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The discussion of the Council of the League of Nations on the problem of the protection of minorities will center around the proposals submitted by Senator Raoul Dandurand of Canada for a change in the procedure in the submission of petitions to the League. The text of the memorandum containing the proposals, as circulated to the members of the League’s Council by the Secretary General, was made public here.
The present procedure, it is urged in the prosposals, has not given satisfaction to the minorities, which never cease protesting through all the channels at their disposal. Although the method has yielded good results, it leaves the minority under the impression that its case has not been heard, and that it is being victimized by the inaction or indifference of the Council. The Minority complains, but is left ignorant of what action, if any, has been taken on its representations. Its complaint is generally referred to its Government, but the latter’s reply is never communicated to the minority.
“In more than one quarter,” Senator Dandurand says, “the establishment of a permanent Minorities Committee has been advocated, but I propose a different solution. Minorities will not cease to exist in any country where they form a considerable group. They will permanently retain their language and religion, without their loyalty being in the least impaired. The problems caused by their presence in the nation will decline in importance and will ultimately be settled-in so far as a benevolent and generous spirit is forthcoming to settle them. This is the only means by which national unity will be achieved-not in the assimilation, but in the diversity, of races and cultures. These minorities owe to their countries and Governments duties which they should hold as sacred as their rights. It is on the basis of the obligations and rights of the citizen in the State that I desire to put before the Council another formula for dealing with minority complaints.
“I suggest that minority complaints should be referred to a Committee of the Council which will meet for that special purpose. The procedure I propose will have the advantage of bringing the minorities into closer touch with their Governments, leading to a settlement of many difficulties, and dispelling many misunderstandings by ordinary, normal methods. The number of disputes submitted to the Council will decline, and the files sent in will be more complete, because the parties will have exchanged their views as regards both the facts and the law. The Council will probably wish to form this Sub-Committe in such a way (Continued on Page 4)
Senator Dandurand then proposes a resolution which says: Minority petitions, individual or collective, from racial, religious or linguistic minorities in a country which has signed a Minorities Treaty, must be addressed to the Government concerned, with the request that it forward them to the Secretariat of the League of Nations within thirty days of receipt, if the Government does not feel it desirable to reply to the petitioners direct. If the Government fails to satisfy the complainants, the latter, having received its reply, must give their reasons for maintaining their claims, and may at the same time request their Government to forward all the correspondence which has been exchanged to the Secretariat of the League of Nations within thirty days of receipt of their final reply. The Government must comply with this request and inform the petitioners that it has done so. It will at the same time communicate to them any additional observations it may think fit to add to the file. If, within forty days following their request that their complaints and the whole of the file be forwarded to the Secretariat, the petitioners do not receive notice that this has been done, they may themselves forward to the Secretariat of the League duplicates of the documents forming the file, or simply their complaint alone, should they have received no reply from the Government.
In order to be considered by the Council such petitions must conform to the following conditions: (a) They must concern the protection of minorities as provided in the treaties; (b) in particular, they must not be presented in the form of a demand for the rupture of the political ties between the minority in question and the State of which it forms part; (c) they must not come from an anonymous or insufficiently specified source; (d) they must be expressed without violence of language; (e) they must contain information or state facts which have not recently formed the subject of a petition to the Council.
To examine these petitions and the documents accompanying them, as described above, the Council decides to form a Committee, composed of all the members of the Council or their substitutes.
Special meetings of this Committee will be held on dates to be fixed by the Committee itself.
In investigating these petitions, the Committee of the Council may, if it thinks fit, refer the question to the Council, which will deal with it in such manner and will give such directions as may seem proper and effectual in the circumstances of the case.
“I am well aware,” Senator Dandurand concludes, “that certain countries which have by treaty accepted the Council’s intervention in the treatment of minorities are inclined towards a restrictive application of this right, since they regard it as an encroachment upon their sovereignty vis a vis the other nations. These countries should not forget that they have thus contributed to the establishment in the world of new customs which will be regarded as an honor to the twentieth century.”
The proposal submitted by Senator Dandurand, when the Council began the discussion on minority problems, was an amended text of his previous memorandum. The new text contained three revisions distinetly favorable to the minorities. It emphasized expressly the right of foreign organizations to submit petitions to the respective governments concerning the mistreatment of minorities. In emergency cases the petitions may be submitted to the League of Nations directly in order to hasten the procedure. The third revision called for assuring the public character of the procedure.
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