The discussions at Geneva on the draft project for an
Arbitration, Security and Disarmament Protocol have been extremely obscure, at all events as reported in the Press. Last week we recorded the clearing up of the mystery about the use of the British Fleet. But that by no means disposed of other mysteries. The delegates of the League itself seem to have shared the misunder- standings of newspaper readers. What, for instance, was to be the true nature of the military obligations incurred by signatories of the Protocol ? The Scandin- avian delegates understood that no nation would be pledged to compulsory military action against an " aggres- sor," but that all would be left free to decide whether they thought an economic boycott of the offending country sufficient. There is no doubt, of course, about the com- pulsory character of economic sanctions, either in the Protocol or in the Covenant.
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