p. 24 | Dedication of the Peace Palace

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 4, 1913

Dedication of the Peace Palace

The Peace Palace at The Hague was dedicated on the afternoon of August 28. The ceremony of handing the edifice over to the Dutch foreign minister was carried out in the great court in the presence of Queen Wilhelmina, Dowager Queen Emma, and Prince Consort Henry. These were surrounded by a distinguished gathering of diplomats, representatives of peace societies, and persons prominent in art and science. The custody of the building is vested in the diplomatic corps under the presidency of the foreign minister. In accepting the custody of the edifice, the foreign minister let it be known that he did not expect the immediate inauguration of the reign of peace, but said: "Diplomacy can greet the 'inauguration of this temple with head held high and a heart full of hope.'" If diplomacy can do this, in the face of the increasing spirit of war and the tremendous increase in the preparations for war, it must be shutting its eyes to the things that are, and looking only upon the things it dreams of. The most unexplainable phenomenon of this age is the world's optimism concerning peace when all signs indicate that the world is drifting rapidly toward the vortex of a universal war, the Armageddon of the Scriptures.