Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression F. Treaty between the United States and Germany Restoring
Friendly Relations.
The purpose of this treaty (TC-11) was to complete the
official cessation of hostilities between the United States
of America and Germany; it also incorporated certain parts
of the Treaty of Versailles. The relevant portion is Part 5,
which repeats the clause of the Treaty of Versailles which
have been discussed immediately
G. Treaty of Mutual Guarantee between Germany, Belgium,
France, Great Britain, and Italy, done at Locarno, 16
October 1925
Several treaties were negotiated at Locarno; they all go
together and are to a certain extent mutually dependent. At
Locarno, Germany negotiated five treaties: (a) the Treaty of
Mutual Guarantee between Germany, Belgium, France, Great
Britain, and Italy (TC-12); (b) the Arbitration Convention
between Germany and France; c) the Arbitration Convention
between Germany and Belgium; (d) the Arbitration Treaty
between Germany and Poland; and (e) an Arbitration Treaty
between Germany and Czechoslovakia.
Article 10 of the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee (TC-12)
provided that it should come into force as soon as
ratifications were deposited at Geneva in the archives of
the League of Nations, and as soon as Germany became a
member of the League of Nations. The ratifications were
deposited on 14 September 1926, and Germany became a member
of the League of Nations.
The two arbitration conventions and the two arbitration
treaties provided that they shall enter into force under the
same conditions as the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee. (Article
21 of the arbitration conventions and Article 22 of the
arbitration treaties.)
[Page 662]
The most important of the five agreements is the Treaty of
Mutual Guarantee (TC-12). One of the purposes was to
establish in perpetuity the borders between Germany and
Belgium, and Germany and France. It contains no provision
for denunciation or withdrawal therefrom and provides that
it shall remain in force until the Council of the League of
Nations decides that the League of Nations ensures
sufficient protection to the parties to the Treaty -- an
event which never happened -- in which case the Treaty of
Mutual Guarantee shall expire one year later.
The general scheme of the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee is that
Article 1 provides that the parties guarantee three things:
the border between Germany and France, the border between
Germany and Belgium, and the demilitarization of the
Rhineland.
Article 2 provides that Germany and France, and Germany and
Belgium agree that they will not attack or invade each
other, with certain inapplicable exceptions; and Article 3
provides that Germany and France, and Germany and Belgium
agree to settle all disputes between them by peaceful means.
(TC-12)
The first important violation of the Treaty of Mutual
Guarantee appears to have been the entry of German troops
into the Rhineland on 7 March 1936. The day after, France
and Belgium asked the League of Nations Council to consider
the question of the German reoccupation of the Rhineland and
the purported repudiation of the treaty. On 12 March, after
a protest from the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Italy recognized
unanimously that the reoccupation was a violation of this
treaty. On 14 March, the League Council duly and properly
decided that reoccupation was not permissible and that the
Rhineland clauses of the pact were not voidable by Germany
because of the alleged violation by France in the Franco-
Soviet Mutual Assistance Pact.
That is the background to the treaty. The relevant articles
are 1, 2, and 3, already mentioned; 4, which provides for
the bringing of violations before the Council of the League,
as was done; and 5, which deals with the clauses of the
Versailles Treaty already mentioned. It provides:
"The provisions of Article 3 of the present Treaty are
placed under the guarantee of the High Contracting
Parties as provided by the following stipulations:
"If one of the Powers referred to in Article 3 refuses
to submit a dispute to peaceful settlement or to comply
with an arbitral or judicial decision and commits a
violation of Article 2 of the present Treaty or a
breach of Article 42 or 43 of the Treaty of Versailles,
the provisions of Article 4 of the present Treaty shall apply." (TC-12)
[Page 663]
That is the procedure requiring reference to the League in
the case of a flagrant breach or of more stringent action.
It may be recalled that Hitler had promised that the German
Government would scrupulously maintain their treaties
voluntarily signed, even though they were concluded before
Hitler's accession to power. No one has ever argued that
Stresemann was in any way acting involuntarily when he
signed this Locarno act on behalf of Germany, along with the
other representatives. (The signature is not in Stresemann's
name, but by Herr Hans Luther.) This treaty, which repeats
the violated provisions of the Versailles Treaty, was freely
entered into and binds Germany in that regard. Article 8
deals with the preliminary enforcement of the Treaty by the
League:
"The present Treaty shall be registered at the League
of Nations in accordance with the Covenant of the
League. It shall remain in force until the Council,
acting on a request of one or other of the High
Contracting Parties notified to the other signatory
Powers three months in advance, and voting at least by
a two-thirds majority, decides that the League of
Nations ensures sufficient protection to the High
Contracting Parties; the Treaty shall cease to have
effect on the expiration of a period of one year from
such decision." (TC-12)
Thus, in signing this Treaty, the German representative
clearly placed the question of repudiation or violation of
the Treaty in the hands of others. Germany was at the time a
member of the League, and a member in the Council of the
League. Germany left the question of repudiation or
violations to the decision of the League.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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Volume
I Chapter IX
Treaty Violations
(Part 8 of 11)