best account of how the present position arose is in Les Minorites Nationales d'Europe et la Guerre Mondiale, by Th. Ruyssen (1923), which has a good bibliography. For the history of protection of minorities in the 19th century see Iford L. Evans. "The Protection of Minorities," British Year Book of International Law, 1923-24; H. W. V. Temperley, A History of the Peace Conference of Paris, vol. v. Chapter II. (an authoritative account of the motives of the Powers). A German account is in F. Wertheimer, Deutschland, die Minderheiten and der V olkerbund (Berlin, 1926). For the influence of the Jews see Max J. Kohler and Simon Wolf, Jewish Disabilities in the Balkan States (New York, the American Jewish Committee, 1916) and Lucien Wolf, Notes in the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Ques tion (Jewish Historical Society of England, 1919). (C. K. W.) In the new system established after the World War, the League of Nations was entrusted with the task of guaranteeing the stipu lations concerning the position of minorities. The States estab lished, restored or territorially enlarged by the treaties of peace, as well as Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey, accepted certain special obligations concerning the position of racial, lin guistic and religious minorities in their territories ; these under takings, which were recognized in general as fundamental laws of the States in question, and as obligations of international con cern, were placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations.
It is perhaps well to mention that, in accordance with these provisions, minorities consist—apart from a clause concerning all the inhabitants of a country—of those of its nationals who belong to a different race or religion, or speak a different language from the majority of the population. The system therefore does not affect either foreigners living in a country the majority of whose population belongs to a different race, religion or language from their own, or nationals of the country belonging to minorities other than racial, religious or linguistic minorities, such as social or political minorities, etc.
(3) Treaty of Peace with Hungary, signed at Trianon on June 4, 1920 (part iii., section vi., articles 54 to 6o) ; (4) Treaty of Peace with Turkey, signed at Lausanne on July 1923 (part i., section iii., articles 37 to 45).
3. Declarations made bef ore the Council of the League of Nations: (I) Declaration by Albania, dated Oct. 2, 1921; (2) Declaration by Estonia, dated Sept. 17, 1923; (3) Declaration by Finland (in respect of the Aland islands), dated June 27, 1921; (4) Declaration by Latvia, dated July 7, ; (5) Declaration by Lithuania, dated May 12, 1922.
4. Conventions: (I) German-Polish Convention on Upper Silesia, dated May 15, 1922 (part iii.) ; (2) Convention concerning the Memel Territory, dated May 8, 1924 (Article II, and Articles 26 and 27 of the Statute annexed to the Convention).
These lists of existing international instruments show the exceptional character of the system of protection of minorities by the League of Nations. The creators of the system had no intention of establishing a general jurisprudence applicable wher ever racial, linguistic or religious minorities existed. They sim ply aimed at facilitating the solution of the problems which might arise from the existence of racial, linguistic or religious minorities in certain countries in which there was reason to sup pose that, owing to special circumstances, these problems might present particular difficulties.
It is not enough to ascertain that a more or less considerable proportion of the population of a country belongs to a different race, language or religion to that of the majority in order to deduce the existence of a minority problem which would justify a special system of international protection being set up. The French-speaking population of Switzerland and, even more, the population of the Italian-speaking cantons constitute linguistic minorities, but nobody could maintain that they need international protection. On the other hand, there are genuine minorities in Europe which have not been placed under the protection of the League of Nations, and whose situation, in the opinion of many, constitutes a delicate problem which could have been resolved more easily and rapidly if the League had been able to inter vene. The population of the minorities which, in virtue of existing engagements, have been placed under the protection of the League of Nations, may be estimated approximately between 25 and 3o millions. It is extremely difficult to speak of the minorities outside this system of protection, because it is almost impossible to draw a line between the cases where the existence of a minority population raises the problem of inter national protection and where such a problem does not arise. The existence of these minority groups has led to proposals being made that a general system of minorities protection by the League of Nations should be applied to all States equally, and at dif ferent times discussions on this subject have taken place in the League assembly. It must also be kept in mind that a certain number of questions which before the war presented themselves rather in the form of an aspiration towards territorial autonomy are tending now to develop into minorities questions.