Suchergebnisse

On December 14, 1939, the twentieth Assembly of the League of Nations authorized the Secretary-General to convene its General Committee and empowered it to decide any question which the Secretary-General and the Supervisory Commission might submit to it until the next session of the Assembly. Since the Assembly also authorized the Secretary-General, with the approval of a majority of the Supervisory Commission, "to take any exceptional administrative or financial measures or decisions which appear necessary" until the next session of the Assembly, the purpose of providing for a meeting of the General Committee would appear to have been to enable measures or decisions other than administrative or financial to be taken if in the opinion of the Secretary-General they were necessary.

The racial policy of the present German government has created a new interest in the problem of protection of minorities. Governments hitherto apathetic in regard to the problem were aroused by the Bernheim petition to the League in the spring of 1933 complaining of the discriminatory character of legislation in violation of the German-Polish convention of 1922. They were also compelled to give attention to the renewed demand of the minorities states for a treaty binding all members of the League to respect the rights of their minorities. States like Italy and France, with large sections of their territory populated almost entirely by German-speaking people who are deeply conscious of their cultural differences with the majority of the state's population, would be expected to show considerable interest in the demand of the minorities states. Other states in whose territory reside many people differing in race, language, or religion from the majority of the population would also necessarily be concerned. The minorities régime and some of the problems created by it have been described in several publications. It is the purpose of this note to trace the movement for, and to attempt an evaluation of, the so-called generalization of the obligations which certain states, members of the League, have assumed.

The guarantee clause of the Polish Minorities Treaty, which is the model for the treaties signed by eight other states, is as follows: "Poland agrees that the stipulations in the foregoing articles, so far as they affect persons belonging to racial, religious, or linguistic minorities, constitute obligations of international concern and shall be placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations. They shall not be modified without the assent of a majority of the Council of the League of Nations. The United States, British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan agree not to withhold their assent from any modification in these articles which is in due form assented to by a majority of the Council of the League of Nations. Poland agrees that any member of the Council of the League of Nations shall have the right to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction, or danger of infraction, of any of these obligations, and the Council may thereupon take such action and give such direction as it may deem proper and effective in the circumstances. Poland further agrees that any difference of opinion as to questions of law or fact arising out of these articles between the Polish government and any one of the principal Allied and Associated Powers or any other Power, a member of the Council of the League of Nations, shall be held to be a dispute of an international character under Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Polish government hereby consents that any such dispute shall, if the other party thereto demands, be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The decisions of the Permanent Court shall be final, and shall have the same force and effect as an award under Article 13 of the Covenant."