Welcome!
First of, the Government of the Netherlands is pleased to see so many nation pledging to sending delegates.
And we welcomes the delegations from The Baltic confederation, The Confederated States of America, The Deutcher Kaiserreich Brandenburg, The Republic of France, The Republic of Gran Colombia, The Empire of Austria, The Empire of Iberia, The Kingdom of Italy, The Empire of Japan, The Middle Kingdom, The Kingdom of the united Netherlands, The Ottoman Empire, The Kingdom of Rohan, The Empire of Russia, The Republic of New Switzerland and The United Norman Kingdom to Den Haag. Also pleased to see observers from the Ornje republic.


Formalia: I will post each convention in a thread of its own, starting with the two concerning the laws of the seas (The rest will be posted when i have time).
This thread (or any other people fell like) can be used for public "coffee-table"-talk. The threads for the conventions will be strictly business, as they are for "negotiating-table"-talk, observer may not speak at that table.

Vice-foreign minister  of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and first chairman of the conference, Hendrik Colijn: Gentlemen, it is with pleasure we have seen the progress done on the laws of the sea. The existence of these conventions will go a long way to improve the conditions for ships of all countries travelling the seas.
However, while the conventions on the law of the sea has been the centre of the conference, they are not the only conventions to discuss, so we (the organizers) will start to distribute drafts for the remaining conventions. (The historic Hague 1907, III-XI, http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/hague.html)
We feel some of the issues discussed there it allot more controversial the very formal laws of the seas.