thirteen articles, which were designed to keep peace or to make war less terrible, if it came, the conference established a permanent court of arbitration which has had its place at The Hague, and which is known as The Hague Tribunal. This court is really a number of judges from whom some are selected to try cases of international dispute. It is noteworthy that the first case laid before The Hague Tribunal for settlement was the Pius Fund matter between the United States and Mexico. The government of the United States took the dispute to The Hague, the first time in history when a great nation had appealed to an international court for settlement of a claim against a small nation. Since The Hague Conference the United States has concluded about thirty peace treaties with as many nations. They are all modelled on one general idea which is expressed in the opening article of each in this way: “The high contracting parties agree that all disputes between them, of every nature whatsoever, shall, when diplomatic methods of adjustment have failed, be referred for investigation and report to a permanent international commission to be constituted” (by the contracting parties) “... and agree not to declare war nor to begin hostilities during such investigation and before the report be submitted.” Thirty-five nations had accepted this plan “in principle” before Germany flung war upon the world, and thirty treaties had been signed. France, Russia, Great Britain, and Italy had signed the treaties. Germany professed approval of the plan, but avoided all definite arrangements, her attitude apparently growing out of her dislike of arbitration. This opposition to arbitration on Germany’s part was due to the fact that for many years she was actually preparing for war, and believed that her best chance of winning it was in the unpreparedness of the nations against which she intended to wage it. The utterances of her statesmen, philosophers, and editors revealed the German official attitude of mind. There can be no doubt but that Germany desired to keep the world lulled in a false security until she had made ready to strike the blow against world peace. Nothing else explains her refusal to bind herself with the terms that other nations accepted in the hope that wars were becoming things of the past. Just before the United States was forced into the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Germany the President of the country went before the Senate to set forth the principles which should govern our nation in the making of any peace with which we would associate ourselves. The principles which he set forth were: I.--An equality of rights between nations, to be based on justice and not on the old principle of balance of power;