Letters to the Editor
THE SANCTITY OF TREATIES [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] have read with great interest the letters of Sir Robert Gower, M.P., and Mr. Hopkin Morris, M.P., which have appeared in the Spectator. I am in accord with them in thinking that the resolution passed by the Council of the League of Nations on the matter of the application of Hungary under Clause 239 of the Treaty of Trianon cannot be regarded as a final decision. It is impossible to conceive that the Council would deliberately refuse to carry out a duty so clearly defined by the Treaty. Should it decline, an almost irreparable blow would be struck not only at the sanctity of treaties, but to the prestige of the League as an impartial ministerial body.
The Rumanian contention that a domestic law of its own supersedes its treaty obligations is a novel one. Sir Robert Gower's point that if that contention is well founded a very easy means exists whereby a State can legitimately repudiate solemn treaty obligations by a stroke of the pen is unanswerable. In addition, a principle that one of the signatories of a treaty can be permitted to act as the judge in its own case in any dispute between it and another signatory is one that cannot be tolerated. But the real gravity of this case is the delay on the part of the Council to do what the Treaty says it shall do.
The Treaty provides that Hungarian claims shall be determined by the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal set up by the Treaty for the purpose and that, if either Hungary or Rumania withdraws its representative from the Tribunal and consequently prevents it functioning, the Council of the League shall take certain steps to enable the vacancy to be filled. The Treaty does not qualify this duty in any way. Whether the case of the Hungarians is well founded is for the Tribunal and the Tribunal only to decide, and the Council of the League is not concerned with it at all. All that concerns the Council is to see that the cases are impartially tried as provided by the Treaty.
If the Council does actually decline, which it is difficult to imagine it will, to fill the existing vacancy, the effect will be a denial of justice to the Hungarians who, through being deprived of their remedy under the Treaty, will be entirely at the mercy of their erstwhile foes, which those who framed the Treaty were at pains to endeavour to prevent. Sir Austen Chamberlain's admission that the League's attitude has been largely influenced by " political considerations " does not improve the position. May it be a long time before " political considerations " interfere with or influence the administration of justice, whether international or of any other kind !--I am, Sir, &c.,
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