The Conference convened on November 18, 1889, and held the last of its thirty-three sessions on the July 2, 1890. The King of the Belgians had again welcomed the representatives of all the Powers party to the Berlin Act. Persia, having meantime adhered to that Act, was also represented. The Prince de Chimay, Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, presided at the formal opening of the Conference. At its first session Baron Lambermont was unanimously elected to preside over its deliberations. His able associate at Berlin, M. Emile Banning, also represented Belgium at this Conference, while Baron Van Eetvelde, for many years devoted to its moral and material development, represented the Congo Free State. Chief among other distinguished representatives were Count von Alvensleben for Germany, M. Bourée for France, Lord Vivian and Sir John Kirk for Great Britain, Mr. Terrell, Minister at Brussels, for the United States, and Prince Ourroussof and Professor Martens for Russia. Foremost in the work of framing a proposed Act, under which the Congo Free State inherited great responsibility and a tremendous task, were the Belgian representatives. The other interested Powers pledged themselves to join, each in its own territory, in the anti-slavery campaign which the Act prescribed. Briefly stated, the signatories to the General Act of this Conference declared that they were “animated by the firm intention of putting an end to the crimes and devastation engendered by the traffic in African slaves, of protecting effectually the aboriginal populations of Africa, and of insuring for that vast continent the benefits of peace and civilisation.” [Sidenote: The General Act.] The first article, relating to effective methods of suppressing slave-raiding in the Congo Basin, was divided into seven sections: