§ Mr. BARNESasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if any steps are being taken to give effect to the Final Act of The Hague Conference, 1907, recommending to the Powers the assembly of a third Peace Conference, which might be held within a period corresponding to that which has elapsed since the preceding Conference, at a date to be fixed by common agreement between the Powers, and calling their attention to the necessity of preparing the programme of this third Conference a sufficient time in advance to ensure its deliberations being conducted with the necessary authority and expedition, and suggesting that, some two years before the meeting, a preparatory committee should be charged by the Governments with the task of collecting the various proposals to be submitted to the Conference and the subjects ripe for embodiment in an international regulation, and of preparing a programme which the Governments should decide upon in sufficient time for its examination by the countries interested and of proposing a system of organsation and procedure for the Conference itself; if not, who is responsible for the necessary steps being taken so that the next Hague Conference should be held not later than 1915, it being now less than two years from the prospective 2244W date of the next Conference; whether such a Committee has been formed, and, if so, on whose initiative?
§ Sir E. GREYNo steps have yet been taken. The initiative has, I think, generally been left to the Netherland Government. In view of the extent to which the Great Powers have been for some time, and still are, preoccupied with urgent questions, I doubt whether any of them can move in the matter at the present moment.