13. Thus for every dispute that may arise there is a procedure of pacific settlement, and provision has been made in the Protocol for meeting points (a), (b) and (c) in paragraph 8 above.
14. The establishment of a complete and comprehensive system for the pacific settlement of all disputes that might arise rendered it easier to approach the problem of the definition of "aggression." As the Prime Minister had said, "the one method by which we can approximate to an accurate attribution of responsibility for aggression is arbitration." In other words, any State which refused to avail itself of the means at hand for a peaceful settlement of a dispute, or which refused to accept the award given by the arbitral body or bodies now provided, and proceeded to an act of war, would brand itself as the aggressor. This principle is embodied in article 10 of the Protocol, which thus gives effect to the idea indicated in paragraph 8 (d) above. The definition of aggression is extended by articles 7 and 8 of the Protocol to apply to military measures taken before or during proceedings for a pacific settlement, and to acts constituting a threat of aggression against another State.
15. The point raised in paragraph 8 (e) above is dealt with in article 11 of the Protocol. Directly aggression takes place, the Council calls upon the signatory States to apply sanctions against the aggressor (article 10). As soon as the Council has thus called upon the signatory States, "the obligations of the said States, in regard to the sanctions of all kinds mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 16 of the Covenant, will immediately become operative in order that such sanctions may forthwith be employed against the aggressor. Those obligations shall be interpreted as obliging each of the signatory States to co-operate loyally and effectively in support of the Covenant of the League of Nations, and in resistance to any act of aggression, in the degree which its geographical position and its particular situation as regards armaments allow." Article 12 of the Protocol provides for the establishment of plans for putting into effect economic and financial sanctions, and article 13, "in view of the contingent military, naval and air sanctions provided for by article 16 of the Covenant," empowers the Council "to receive undertakings from States determining in advance the military, naval and air forces which they would be able to bring into action immediately to ensure the fulfilment of the obligations in regard to sanctions which result from the Covenant and the present Protocol."
16. Article 11—the "sanctions" article—has been more closely scrutinized and has been the subject of more criticism than any other article of the draft Protocol, and a hasty examination of it by some critics has led them to object that it goes beyond article 16 of the Covenant and imposes fresh obligations on the signatory States. In reply to such critics, it may be best to quote the words used by the British delegate in his speech to the Third Committee on the 22nd September:—
"It cannot be too strongly emphasized that everything in this article is already stated or implied in article 16 of the Covenant. We are remaining within the terms of the Covenant and we are undertaking no new obligations .......... Surely loyal and effective co-operation in support of the Covenant is what may confidently be expected from every Member of the League of Nations .......... The extent of the co-operation must depend on the actual circumstances not only as regards the aggression but also as regards the geographical position and the resources of all kinds of individual States. It would be no use to bind oneself to do a variety of things which may not be required. We must and we can rely on the good faith of the Members of the League to decide themselves how their effective co-operation can best be given if and when the necessity arises."
17. In order to complete the fulfilment of the task assigned to the committees by the Assembly's resolution of the 6th September, the Protocol finally provides (article 17) for the summoning in June next year of an International Conference for the reduction of armaments, to meet in Geneva and to include representatives of all states whether Members of the League or not. M. Herriot first, and other speakers after him, had emphasised the interdependence of the three great problems of arbitration, security and disarmament, and the framers of the Protocol, bearing this in mind, have been careful to preserve this interdependence in the document itself. Thus if sufficient ratifications of the Protocol have not been received by a certain date, the Conference on Disarmament is to be postponed. In any case, the Protocol does not come into force until that Conference shall have adopted a plan for the reduction of armaments. And if within a further period, that plan has not been carried out, the Protocol becomes null and void.
18. The above brief summary indicates how in the Protocol the committees of the Assembly have sought to embody, in concrete form, the proposals made to the Assembly itself by the British and French Prime Ministers. The Protocol is an attempt to complete the Covenant, to facilitate and develop the procedure of pacific settlement provided therein, and to define more clearly the obligations imposed by it on States Members of the League. The Protocol is based on the Covenant and keeps within its terms except in so far that it extends the Covenant procedure to give an alternative procedure by peaceful settlement, even in those cases for which the framers of the Covenant in 1919 were unable to find a remedy. So far as it contains anything new, it is to be found in the definition of aggression which follows as a necessary corollary to the limitations inserted in the establishment of a universal system of peaceful settlement. But even here the principle is not new. Article 16 of the Covenant decreed that sanctions should be applied against any Member of the League that might "resort to war in disregard of its Covenants under articles 12, 13 or 15." Article 10 of the Protocol decrees sanctions against any State resorting to war without availing itself or in defiance of, the procedure of pacific settlement provided in the Covenant as amplified by the Protocol itself. The amplification of that procedure to cover all cases, so as to remove all excuse for resort to war, has enabled the framers of the Protocol to give a more exact definition of aggression, and to make that definition more certain and more automatic. The Protocol is thus free from the reproach that had been levelled against the Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance, which left a wide and dangerous discretion to the Council in determining which party to a dispute was the aggressor. It further discards the system proposed in the draft Treaty, whereby power was given to the Council to decide on and to direct the military sanctions required. The draft Treaty tended towards the realisation of the idea of the League as a "super-State": the Protocol respects the principle of national sovereignty. Every State retains its own liberty of action: it is still free to choose what it will do. The Protocol has stated in clearer terms what is expected of those who signed the Covenant in 1919, and it is to be hoped that this more explicit declaration may serve to deter those who would contemplate a violation of the spirit of the Covenant, whilst reassuring those who have hitherto sought safety in their own armed strength, by giving them confidence in the solidarity of the civilised nations and in their determination to resist all unscrupulous attempts to plunge the world again into the disaster of war.
19. It remains only to say a few words as to the actual procedure adopted by the Assembly for putting into effect the scheme thus elaborated. It was generally agreed that mere resolutions of the Assembly would not give sufficient assurance of progress. The famous Resolution 14 of the Third Assembly had been discussed and debated and had seemed to lead to an impasse with the rejection of the Treaty of Mutual Assistance. The Prime Minister, in his speech to the Assembly, had said: "Let us see to it that even before we rise, before the Assembly breaks up, some substantial progress shall be made in co-ordinating these ideas and in producing from their apparent diversities some measure of agreement and consent." It was therefore decided that the scheme should be embodied in the form of a Protocol, ready for signature, and that the Assembly should pass a resolution endorsing the principles contained therein, recommending the Protocol to the Governments for their acceptance, and directing that it should be opened immediately for signature. The terms of this Resolution, which was carried unanimously, have already been published.
20. The Protocol itself was signed in Geneva by Delegates of the Governments of Albania, Bulgaria, Esthonia, France, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State and Czechoslovakia. The Delegate of France at the same time signed on behalf of his Government the special Protocol opened for signature in virtue of article 36, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice, making the following declaration:—