According to the second paragraph, the members of the council (in other words certain Governments) alone have the right to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction or danger of infraction of any of the provisions relating to minorities. Accord ingly, the report of the Italian representative, M. Tittoni, adopted by the Council on Oct. 22, 192o, mentions the sharp distinction between the right of the members of the Council (that is to say, certain Governments) to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction or danger of infraction of the terms of the treaties, and the right of the minorities themselves, or of States not represented on the Council, to bring such infractions or dangers of infraction to the League's notice. The directing of the Council's attention by one or more of its members to an infrac tion or danger of infraction is a judicial act which has the effect of bringing the question officially to the Council's notice, whereas a communication by which an infraction or danger of infraction is brought to the League's notice otherwise than by a Member of the Council merely constitutes a petition or report and cannot in itself have the effect of officially bringing the matter before the Council.
The right of the treaties thus established, according to which members of the Council alone can notify the Council of cases of infraction of the Minorities Treaties, has on a number of occasions given rise to discussion and controversy. Thus, at the time of the negotiations which led to the Albanian Declaration regarding the protection of minorities, the Greek Government asked that a clause should be inserted granting it the right to bring to the notice of the Council any infraction or danger of infraction of the obligations which Albania was about to assume.
The Council thought that there was no occasion to insert such a clause, as it would have constituted an exception to the general principles adopted in all the Minorities Treaties. (See Minutes of the i4th Session of the Council Sept.—Oct. 1921, pp. 115 and 162.) In 1925 Count Apponyi. the Hungarian representative at the Sixth session of the Assembly, maintained that it ought to be possible for the Council to be notified directly, by means of petitions from certain sources—from supreme ecclesiastical organ izations or the cultural or economic institutions of the different countries. (See Records of the 6th Assembly [plenary meetings], page 73.) M. de Mello Franco (Brazil), discussing this question in the personal statement which he made to the Council on Dec. 9, 1925, drew attention to the practical difficulties to which such a procedure would give rise, and also asserted that it was incompatible with the letter of the treaties in force, by which even States which are members of the League but have no seat on the Council have no power to bring to the latter's notice cases of infraction or danger of infraction of the terms of the minorities treaties.
The second paragraph of the provisions concerning the League ' of Nations guarantee further lays down that when once a Minor ities question has been brought before it, the Council may "there upon take such action and give such direction as it may deem proper and effective in the circumstances." The extremely general character of this wording and the wide powers it confers upon the Council will at once be noticed, as also the fact that no indication is given as to the procedure to be fol lowed by the Council in the settlement of Minorities questions'. The only rule of procedure applicable to this paragraph is that provided in article 4 of the Covenant of the League, which lays down that any member of the League not represented on the Council shall be invited to send a representative to sit as a mem ber at any meeting of the Council during the consideration of matters specially affecting the interests of that member.
In practice the Council has always felt that it should act as an organ of conciliation in these matters, and accordingly all the Minorities questions with which it has had to deal have been settled by agreement with the Governments concerned. In two cases (the questions of settlers of German race in Poland and the acquisition of Polish nationality), the Council asked the Permanent Court of International Justice for an advisory opinion on certain points.
The third paragraph of the provisions relating to the League of Nations guarantees deals with the reference of minorities ques tions to the Permanent Court of International Justice. M. Clemenceau himself, in his covering letter to the Polish Minorities Treaty emphasized the importance of this clause whereby, as he said, "differences which may arise will be removed from the political sphere and placed in the hands of a judicial body." Acting in the spirit of this declaration the Third Assembly, in its resolution II. of Sept. 21, 1922, recommended that the members of the Council should appeal without unnecessary delay to the Permanent Court of International Justice for a decision in case of a difference of opinion with the Governments concerned as to questions of law or fact relating to the application of the minor ities treaties.
The Council did not consider it necessary to institute a special procedure for the examination of minorities questions brought before it by any of its members, but laid down such procedure for petitions and communications in regard to the protection of minorities addressed to the League but not sponsored by any of the members of the Council.