Unanimity and Sanctions One misstatement regarding the " sanctions "
article is repeated so frequently that it demands flat contra- diction. Sanctions, it is stated, can only be imposed by unanimous vote of the League Council—and since there will be no unanimous vote there will be no sanctioas. As•to the application of sanctions, economic or otherwise; before an act of war is committed there is room for argument regarding the necessity for unanimity. But, as Lord Cecil points out in his important article on another page, the position once the aggressor has struck his first blow is totally different. Article XVI is decisive on that point. " Should any Member of the League resort to war in disregard of its covenants under Article XII, XIII or XV it shall ipso facto be deemed to have committed an act of war against all other Members of the League, which hereby undertake immediately to subject it to the severance of all trade or financial relations . . . &c. When the case is so clear as an attack by Italy on Abyssinia under present conditions would be, the duty imposed on other Members of the 'League (by their own ordinance) is explicit. They may or may not be prepared to fulfil their undertaking. But there can be no question of Sheltering themselves behind a supposed need for unanimity.
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