The High Contracting Parties undertake, in accordance with the provisions of Article 8, para. 4, of the Covenant, to make no further increase in their armaments, when thus reduced, without the consent of the Council. ARTICLE XII The High Contracting Parties undertake to furnish to the military or other delegates of the League such information with regard to their armaments as the Council may request. ARTICLE XIII The High Contracting Parties agree that the armaments determined for each of them, in accordance with the present Treaty, shall be subject to revision every five years, beginning from the date of the entry into force of this Treaty. VII. PROTOCOL. ARTICLE XIV MAINTENANCE OF EXISTING TREATIES Nothing in the present Treaty shall affect the rights and obligations resulting from the provisions of the Covenant of the League of Nations or of the Treaties of Peace signed in 1919 and 1920 at Versailles, Neuilly, St. Germain and Trianon, or from the provisions of treaties or agreements registered with the League of Nations and published by it at the date of the first coming into force of the present Treaty as regards the signatory or beneficiary Powers of the said Treaties or agreements. ARTICLE XV COMPULSORY JURISDICTION OF THE COURT The High Contracting Parties recognize from to-day as ipso facto obligatory, the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice with regard to the interpretation of the present Treaty. ARTICLE XVI The present Treaty shall remain open for the signature of all States Members of the League of Nations or mentioned in the Annex to the Covenant. States not Members shall be entitled to adhere with the consent of two-thirds of the High Contracting Parties with regard to whom the Treaty has come into force: ARTICLE XVII PARTIAL ADHESION Any State may, with the consent of the Council of the League, notify its conditional or partial adherence to the provisions of this Treaty, provided always that such State has reduced or is prepared to reduce its armaments in conformity with the provisions of this Treaty. ARTICLE XVIII RATIFICATION [The present Treaty shall be ratified and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited as soon as possible at the Secretariat of the League of Nations. It shall come into force: In Europe when it shall have been ratified by five States, of which three shall be permanently represented on the Council; In Asia when it shall have been ratified by two States, one of which shall be permanently represented on the Council; In North America when ratified by the United States of America; In Central America and the West Indies when ratified by one State in the West Indies and two in Central America: In South America when ratified by four States; In Africa and Oceania when ratified by two States. subsequently ratify the Treaty, it will come into force at the date of the deposit of the instrument. The Secretariat will immediately communicate a certified copy of the instruments of ratification received to all the signatory Powers. It remains understood that the rights stipulated under Articles 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 of this Treaty will not come into force for each High Contracting Party until the Council has certified that the said High Contracting Party has reduced its armaments in conformity with the present Treaty or has adopted the necessary measures to ensure the execution of this reduction, within two years of the acceptance by the said High Contracting Party of the plan of reduction or limitation of armaments.] ARTICLE XIX DENUNCIATION [The present Treaty shall remain in force for a period of fifteen years from the date of its first entry into force. After this period, it will be prolonged automatically for the States which have not denounced it. If, however, one of the States referred to in Article 18 denounces the present Treaty, the Treaty shall cease to exist as from the date on which this denunciation takes effect. This denunciation shall be made to the Secretariat of the League of Nations, which shall, without delay, notify all the Powers bound by the present Treaty. The denunciation shall take effect twelve months after the date on which notification has been communicated to the Secretariat of the League of Nations. When the period of fifteen years, referred to in the first paragraph of the present Article, has elapsed, or when one of the denunciations made in the conditions determined above takes place, if operations undertaken in application of Article 5 of the present Treaty are in progress, the Treaty shall remain in force until peace has been completely re-established.] THE COMMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES UPON THE DRAFT TREATY OF MUTUAL ASSISTANCE "The Secretary of State of the United States of America has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a communication of the Secretary General of the League of Nations, submitting by direction of the Council of the League of Nations, the draft treaty of mutual assistance, proposed by the Third Committee to the Fourth Assembly, and requesting the expression of the views of the Government of the United States. "In reply it may be said that the Government of the United States is most desirous that appropriate agreements should be reached to limit armament and thus to reduce the heavy burdens of expenditure caused by unnecessary and competitive outlays in providing facilities and munitions of war. The desire and purpose of this Government were fully manifested when the great military and naval powers were invited by the President of the United States to meet in conference in Washington in 1921 for the purpose of considering the limitation of armaments. "While that conference resulted in the conclusion of an important naval treaty between the United States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan, for the limitation of capital fighting ships, it was found to be impossible to obtain an agreement for the limitation of the tonnage of auxiliary naval craft, or to make any progress in the direction of limitation of land forces. The Government of the United States, having reduced its own armament, continues to cherish the hope that the desired result in the case of other Powers may be achieved and it notes with keen and sympathetic interest every endeavor to that end. In this spirit the draft treaty submitted has been carefully considered. "It appears from the preamble of the treaty that it has been formulated with the desire of establishing the general lines of a scheme of mutual assistance with a view to facilitate the application of Articles X and XVI of the Covenant of the League of Nations, and of a reduction or limitation of national armaments in accordance with Article VIII of the Covenant to the lowest point consistent with national safety and enforcement by common action of international obligations." (The letter goes on to quote textually from the Draft Treaty Articles 2, 3, 4, and 5. The reply then continues.) "Without attempting an analysis of the provisions of the treaty, it is quite apparent that its fundamental principle is to provide guarantees of mutual assistance and to establish the competency of the Council of the League of Nations with respect to the decisions contemplated and, in view of the constitutional organization of this Government and of the fact that the United States is not a member of the League of Nations this Government would find it impossible to give its adherence. "The Government of the United States has not failed to note that under Article XVII of the draft treaty 'any State may, with the consent of the Council of the League, notify its conditional or partial adherence to the provisions of this treaty, provided always that such State has reduced or is prepared to reduce its armament in conformity with the provisions of this treaty', but it would not serve a useful purpose to consider the question of a conditional or partial adherence on the part of the Government of the United States when the conditions imposed would of necessity be of such a character as to deprive adherents of any substantial effect." |