Armament > General convention to strengthen the means of preventing war

[Distributed to the Members
of the League, the Assembly
and the Council.]
.2(10)
Official No.: A. 71. 1930. IX.
Geneva, September 26th, 1930.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
GENERAL CONVENTION TO STRENGTHEN THE MEANS
OF PREVENTING WAR.
REPORT OF THE THIRD COMMITTEE TO THE ASSEMBLY.
Rapporteur : M. L.ange (Norway).
In its resolution of September 24th, 1929, the Assembly invited the Council to request
the Committee on Arbitration and Security to consider whether it would be possible to
prepare a draft General Convention on the lines of the model treaty to strengthen the means
of preventing war. At its fourth session, held at Geneva from April 28th to May 9th, 1930,
the Committee on Arbitration and Security dealt with this question at considerable length.
It appeared from the discussions which took place in the Committee that the transforma¬
tion of the model treaty into a General Convention raised a certain number of problems of
great importance and of an extremely delicate nature. As regards some of these problems,
the Committee succeeded in reconciling the various points of view ; but, in the case of others,
and in particular the problem of the more or less compulsory character of the military
measures recommended by the Council and that of supervision and sanctions, it was unable
to make unanimous proposals. It has, therefore, only prepared a preliminary draft Conven¬
tion, in which Articles 2, 3 and 3bis are given in two different columns representing the two
main tendencies. When this matter was brought before it, the Third Committee entered
upon a general exchange of views. After this discussion, it instructed a special Committee
to consider the various viewpoints that had been expressed, and to endeavour to bring to
light certain common features.
This special Committee discussed the principles of the preliminary draft exhaustively
and in a most conciliatory spirit.
In accordance with the special Committee’s proposals, the Third Committee reached the
following conclusions :
(1) The Committee is of opinion that, in principle, it would be advantageous to
transform the model treaty into a General Convention to strengthen the means of
preventing war.
(2) The Committee was unanimous in regard to the provisions given in Article 1
of the preliminary draft concerning the conservatory measures of a non-military nature
which the Council may recommend the contracting parties to take.
(3) With regard to Article 2 of the preliminary draft, the Committee considered
that this article might embody provisions to ensure the integral application of Article
11 of the Covenant, with a view to the prevention of war by making binding on all
contracting parties the Council’s recommendations for the avoidance of direct contact
between the opposing forces, and for the avoidance of incidents at a time when relations
between the States concerned in any dispute have become so strained that, in the
opinion of the Council, there is a threat of war.
(4) The Committee likewise considered that the Convention should provide for a
supervision of the measures which, in the cases mentioned in Article 2, would be decreed
by the Council (Article 3 of the preliminary draft).
(5) Lastly, in view of the fact that the scheme was limited to the prevention of war,
as mentioned in Article 11 of the Covenant, the Committee felt that it should be under¬
stood that the question of the methods of applying Article 16 of the Covenant would
remain intact, and that, on the other hand, the proposed Convention would result in
facilitating such application.
S. d. N. 2.215 (F.) 1.675 (A.) 9/30. Imp. Jent, S. A.
Series of League of Nations Publications
IX. DISARMAMENT
1931). IX. 5.