The Waikato times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1931. POLAND AND MINORITIES

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19363, 17 September 1934, Page 6

The Waikato times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1931. POLAND AND MINORITIES

The sensational pronouncement by the Polish Foreign Minister in the League Assembly last ■week, has given Europe a fresh top.c of discussion and has created consternation at Geneva. Ihc most serious aspect of the Polish declaration is its implied repudiation of the binding force of multilateral and bi-lateral treaties by simple unilateral action. Obviously if such a principle is to be accepted, there can be no assurance that other international agreements will be honoured. The conventions and treaties framed for the protection of minorities must rank to-day among the- outstanding achievements of the Peace Conference and of the early days of the League’s existence. In constituting the protection of minorities as an international obligation, and not merely a national act of grace, the League attained a high degree of universal service, and any threat to the permanence of the undertakings thereby entered upon must be viewed with concern. Minorities, consisting of groups of population differing by race or religion from the nation of which they form part, have created one of the greatest problems in the modern development of “national” states. In strong contrast to the older “ territorial ” states, which were delineated by strictly geographical boundaries, the modern European states tend to comprise political communities, which are increasingly homogeneous. In certain countries, such as France, this homogeneity has been practically accomplished, and there is no longer any question of national minorities. In other countries, particularly those of Central Europe, large communities possess characteristics of race, language, or religion, which definitely separate them from the majority of the nationals among whom they live. The Great War provoked a formidable awakening of national aspirations. Italy and Rumania entered the war solely to realise their own national demands by partaking i- the anticipated partition of the territory of the enemy Powers. Poland herself was reborn from a recognition of the principles of nationality. Previously Poland had been shared between Germany, Russia, and Austria. To-day, having accomplished her own national entity, Poland possesses minorities totalling 11,000,000 people, and comprising Germans, Jews, Ruthenes, Russians, and Lithuanians. ■ The Peace Treaties of 1919 sought to alleviate the danger caused by iihese national aspirations by creating wide and fundamental rights for those minorities which could not feasibly be accorded sovereign independence. Special minorities treaties were concluded by the Allied Powers with the newly-formed states of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and placed under the Guarantee of the League of Nations. At the same time bilateral conventions were entered into by various states, Poland concluding agreements with Germany and Czechoslovakia. The general purpose , of these treaties was to authorise the League Council to intervene in case of actual or threatened infringement of the rights of minorities, Avhile all disputes on questions of law or fact were to be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. The action of Poland in denouncing these obligations possess some shadow of right, inasmuch as a nation may claim to administer its own affairs. However, the very newness of Poland’s existence as an autonomous state suggests that this right should be bestowed only with adequate safeguards for the protection of the large minorities within her frontiers.