3

A.—s

For "Japan :— Baron Tomosaburo Kato, Minister of the Navy. Baron Kijuro Shidihara, Japanese Ambassador to the United States. Prince lyesato Tokugawa, President of the House of Peers. Mr. Masanao Hanihara, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs. For Belgium : — Baron de Cartier, Belgian Ambassador to the United States. For the Netherlands : — Jonkheer U. A. van Karnebeek, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Jonkheer F. Beelaerts van Blokland, Chief of the Political Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. E. Moresco, Vice-President of the Council of the Netherlands East Indies. Dr. J. C. A. Everwijn, Netherlands Minister to the United States. Jonkheer W. H. de Beaufort. For Portugal : — Viscount d'Alte, Portuguese Minister to the United States. Captain E. de Vasconcellos. For China :— Mr. Sao-Ke Alfred Sze, Chinese Minister to the United States. Mr. V. K. Wellington Koo, Chinese Minister to the Court of St. James. Mr. Chung-Hui Wang, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of China. The presence of those nine Powers and of no others is explained by the purpose of the Conference. This purpose was twofold. Primarily the Conference was summoned and held with the object of devising a scheme for the limitation of naval armaments. In this branch of the work of the Conference only the five great Powers took part —namely, the British 'Empire, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. The Committee charged with the negotiation and preparation of the Naval Treaty consisted of the plenipotentiary delegates of those Powers alone. The Conference, however, was also held for a secondary, though related, purpose — namely, that of settling by international agreement certain problems, disputes, and difficulties relating to the Pacific and the Far East, and so facilitating the proposal for the limitation of naval armaments by the great Powers. For the purpose of this branch of the work of the Conference the other Powers which possessed territorial interests in the Pacific —namely, China, Belgium, Holland, and Portugal—were invited to send representatives. The Committee which dealt with these Pacific and Far Eastern questions consisted accordingly of representatives of the whole nine Powers. The Conference continued for nearly three months —that is to say, from the 12th November, 192.1, to the 6th February, 1922. Important agreements were come to on most of the questions which were discussed. These agreements were embodied partly in a series of formal treaties and partly in a series of resolutions relative to matters in respect of which formal treaties were not required. In addition to the work so done by the Conference itself, the occasion was made use of for the purpose of collateral negotiations on related matters between certain of the Powers there represented, and those negotiations resulted in certain additional treaties supplementing the actual work of the Conference itself. The most notable of those supplementary agreements are the Pacific Treaty between the British Empire, the United States, Japan, and France, and the Shantung Treaty between Japan and China. The following is a list of the most important of the treaties and other international instruments which have resulted from the Washington Conference:— (1.) The Naval Treaty, between the five great Powers, for the limitation of naval armaments. (2.) A treaty between the five great Powers relative to the use of submarines and poison, gas. (3.) The Pacific Treaty, between the British Empire, the United States of America, Japan, and France. (4.) A treaty between the nine Powers for the preservation of the independence and territorial and administrative integrity of China. » (5.) A treaty between the nine Powers relative to the Customs tariff in China.