(By Our Geneva Correspondent)
What constitutes a minority? This was one of the questions discussed at the last meeting of the Council of the League of Nations. For, despite the fact that the existence of minorities has been officially recognized and special clauses entered in the Versailles Treaty and other treaties drawn up since then for their protection, opinions as to the exact definition of a minority still differ.
The subject came up again at the last session of the Council as a result of the objections raised during the last Assembly of the League by the Lithuanian delegate in the Sixth Committee of the Assembly, practically repeating the objections made by the representatives of certain States at the Peace Conference at its plenary meeting on May 31, 1919, to the acceptance of obligations concerning the protection of minorities. These representatives had then declared that their States were ready to assume such obligations, if all the States Members of the League of Nations gave the same undertakings. Their objections, which were refuted by President Wilson and M. Clemenceau, nevertheless appeared to the Council to be deserving of reexamination.
Of particular interest were the observations of M. de Mello Franco (Brazil) in the course of his report on the protection of minorities. He stated:
“The Lithuanian delegate desired a definition stating more exactly what should be understood by a minority, and I recognize that a profound and historical investigation on this question by experts, legal, historical and social, would be of interest and value. I do not think, however, that this definition should be based only on the characteristic and distinguishing features of races, languages and religions.
“A minority as defined by the Treaties assuring its protection is not only a racial group incorporated in the body of a nation, of which the majority forms a different racial unit. There is also a psychological, social and historical attribute, constituting perhaps, for the purposes of the definition which we are seeking, its principal differential characteristic. The mere co-existence of groups of persons forming collective entities, racially different, in the territory and under the jurisdiction of a State is not sufficient to create the obligation to recognize the existence in that State, side by side with the majority of its population, of a minority requiring a protection entrusted to the League of Nations.
“In order that a minority, according to the meaning of the present Treaty should exist, it must be the product of struggles, going back for centuries or perhaps for shorter periods between certain nationalities and of the transference of certain territories from one sovereignty to another through successive historic phases.
“These factors, however, are not constant in all the States Members of the League of Nations. How is it possible, therefore, to obtain the adhesion of all States to the General Convention proposed by the Lithuanian delegation?
“A treaty for the protection of minorities, such as was proposed by the head of the Lithuanian delegation, M. Galvanauskas, would be without meaning for all the American States, nineteen of which are members of the League of Nations. The adhesion of all these States would be impossible, just as it would be impossible for most of the non-American States to adhere to it. In this connection the following observations made by the Dutch Senator Baron von Hoogland, is particularly happy: “The introduction into the laws of all countries of provisions protecting minorities would be enough to cause them to spring up where they were least expected, to provoke unrest among them, to cause them to pose as having been sacrificed, and to create generally an artificial agitation of which no one had up to that moment dreamed.’ “
The Council then discussed various suggestions aimed at establishing an effective method to do away with the present laxity on the part of East European governments in the fulfilment of their obligations to their minorities.
The Jewish Art Theatre, under construction at Second Avenue and Twelfth Street, will be larger than originally anticipated. This was made known when Mr. Louis N. Jaffe builder and owner of the theatre acquired title to an annex of the St. Marks Hospital, at 240 East 12th Street.
Bertha Kalich will appear in Sudermann’s “Moyda” at the Maxine Eliiott Theatre on January 26, after an engagement in the same play in Chicago.
Judge Max S. Levine, appointed by Governor Smith to succeed Judge Alfred J. Talley, was inducted into office in General Sessions Monday in the presence of many city and country officials.
Judge Rosalsky welcomed Judge Levine on behalf of his associates in General Sessions. Judge John F. Mclntyre presided, and Henry Sobel, vice-president of the Grand Street Boys’ Association was master of ceremonies Among those present were Chief Magistrate William Mc###. District Attorney Bantoo. Justice Samuel D. Levey, of the Children’s Court, and Max D. Stener.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
