29

A.—s

"Finally, the Commission desires to know whether the establishment by the three Governments concerned of a State organization enjoying the sole rights of development of the only natural resources of the area is fully in keeping -although no formal provision under.the Regulations for '(!' Mandates forbids it -with the disinterested spirit which should characterize the mission of a mandatory State." Other observations made, by the Permanent, Mandates Commission are as follows: "According to Rule 5 of its Rules of Procedure, approved by the Council, the Permanent Mandates Commission shall be put in possession, at the latest by the end of June, of the annual reports which it is to examine. This date was fixed with a, view to allowing the members of the Commission a full month for' the careful study of the documents which if is constituted to receive and examine annually. This year, of the fourteen reports which the mandatory Powers communicated for examination by the Commission, eight were received in the Secretariat after July Ist, four after ■Inly 20th, and two after July 30th. Moreover, several of these reports wore not communicated to all the members of the Commission, nor sent to the Secretariat in sufficient copies to allow of their distribution to the members of the Commission. " The Commission believes it to be its duty as well as its right, to inform the Council of those facts. It is obvious that tho usefulness of the Commission depends on the care with which it is enabled to examine these reports, and that- it is impossible for- it to carry out its important work if its examination of the annual reports is rendered hasty and superficial owing to lack of time." Questionnaire. At the end of the questionnaire, which were drafted during its last session to facilitate the preparation of the annual reports of the mandatory Powers, the Commission expressed a wish that the texts of all tho legislative and administrative measures taken with regard to each mandated territory in the course, of the year should be added to the annual report. Petition from Inhabitants of Mandated Parties. This matter also came up for consideration, as it was one which had not boon made the subject of any definite regulations. The Commission thought that each of its members should distribute to all his colleagues, through tho Secretariat, all petitions and similar documents which ho had received and which appear likely to deserve the attention of the Commission. Nationality. The question of nationality arose at the third meeting of the Permanent Mandates Commission, 2nd. August, 1922, whore a hitter from General Smuts, addressed to the Director of the Mandates Section, and which had been circulated to the members of tho, Commission, was considered. General Smuts pointed out that the majority of tho white population in the mandated territory of South-west Africa wore Germans who still regarded themselves as Gorman, and if Germany joined the, League they might take part in an agitation for a return to German rule. The problem of their nationality appeared to the Commission to bo a very difficult one, and which, with the possible exception of Samoa, did not occur in any other mandated territory, since in all other territories all the white German inhabitants had been repatriated. The Chairman thought that the Commission could only deal with tho question of national status from a general point of view, and that the Commission must accept the white population of South-west Africa as German. As regards the Native population, they were clearly not German. M. Orts considered that Germany had lost her sovereignty over South-west Africa, and the bond of allegiance between the local population and tho, Reich had. been broken. "By what right," ho asked, " could tho white, inhabitants claim to have, preserved their nationality ? " The Chairman wanted to know whether tho Commission could accept the view that " C " mandates were equivalent to annexation. Tho view of tho British Government on the nationality of inhabitants of mandated territories was perfectly clearly expressed in its memorandum, and was as follows : — («.) The mandate does not in itself affect tho nationality of tho inhabitants of the territory mandated. (b.) The special conditions relating to administration as an integral part of the Mandatory's territory, where they occur, should not affect the nationality of European inhabitants of the mandated territory, (c.) The nationality of the Native inhabitants also of such territory remains unaffected by the special conditions referred to above. In this connection it may be pointed out that under Article 127 of the Treaty of Versailles such Natives are entitled to diplomatic protection by the mandatory Power, and that, under the Foreign Office Consular Instructions, Natives of territories under British mandates are already being treated as British-protected persons. The treatment of these Natives as Britishprotected persons does not, of course, confer upon them British nationality. A discussion followed as to the distinction made in Article 122 of the, Treaty of Versailles. Mr. Ormsby-Gore said that according to Article 127 of the Treaty of Versailles only the Native inhabitants of former Gorman overseas possessions were entitled to diplomatic protection of tho Governments exercising authority over those territories. M. Rappard recalled the fact that Sir Cecil Hurst, Legal Adviser to the British Foreign Office, had expressed the view that the transfer of territory from one Power to another did not ipso facto involve a change in the nationality of the inhabitants.