(2) To open immediately the said Protocol in the terms proposed for signature by those representatives of Members of the League who are already in a position to sign it and to hold it open for signature by all other States;

(3) To request the Council forthwith to appoint a Committee to draft the amendments to the Covenant contemplated by the terms of the said Protocol;

(4) To request the Council to convene an International Conference for the Reduction of Armaments, which shall meet at Geneva as provided by the following stipulations of Article 17 of the draft Protocol:

"In preparation for the convening of the Conference, the Council shall draw up, with due regard to the undertakings contained in Articles 11 and 13 of the present Protocol, a general program for the reduction and limitation of armaments which shall be laid before the Conference and be communicated to the Governments at the earliest possible date, and at the latest three months before the Conference meets.

"If by May 1st, 1925, ratifications have not been deposited by at least a majority of the permanent Members of the Council and ten other Members of the League, the Secretary-General of the League shall immediately consult the Council as to whether he shall cancel the invitations or merely adjourn the Conference to a subsequent date to be fixed by the Council so as to permit the necessary number of ratifications to be obtained."

(5) To request the Council to put into immediate execution the provisions of Article 12 of the draft Protocol.

Resolution No. 2

The Assembly,

Having taken cognizance of the report of the First Committee upon the terms of Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice;

Considering that the study of the said terms shows them to be sufficiently wide to permit States to adhere to the special Protocol, opened for signature in virtue of Article 36, paragraph 2, with the reservations which they regard as indispensable;

Convinced that it is in the interest of the progress of international justice, and consistent with the expectations of the opinion of the world, that the greatest possible number of States should, to the widest possible extent, accept as compulsory the jurisdiction of the Court:

Recommends:

States to accede at the earliest possible date to the special Protocol

opened for signature in virtue of Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice.

A vote was taken by roll-call.

The following 48 States voted in favor of the resolutions:

Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, British Empire, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Esthonia, Finland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Free State of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Persia, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Salvador, Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Siam, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

No State voted in the negative and no State which was present abstained from voting.

The following States were absent: Abyssinia, Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Haiti, Honduras, Peru.

The PRESIDENT announced that the resolutions had been unanimously passed by the vote of 48 delegations present, no State having abstained from voting.

Resolutions Concerning the Conference on the Reduction of Armaments

I. The Assembly recommends the Council to place the question of Regional Agreements for the Reduction of Armaments on the agenda of the International Conference for the Reduction of Armaments.

II. Whereas the majority of the States which have replied have stated that, with certain exceptions, they have not exceeded the expenditure on armaments shown in their last budgets, and whereas the recommendation addressed to the Governments relates to the period which must elapse before the meeting of the International Conference for the Reduction of Armaments, which is to take place next year:

The Assembly does not consider it necessary to repeat the recommendation regarding the limitation of expenditure on armaments, as this question is to be placed upon the agenda of the International Conference for the Reduction of Armaments.

III. The Assembly is of the opinion:

1. That another technical conference on naval disarmament is unnecessary;

2. That the question of naval disarmament should be discussed as part of the general question of disarmament dealt with by the International Conference proposed in the Resolution of September 6th, 1924, adopted by the Fifth Assembly, and that it rests with the Council to settle the program.

IV. The Assembly requests the Council, in preparing the general program of the Conference for the Reduction of Armaments provided for in Article 17 of the Protocol, to consider the advisability of including in that program the following points:

1. General plan for a reduction of armaments in accordance with Article 8 of the Covenant, in particular:

(a) Basis and methods of reduction (budget, peacetime effectives, tonnage and naval and air fleets, population, configuration of frontiers, etc.);

(b) Preparation of a typical budget for expenditure on armaments. 2. Special position of certain States in relation to the reduction of armaments:

(a) Temporary reservations by countries exposed to special risks;

(b) Recommendation of regional agreements for the reduction (or limitation) of armaments.

3. Recommendation of the establishment of demilitarized zones (Article 9).

4. Control and investigation of armaments in the contracting States.

The Assembly also requests the Council to instruct the competent organizations of the League to examine the schemes relating to the above questions which have already been submitted to the Third Committee, or which may subsequently be received by the Secretariat, and to take them into consideration in preparing the program of the Conference. The resolution was adopted.

II

ARBITRATION, SECURITY AND REDUCTION

OF ARMAMENTS

GENERAL REPORT

Submitted to the Fifth Assembly on behalf of the First and Third Committees by M. Politis (Greece), Rapporteur for the First Committee and M. Bénes (Czechoslovakia), Rapporteur for

the Third Committee1

I

INTRODUCTION

After being examined for several years by the Third Committee, the problem of the reduction of armaments has this year suddenly assumed a different, a wider and even an unexpected form.

Last year a draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance was prepared, which the Assembly sent to the Members of the League for their consideration. The replies from the Governments were to be examined by the Fifth Assembly.

At the very beginning of its work, however, after a memorable debate, the Assembly indicated to the Third Committee a new path. On September 6th, 1924, on the proposal of the Prime Ministers of France and Great Britain, M. Edouard Herriot and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, the Assembly adopted the following resolution:

"The Assembly,

"Noting the declarations of the Governments represented, observes with satisfaction that they contain the basis of an understanding tending to establish a secure peace,

"Decides as follows:

"With a view to reconciling in the new proposals the divergences between certain points of view which have been expressed and, when agreement has been reached, to enable an international conference upon armaments to be summoned by the League of Nations at the earliest possible moment:

"(1) The Third Committee is requested to consider the material dealing with security and the reduction of armaments, particularly

'League of Nations, A.135.1924.

the observations of the Governments on the draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance, prepared in pursuance of Resolution XIV of the Third Assembly and other plans prepared and presented to the SecretaryGeneral since the publication of the draft Treaty, and to examine the obligations contained in the Covenant of the League in relation to the guarantees of security which a resort to arbitration and a reduction of armaments may require.

"(2) The First Committee is requested:

"(a) To consider, in view of possible amendments, the articles in the Covenant relating to the settlement of disputes;

"(b) To examine within what limits the terms of Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Statute establishing the Permanent Court of International Justice might be rendered more precise and thereby facilitate the more general acceptance of the clause;

and thus strengthen the solidarity and the security of the nations of the world by settling by pacific means all disputes which may arise between States."

This resolution had two merits, first, that of briefly summarizing all the investigations made in the last four years by the different organizations of the League in their efforts to establish peace and bring about the reduction of armaments, and, secondly, that of indicating the program of work of the Committee in the hope that, with the aid of past experience, they would at last attain the end in view.

The Assembly had assigned to each Committee a distinct and separate task; to the First Committee, the examination of the pacific settlement of disputes by methods capable of being applied in every case; to the Third Committee, the question of the security of nations considered as a necessary preliminary condition for the reduction of their armaments.

Each Committee, after a general discussion which served to detach the essential elements from the rest of the problem, referred the examination of its program to a Sub-Committee, which devoted a large number of meetings to this purpose.

The proposals of the Sub-Committees then led to very full debates by the Committees, which terminated in the texts analyzed below.

As, however, the questions submitted respectively to the two Committees form part of an indivisible whole, contact and collaboration had to be established between the Committees by means of a Mixed Committee of nine members and finally by a joint Drafting Committee of four members.

For the same reason, the work of the Committees has resulted in a single draft protocol accompanied by two draft resolutions for which the Committees are jointly responsible.