The Council, in its resolution of Sept. 5, 1923, authorized the Member of the Council acting as president to extend, at the request of the Government concerned, the period of two months within which that Government must send in its observations.
Communication of Petitions to Members of the Council. —M. report explicitly provided that petitions should be sent by the secretary-general to the Members of the Council without comment. It was careful to add, however, that this com munication of petitions did not constitute a juridical act, because the Council did not become competent to deal with a question unless one of its Members notified it that the subject of the peti tion constituted an infraction or danger of infraction of the Treaties. As already pointed out, therefore, this communication of petitions was intended purely for purposes of information. According to the procedure now in force (resolution of June 27, 1921) petitions are communicated to members of the Council either immediately, if the Government concerned declares that it does not wish to submit any observations on the petition, or at the end of the period of three weeks, if the Government concerned has not replied to the communication transmitting the petition to it, or, if the Government concerned says that it intends to pre sent observations, as soon as these reach the secretariat. (Another possibility is that the Government concerned might state its intention to submit observations, but might not send them within two months; in such a case however, it would doubtless ask for an extension of the time-limit.) As already stated, urgent petitions and petitions from Governments of Members of the League are communicated simultaneously to the Members of the Council and the Government concerned. At the time when M. report was adopted by the Council the communica tion of a petition to members of the Council meant that it would also be communicated to all the Members of the League, since, as explained in the report, it was the settled practice of the secretary-general that every document communicated to the Members of the Council for information should also be sent to all members of the League. As, however, this practice gave rise to objections on the part of certain Governments which were signatories to minorities treaties', the Council, in its resolution of Sept. 5, 1923, decided that the communication of petitions and
of observations (should there be any) by the Government con cerned should be restricted to the Members of the Council, but that communication could be made to other members of the League or to the general public at the request of the Governments concerned or by virtue of a resolution passed by the Council.
The restriction which the Council introduced on Sept. 5, 1923, gave rise to a discussion by the Sixth committee of the Fourth Assembly (meeting of Sept. 25, 1923), as a result of which the Assembly, on Sept. 26, adopted a resolution confirming the Coun resolution of Sept. 5, but adding that "by virtue of para graph v. of the Assembly resolution dated Sept. 21, the Government of any member of the League can request the secre tariat to communicate to it any petitions (together with the observations of the Government concerned) which have been com municated to the The Minorities Council introduced into its procedure provisions whereby petitions, when once communi cated to the members of the Council in ordinary cases together with the observations of the Government concerned, would be carefully considered by them. The object of this examination is to enable the members of the Council to decide whether they should or should not bring the subject of the petition to the Council's notice as constituting an infraction or danger of in fraction of the treaties. With this object the Council decided in its resolution of Oct. 25, 192o, that with a view to assisting its members in the exercise of their rights and duties in the matter it was desirable that the president of the Council and two members appointed by him in each case should proceed to consider any petition or communication with regard to an infraction or danger of infraction of the clauses of the minori ties treaties. There was thus instituted what came to be com monly known as the "Committee of Three" or "Minorities Com mittee," which has become one of the normal organizations of the League in the matter of the protection of minorities.