League of Nations Forty-Fifth Session of the REPORT BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN, K.G., M.P. British Delegate Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE To be purchased directly from H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses: Adastral House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2; 120, George Street, Edinburgh; York Street, Manchester; 1, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff; 15, Donegall Square West, Belfast; or through any Bookseller. 1927 Price 6d. Net Cmd. 2925 Report on the 45th Session of the Council of the THE Council of the League of Nations met at Geneva on Monday, the 13th June, 1927, under the presidency of the British delegate, and held six public meetings, the last being held on the 17th June. 2. The following is a summary of the more important proceedings of the Council: I.-FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION. Desire of Greek Government to raise a Loan under the Auspices of the League of Nations. 3. On the 14th June, the Greek Minister of Finance addressed a letter to the Secretary-General stating that his Government wished. to raise a loan of £9 million under the auspices of the League. Three million pounds of this loan would be devoted to completing the work of the Greek Refugee Settlement Commission, £3 million to the liquidation of the budget deficits of past years, and the remaining £3 million to stabilisation of the Greek currency. 4. This request was examined by the Financial Committee, who were assisted by M. Cafandaris, the Greek Minister of Finance, and M. Michalakopoulos, Minister for Foreign Affairs. This committee recommended that at its next session in September the Council should authorise the issue of the desired loan under the auspices of the League of Nations, subject to agreement being reached before that date on a definite text of a new bank law for Greece and subject to the signature of a protocol covering the remainder of the refugee settlement work to be accomplished, the liquidation of past budget deficits and the stabilisation of currency. 5. The Council approved the report of the Financial Committee and authorised it to continue to collaborate with the Greek Government on the lines which it had recommended, with a view to the Council being able to approve, at its next session, a detailed scheme for the issue of a comprehensive loan under the auspices of the League. II.-POLITICAL QUESTIONS. (1.) Slavery Convention. 6. The Seventh Assembly adopted a resolution on the 25th September, 1926, requesting the Council to prepare and communicate to it every year a document mentioning the laws and regulations forwarded to the Secretary-General in accordance with article 7 of the Slavery Convention. The Council was also asked to include in this document such supplementary information as might be furnished spontaneously by Members of the League respecting the measures taken by them to secure the progressive abolition of slavery and conditions analogous thereto (see "Miscellaneous No. 12 (1926)," Cmd. 2780). 7. On the proposal of the British delegate, in his capacity as rapporteur, the Council now decided to forward to the Assembly a memorandum submitted by the Secretary-General in which he stated. that the Slavery Convention had been signed on behalf of thirtyseven Governments, that one State (Hungary) had acceded thereto and that two States (Bulgaria and Denmark) had ratified, and in which he drew attention to the fact that no laws and regulations had yet been communicated to the Secretariat in accordance with article 7 of that Convention, and that the only supplementary information respecting the abolition of slavery which had been furnished was a communication from the Government of India regarding the elimination of slavery in Kalat and a letter from the Government of the Sudan respecting the abolition of slavery in that country. The Council also authorised the Secretary-General to communicate to the Assembly at the same time as to the Council, three weeks before the opening of the next Assembly, a list of such laws and regulations as might be forwarded to him under article 7 of the Slavery Convention, as well as any supplementary information furnished by the different Governments on this subject. (2.) Incident on the Græco-Bulgarian Frontier. 8. At its Thirty-seventh Session in December 1925 the Council made certain recommendations to terminate an incident which had occurred on the Græco-Bulgarian frontier and to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents in the future (see "Miscellaneous No. 2 (1926)," Cmd. 2594). One of these recommendations related to the liquidation of the property of those persons who had taken advantage of the Convention on Voluntary Emigration between Greece and Bulgaria of the 27th November, 1919. At its previous session in March 1927, the Council had been informed that, up to the 22nd February, 1927, 3,157 liquidations of a total value of 2,600,000 dollars had been effected. The Council was now informed that this number had been increased to 7,670 liquidations, out of a total of 40,000 claims presented by emigrants under the abovementioned convention. The Council was also informed that the allocation of satisfactory security for the bonds given to the emigrants, as well as for the amortisation of these bonds, was under discusion in the Mixed Commission which supervises the execution of the Convention on Voluntary Emigration. On the proposal of the British delegate, in his capacity as rapporteur, the Council adopted a resolution requesting this Commission and the Greek and Bulgarian Governments to furnish reports on the result of these discussions and on the progress achieved in the liquidation of the claims made by emigrants for consideration at the next session of the Council. At the same time the Council reaffirmed its interest in the settlement of this question, which it considered equally important both for Greece and for Bulgaria. 9. The Greek representative made a statement to the Council 4066 Wt. 1000 8/27 F.O.P. [16487] B 2 of the sums hitherto paid by his Government to emigrants from Bulgaria and thanked the members of the Council for the continuous interest which they had shown in this question. The Bulgarian representative also expressed the thanks of his Government for the interest taken by the Council in this matter. (3,) Notification by the Roumanian Government, under Paragraph 2 of Article 11 of the Covenant, of the withdrawal of its Representative on the Hungaro-Roumanian Mixed Arbitral Tribunal, and Request of the Hungarian Government for the Appointment by the Council, in accordance with Article 239 of the Treaty of Trianon, of two Deputy Arbitrators for the Mixed Roumano-Hungarian Arbitral Tribunal. 10. This question was brought before the Council at its previous session by the Roumanian delegate in pursuance of the right enjoyed by all Members of the League, under article 11 of the Covenant, to bring to the notice of the Council any circumstance affecting international relations which threatens to disturb peace or the good understanding between nations. He explained to the Council at that session the reasons which had led his Government to withdraw their judge on the Hungaro-Roumanian Mixed Arbitral Tribunal from further participation in the hearing of any claims by Hungarian nationals arising out of the scheme of agrarian reform initiated by Roumania before the war and extended after the cessation of hostilities to the new territory acquired by her under the Treaty of Peace. At the same session, the Hungarian representative, who had been invited to the Council table, requested the Council to appoint two deputy arbitrators for the above-mentioned tribunal in pursuance of the powers conferred upon it by article 239 of the Treaty of Trianon (see "Miscellaneous No. 6 (1927)," Cmd. 2894). 11. The Council had asked the British delegate to act as rapporteur on this question and, at his request, the Council had invited the Japanese and Chilean delegates to assist him in this task. The British delegate now reported to the Council that the Committee of Three, which was thus formed, met in London on the 31st May and the 1st June and that conversations took place with the Hungarian and Roumanian representatives. The committee also met in Geneva during the session of the Council and, after numerous discussions with the Hungarian and Roumanian representatives, this committee had requested them to ask their respective Governments to make a further examination of the question. On the proposal of the British delegate, the Council decided to adjourn this question until its next session in September. (4.) Memel Convention of 1924. Request of the German Government in accordance with Article 17 of that Convention that the Council should consider a Petition from Inhabitants of the Memel Territory. 12. On the 24th May, 1927, the German Government addressed a telegram to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations requesting that a petition signed by the leading inhabitants of Memel alleging the infringement of the autonomy of that territory by Lithuania should be placed on the agenda of the Council. The Lithuanian Government at first requested that this question should be adjourned until the next session of the Council as they had not sufficient time to formulate their reply to the allegations contained in the petition. The German Government was unwilling to agree to this adjournment. The Lithuanian Prime Minister, M. Voldemaras, who is at the same time Minister for Foreign Affairs, came to Geneva and made a formal statement to the Council by which he undertook that his Government would cause the elections for the Memel Diet to be held not later than September next; he informed the Council that the difficulty which had arisen respecting the composition of the electorate was settled and added that his Government were determined to do their utmost to make the autonomy of the Memel Territory a reality and to carry out their task in close co-operation with the Diet and with the Directorate, which should enjoy the confidence of the Diet and be responsible to it. 13. The German delegate, Dr. Stresemann, informed the Council that, in view of the statement made by M. Voldemaras, he did not wish to insist at the present session of the Council on further discussion of this question and that he hoped that the measures which the Lithuanian Prime Minister had announced would produce a situation in conformity with the Memel Statute. 14. The President of the Council (the British delegate) congratulated the Lithuanian representative on his declaration, which had spared the Council the necessity of going into this question; he expressed the hope that the situation in the Memel Territory might soon become normal and that the Council would never have to deal with the question again. (5.) Admissibility of Reservations to General Conventions. 15. By a letter dated the 19th December, 1925, His Majesty's Government drew the attention of the Council to the question of the admissibility of reservations to general conventions and suggested that the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law should be asked to investigate this question. That committee was requested to report on the question by a resolution adopted by the Council at its Thirty-ninth Session on the 17th March, 1926 (see Miscellaneous No. 4 (1926)," Cmd. 2646). 16. The report of this committee laid down that no reservation, at whatever time it is made, is admissible unless it is accepted by the other parties to the Convention. 66 17. The Polish delegate (M. Zaleski), acting as rapporteur, drew the attention of the Council to the desirability of establishing machinery to determine after the close of a conference what reservations to a convention are acceptable, and pointed out that an attempt to set up machinery for this purpose had been made in connection with the Customs Formalities Convention of 1923. On |