LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16212, 29 September 1924, Page 5

LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

DISARMAMENT PROT6COL.

■VERY IMPORTANT PROPOSALS \

THE COUNCIL’S STRONG POWERS

(Reuter.) GENEVA, Sept. 28. Benes 'submitted the third committee report indicating the final shape -of the disarmament protocol, which ‘s .-described as an immense advance on anything hitherto done. Article Six es:tablishes an obligation not to resort to war, and completes Article T.en of * the covenant. Thus the Council is -competpirt to deal with every threat of war. Article Seven obliges the signatories -to abstain from action calculated to . aggravate disputes and entails sancand thus the Council is invested With full power of investigation ' into appeals against the violation of the protocol, and also entrusted with the • duty of calling on a guilty State to remedy the offence and deciding the measures to terminate a situation s, -threatening world peace. The text does hot define the nature of the preventive measures, and its elasticity permits the Council to Jake measures approximate in each case. Any such decisions of •the Council will be by a two-'thirds majority. It will be the Council’s duty i%f -to recommend the several Governments ; ' • concerned as to what effective military, haval and air forces the members of -the League shall severally contribute towards an armed force able to protect the covenant. Each State shall remain in possession of its forces, and Itself, not 'the Council, shall direct them. Benes explained when the Council calls for signatories to enforce sanctions it will become a regulating, rather than an body, but not | .an executive -■'body. The report concluded by submitting a resolution recommending the members of the League to acc/pt the protocol requesting the Council to convere an international conference for the reduction of armaments at GenevS, and inviting the Council to immediately appoint a committee to prepare the text of the armaments covenant mentioned in the protocol.

In the course of the discussion Sir James Allen (New 'Zealand) said: "I did not object to the sanctions laid -down, but asked for an explanation of the position of the non-signatory States, and also that it should be made clear which States would in advance furnish the information concerning the forces available in the event of sanc-

tions. Were these States signing the protocol or were all members of the League?” If these points were made clear he thought the protocal was satisfactory so far as New Zealand was concerned. If New Zealand did not,sign ,the protocol it would "Vive her under the existing obligations onjjfc*

Benes furnished an explanation, and the committee adjourned.

RELIEF IN DISASTERS. ,

(A. & N.Z. Cable.) GENEVA, Sept. 27.

The Assembly adopted a scheme for an international federation for mutual assistance for relief for people overtaken by disaster, and suggested the .appointment of a committee to study the preliminary questions. The Assembly also adopted the report on the protection for children.