The League of Nations

Present Day Ideas on Security

[M. Nicolas Politis, the Greek Minister in Paris, is one of the most .distinguished international jurists at Geneva, and. has taken a leading part in all discussions on Security and Arbitration. He was Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs from 191/ to 1920 and again in 1922. His book, La Justice Internationale, is perhaps the best popular discussion of Arbitration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.--En, Spectator.] PEACE depends essentially upon the solution of the problem of security. As long as the nations feel- insecure, they will not disarm—in either a moral or a military sense, for while con- tinuing to harbour suspicion, they will naturally hesitate to enter into that spirit of frank co-operation without which they cannot prosper.

Since its inception, the League of Nations has worked unceasingly—with slow but sure success—for the promotion and strengthening of security. Its activities have revealed the close interrelation between security and disarmament and between arbitration and security. They have also shown that in order to establish a security which would permit a reduction of armaments it is absolutely necessary that the employment of force should be excluded, and that arbitration should be resorted to in the sure and certain hope of a final and authori- tative decision.

The need for executing this programme is clear, but on the question of the means to achieve it there have been certain. divergences of opinion, which are tending, however, to dis- appear. In 1924 there arose the possibility of its complete and immediate realization 'by the Geneva Protocol. But this fine project met with great difficulties, which have served to illustrate the situation in a more objective manner. It has

been- 'recognized,- for instance, that a' reform so far-reaching

cannot be brought about by 'a stroke of the pen. It must be carried out by 'progressive - steps and developed from small

beginnings. Locarno showed the way in applying, the prin- ciples of the Geneva- Protocol to• Western Europe. It was hoped that the example w'ould' be rftillo'ived elsewhere, but the made by-the Ltakde 'of Nations there.snent did not meet with a full measure of success, so that progrest in disarmament was but dilatory. In order to overcome this difficulty the Assembly in 1927 confided to a special committee the task of considering practical measures to increase the guarantees of security in different parts of the world.

On March 7th the Committee terminated the first part of the plan, which three of its members had been deputed to prepare in co-operation with its President, Monsieur Benes.

It set itself to show the degree of security already assured by the Covenant, and the immediate advantages of the treaties of arbitration and the security pacts. As regards arbitration, the Committee elaborated three draft agreements, sufficiently elastic to be adapted to all situations which might arise, and to meet the needs of all States. The first applies arbitration to all the contracting parties ; the second limits the latter to legal measures ; and the third is restricted to codifying the generally admitted rules in the procedure of conciliation.

Three other model security treaties were drafted : a bi- lateral treaty and a collective treaty concerning non-aggression and peaceful settlement ; also a collective treaty of non- aggression, peaceful settlement, and of mutual assistance. This last was inspired by Locamo. As in that pact, so in the model treaty, assistance is only given in case one of the con- tracting parties suffers an act of aggression from another signatory, thus conforming, I believe, alike with the spirit of the Covenant and with practical requirements, for the pro- vision of assistance against a third party would be a return to the old system of alliances and would be accepted with difficulty by certain States. '

To achieve this highly desirable result it was considered necessary to attefnpt to define precisely the conditions in which the Council of the League of Nations may apply . its good offices in the case of agreements concluded in the spirit just indicated. The role of the League Council will' be very delicate, It is, however, necessary, because the conclusion of these agreements will often necessitate considerable political preparation and moral co-operation between the States concerned.

The spirit of Locarno informs the whole of the model treaty. The Committee has made a point of drafting its model with the greatest elasticity in order that it might be easily accepted. That is why it' confhins no provision to guarantee States outside those contracting, nor to define " flagrant aggression," nor for a system of demilitarized zones, nor in fact any terri- torial guarantees whatsoever. This last point is characteristic of the intentions of the Committee. It seemed more practical not to exact the formal recognition and guarantee of the frontiers of the contracting States. Concluded under the auspices of the League of Nations, and on the basis of the Covenant, the treaties concerned will carry out in effect the guarantee of Article 10, confirmed and reinforced by the special engagement of non-aggression, and at the same time will conform with Article 19. A new guarantee would go beyond the Covenant. If only for that very reason, it would be difficult to obtain a wide acceptance of such a new guarantee.

These Treaty models do not yet create new guarantees of security, for they are but models roughed-out for the work of future craftsmen, but they do prepare the way for peace. If, after their definite adoption by the Committee, they receive the successive approval of the Council and the Assembly of the League of Nations, they will be invested with such high moral authority that they should command the overwhelming support of world-opinion.

Various factors support this hope. The experience of the past shows us that when such a scheme is carefully prepared and weightily recommended, it is not long before the news is. bruited. The Great. Powers—particularly Great Britain—are very favourable to the conclusion of such treaties, and in many quarters men's- minds will be found ready for it. An example is-furnished in the :conclusion at Geneva, only last month, between Greece and Rumania, of an agreement based upon one of the models elaborated by the Committee of Arbitration and Security. This Covenant of non-aggression. and .arbitra. tion is regarded in several countries as the forerunner of a general Balkan agreement.

Impetus once given in one quarter will produce its effect successively in others where the need for security is most urgent. . Little by little, Europe will organize herself, to her own immense advantage, for in the international comity as in all other social communities peace is the price of survival. Nations will no longer need to seek security in their own force when they shall find it in the laws and in the tribunals of the new order. This is an elementary truth which, thanks to the League of Nations, is fast gaining ground and acquiring credit.

A highly interesting development of the work of the League of Nations is suggested by the proposal, which its Economic Consultative Committee is to lay before the League Council next month, that a comprehensive inquiry into the problems of the coal industry should be undertaken forth- with. This is one more indication that the interdependence of stable industries in different countries is fully realized at Geneva, and that preparations are being made to set in motion international- action where international- action may seem called for. So far, the matter is simply in the stage of inves- tigation and inquiry, but the League, in the economic sphere at any rate, never moves without these essential preliminaries, and the fact that it is already considering the operation of international cartels perhaps points to the direction its inquiry into the coal industry will take. The International Labour Office has already had the coal question in hand and will no doubt be able to provide the League investigators with a good deal of valuable material. It is quite obvious that after the double disorganization of world markets, due first of all to the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, and secondly to the British coal strike in 1925-6, 'the construction of some practical machinery to avoid the cut-throat competition which is ruining the British coal industry to-day would be of value.

N. POLITIS.