Famous Conferences.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 43, 5 June 1917, Page 2

Famous Conferences.

WHERE HISTORIC TREATIES

WERE SIGNED,

The French capital has been the scene of a number of historic international meetings. There the agreement which brought the Seven Years War to a close was signed in 1763 a war in which the English and the French were the chief combatants, and during which we acquired Canada, and by Clive’s victory at Plassey established our position in India. Twelve years later we signed a further treaty in Paris whereby we acknowledged the independence of the United States. Paris was also the scene of the treaty which, in 1856, marked the conclusion of the mean War.

The last time the Powers met to settle amicably a division of territory was at the conference of Algeciras, a' little town in Spain on the Bay of Gibraltar, in February, 1906. Germany bad resented- France’s proposals in regard to her scheme for the “peaceful penetration” of- Morocco, but at the conference in question matters were amicably arranged, France being left a fairly free hand. Recently there was a historic scene when at St. James’s Palace representatives of the Turkish Empire and the Balkan League, which included Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro, signed a treaty of peace which ended the thirty-two weeks’ war between Turkey and the Allied States. The signing of this treaty was entirely due to the firm action of Sir Edward Grey. Serbia and Greece were inclined to haggle about details, but Sir Edward politely but firmly intimated that those delegates who declined to sign had no further business in London ; and it was thus that by a stroke of the pen the Empire of Turkey in Europe was signed away. It was at Frankfort, in 1871, that the treaty which ended the FrancoGerman War was signed, giving Germany Alsace and Lorraine and £200,000,000. Seven years later the RussoTurkish War ended with the treaty of San Stefano, which gave Russia an immense amount of territory. The subsequent treaty of Berlin, in which other Powers had a deciding voice, gave Rassia money instead of land. This Berlin Peace Conference of 1878 was attended by Lord Beaconsfleld, and it was on his return that he used the phrase “peace with honour.’’ A remarkable war palaver was the meeting of Napoleon I. and Emperor Alexander of Russia on June 25th, 1807, in a pavilion erected on a raft moored in the middle of a stream at Tilsit, a town in Bast Prussia, situated on the banks of the Memel. It was this conference which ended the war between France on the one hand and Prussia and Russia on the other, France taking half Prussia’s territory. Our first war with China was ended by the treaty of Nanking in 1842, by which we got a few million pounds with the island of Hong-Kong and liberty to trade in five Chinese ports, while in 1895 the war of China with Japan was brought to a close by the treaty which gave Japan £32,000,000 and possession of Formosa and the Pescadores. —‘ ‘ Tit-Bits. ’ ’