Legal > Amendment of the Covenant of the League of Nations in order to bring it into harmony with the pact of Paris > No. 3

^'V'j', 2.(1-])
[Distributed to the Members of the
League, the Assembly and the Council.]
Official No.: A. 11 (*>)• I93I-V.
Geneva, August 13, 1931.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
AMENDMENT OF THE COVENANT
OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS IN ORDER TO BRING
IT INTO HARMONY WITH THE PACT OF PARIS
OBSERVATIONS SUBMITTED BY GOVERNMENTS
Hungary
Series No. 3.
Page Page
. . i Irish Free State 2
Hungary.
Letter of August 4th, 1931.
Having acceded to the Pact of Paris, Hungary considers that it is desirable that the Covenant
of the League of Nations should be amended so as to establish complete harmony between its
provisions and those of the Pact of Paris.
The Royal Hungarian Government greatly regrets to find that the texts contained in the
report of the Assembly’s First Committee restrict the revision of the Covenant to changes which
appear to have a more restricted scope than the original proposals of the Committee of Eleven
which the Council appointed under the Assembly’s resolution of September 24th, 1929.
The Hungarian Government considers that, to secure complete elimination of war as an
instrument of national policy, it is not sufficient to confine oneself entirely to amending those
provisions of the Covenant which deal with the employment of international measures of a
repressive nature; it would be necessary at the same time to extend, and define more clearly,
the field of application of measures having rather a preventive character, which by their very
nature may be considered as more effective for the maintenance of international peace than the
first-mentioned measures. On this view, the adaptation of the clauses of the Covenant of the
League of Nations to those of the Pact of Paris ought to deal with all those provisions of the first
of these instruments which, as at present drafted, do not appear fully to favour political initiatives
for the maintenance of international peace.
In this class falls the institution, in connection with paragraph 4 of Article 13 of the Covenant,
of absolute guarantees to ensure the execution of the decisions given in arbitral or judicial
proceedings. Such a guarantee does not seem to be achieved either by the proposals of the
Committee of Eleven or by those contained in the report of the Assembly’s First Committee.
In the opinion of the Hungarian Government, it would be necessary with this object to carry
further the amendments to be made in the Covenant in the sense that, in the cases envisaged, the
Council should be capable of taking decisions by a simple majority and be thus able to fulfil its
task, which is that of giving effect, absolutely and without any revision, to all the provisions
of a decision given by an international judicial or arbitral authority.
The Royal Hungarian Government also feels that the conception of preventing conflicts
absolutely demands for its realisation that the possibility contained in Article 19 of the Covenant
of the League of Nations should not continue to be purely theoretical under the existing text.
S.d.N. 1.625 (F.) I-345 (A.) 8/31. Imp. Kundig.
Series of League of Nations Publications
V. LEGAL
1931. V. 8.