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gone wrong with him that he was thinking in these terms but any way, out of respect for himthey sent his message to their sovereigns and that is how the great peace conference of1899 took place at the Hague from which is descended whole line of tribunals starting withthe Permanent Court of Arbitration, then the Permanent Court of International Justice andthe International Court of Justice, it all started in 1899 as a result of Royal Tsar’s restrictsummoning the peace conference at the Hague. But people never learn, they had Napoleonicwar to teach them, they had the 30 years war to teach them but still they went back to theirold ways and there was a great plea made for the International Court of Justice to be setup which could enter the court room of justice in majesty with authority to decide casesbetween the nations big and small, but the big powers would have none of this. Theywould not agree and the proposal failed. All they were able to get was Permanent Court ofHon'ble Mr Justice C.G. WeeramantaryFormer-Vice President, InternationalCourt of Justice, the Hague at theConferenceArbitration which was a roster of Arbitrators who would be available, they were called the International Lawyers to decidedisputes if two countries decided to employ them and the Permanent Court of Arbitration was created. It has just celebratedits 100th anniversary and it did settle numerous disputes between the nations which would otherwise have gone to war.So many wars were avoided by the Permanent Court of Arbitration which started work 100 years ago. But of course, thatwas not enough; it was not a court proper and people wait to be taught their lessons the hard way, World War I had tobreak out. Millions had to be killed before people could be brought to their senses again. They assembled at Versailles todiscuss how to create a better world order; they discussed how to create an International Court of Justice. The proposalnearly failed, mind you it was the President of America, Woodrow Wilson, a visionary himself who had the idea of theLeague of Nations, he was pushing it but America was not behind him and eventually he was not able to get his way andthere was objection to the Permanent Court of International Justice. Finally a compromise formula was worked out. Wewill not give the power to summon nations but if nations agree to accept the jurisdiction of the court we will accept it. Sothat was the Permanent Court of International Justice which was created there and I will recount to you what the Belgiumdelegate said at the discussion at Versailles. The big nations and small nations all represented there, trying to workout afterthe terrible catastrophe of World War I, how can we have a peaceful world order? And this Belgium delegate said ‘Pleasebear with me delegates, I am not Demosthenes and I am not Cicero, I do not have oratorical skills but just listen to me fora moment. Preserve silence in this hall, and you will hear coming from that window the sound of wailing and mourning.What is that? That is the wailing and mourning of the wives and mothers of our best young man who died to give us a betterworld. Listen again for a moment, and from the other window you will hear another sound of wailing and mourning. Whatis that? That is the wailing and mourning of our best and brightest young men who sacrificed their lives to give us a betterworld. What are we doing here? We are betraying their memory unless we create a court which can enter in majestic formfrom the front door and dispense justice to all the nations, big and small, with an even hand. We are betraying the memoriesof those people. Please bear with me, please all of you assembled nations here as many of you as you can please subscribeto the statute of the court’; and that is how the court got its jurisdiction by the consent of parties.Well, if it had been established as a proper court it could have avoided the World War II. But as I said that people take along time to learn, World War II had to occur to bring the people to the table again. World War II occurred which, as I said,could have been prevented if there had been a proper International Court and a proper League of Nations after thesacrifice of millions upon millions of other lives. They came to the Conference table at San Francisco and there they workedout the statute of International Court of Justice and the Charter of the United Nations. But what was the problem again?The big countries—the big countries did not want the small countries to dictate to them. They did not want to surrendertheir any part of sovereignty to them. Consequently, there was this Veto power which everybody has been talking abouttoday as a compromise and people did not get to the table on terms that there would be an equal body of nations whereeverybody could speak on equal turns. So, that is what we are discussing today and we do not have to wait for World WarIII to bring us back to our senses. The only thing which can save us is the International Law; and International Law that isrespected and there should be respect for International Law that grows and grows and grows. Yesterday, I mentioned itand you will bear with me mentioning it again. International Law has to be respected even though it does not have armiesat its command and I gave you an example yesterday, I ask your forgiveness if I repeat it. There was a case between Libyaand Chad. Libya to the north and Chad to south had a dispute about their boundary. Libya said it was to the south andChad said it was to the north. Libya marched its army in occupation of the disputed territory; Chad came to the International--15--