WORLD ARBITRATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18827, 30 September 1924, Page 7

WORLD ARBITRATION

TERMS OF THE PROTOCOL.

PLANS FOR DISARMAMENT.

LEAGUE COUNCIL'S POWERS. By Telegraph— Press Association—Copyright (Received 7.5 p.m.) Renter. < GENEVA. Sept. 28. Tho Third Committee of the League of Nations Assembly completed its labours last night with the adoption of the report of Dr. Benes, Czecho-Slovakian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and a reSolution moved by M. Lango (Norway) regarding certain desiderata to be submitted to tho Council when preparing the general programme for the conference on disarmament. Several articles in Dr. Benes* report were modified, but not substantially. Thus the part of the protocol which deals with security and disarmament was completed. There now remains only the section which deals with arbitration. This it is hoped will be completed tomorrow. The report of the Third Committee was to-day submitted by Dr. Benes. It indicated the final form of the disarmament protocol, which is described as an immenso advance on anything hitherto done. Guarding Against War. Article 6 establishes . the obligation not to resort to war. It ■ completes Article 10 of the League's Covenant. Thus the Council will be competent to deal with every threat of war. Article 7 obliges the signatories of the protocol to abstain from action calculated to aggravate a dispute, and entails sanctions. Thus the Council is invested with full power of investigation into appeals against a violation of the protocol. It is also entrusted with the duty of calling on a guilty State to remedy its offence, and of deciding on measures to terminate a situation which may threaten .the world's peace. The text does not define the nature of the preventive (measures to be taken. Its elasticity permits the Council to take appropriate measures in each case. Any such decisions of tho Council are to be by a two-thirds majority. It will be tho Council's duty to recommend to tjje several Governments concerned what effective military, naval and air forces the members of tho League shall severally contribute toward an armed force to be used to protect tho Covenant. Each State shall remain in possession of its forces and each State itself, not the Council, shall direct them. Case of Non-Signatory States. Dr. Benes explained that when the Council calls for the signatories to enforce sanctions, it will become a regulating, rather than an advisory, body, but, not an- executive body. The report concluded by submitting a resolution recommending tho members of the League to accept the protocol and requesting the Council to convene an international conference for the reduction of armaments at Geneva. It also invited the Council to immediately appoint a committee to prepare the text of tho armaments Covenant mentioned in the protocol.

In the course of the discussion, Sir James Allen (New Zealand) said he did not object to the sanctions laid down, bat he asked for an explanation of the position of non-signatory States. He. also asked that it should be made clear •which States would, in advance, furnish information concerning the forces available in the event of sanctions. Were they the States signing the protocol, or all the members of the League ?

If these points were made clear, said Sir James, he thought tho protocol would be satisfactory so far as New Zealand was concerned.

In reply to Sir James, Dr. Benes said that the protocol would nob affect nations who' did not sign it. They would merely continue to bo bound by the Lcaguo's Covenant as previously.

Sir James moved in the direction of slightly amending the preamble to the protocol, to make less definite the Assembly's request to members of the League to accept the protocol. Sir James' jtttitude is considered to imply that Now Zealand finds difficulty in acquiescing to tho protocol's demands and may refuse to sign it. Armaments of the Vanquished. Tho Council of the League to-day agreed to a plan for an investigation of the armaments of vanquished States by, the League, to replace the system of inter-Allied military control. Under this plan the commission of investigation will be composed of representative members of the Council. It will include at least ono neutral member and a representative of a bordering State which is a signatory of the peace treaties. Further, when examining any question relating to its investigations, tho permanent advisory commission shall invite assessors representing bordering countries to sit with it. The draft budget for 1925, to bo submitted to the Assembly of the League, totals 22,658,000 gold francs, a diminution of 670,000 francs compared with 1924. The Fourth Committee, of which Baron Adatci (Japan) is chairman, passed, a credit for the labours of the experts to be entrusted with the drawing up of amendments to tho Covenant foreshadowed in the disarmament protocol.