Poland suffered a disastrous defeat here today when the Sixth Commission of the League of Nations submitted a report to the League Assembly declaring in unequivocal language that existing minority treaties are modifiable by the Council of the League only, and that as long as the Council does not modify them, all signatories must observe the treaties. The report was presented to the Assembly despite the fact that the Polish delegation withdrew their original proposal to generalize the minority treaties by applying them to all European members of the League. It came as a direct reply to Poland’s renunciation of the minority clauses.
In conjunction with the Polish proposal Colonel Jozef Beck, Polish Foreign Minister, threw a bombshell into the Assembly meeting when he declared that no matter how the League acted on the Polish proposal, his government would refuse to recognize the supervision of the League on matters affecting Polish minorities.
The report of the Sixth Commission will be accepted by the Assembly without debate, the Jewish Telegraph Agency learned.
Closing phrases of the Sixth Commission report point out that the minority treaties are not to be considered e#ernal and ### chargeable, since the treaties provide a proper procedure for modification through the agency of the League Council.
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