Compulsory Arbitration.—It is a singular and interesting fact that many smaller Powers have signed the compulsory juris diction clause in the protocol establishing the Permanent Court of International Justice. If both litigating Powers have signed the compulsory clause a peaceful settlement can be imposed by the court. There can be no doubt that such smaller Powers as cannot depend on the guaranteed protection of larger ones feel that they are safest in this way. And it is an interesting fact that Denmark is the first State in Europe since the War to propose the reduction of her armed forces to the level of mere police, and to trust to the justice and opinion of the world for support in time of need.
Abrogation or Renewal of Treaties After War.—Highly technical points are raised by this question which, though less generally interesting than those already mentioned, are none the less of some importance for the future of diplomacy. Treaties are of two kinds, bilateral between two states, multilateral be tween several states. It is clear that in the case of bilateral treaties when State A can force State B to sign a treaty of peace after the war, A can renew or refuse to renew with B all the pre-war treaties that she chooses. Germany did not ques tion this right in bilateral treaties. In the case of multilateral treaties the Allies claimed the right to refuse permission to Ger many and to the enemy Powers to keep in force treaties with states not actually then engaged in the War, as, e.g., Soviet Russia, or with neutrals who had not been in the War at all though they had severed diplomatic relations with Germany, as, e.g., Peru and
Ecuador. In reply to the German protests, the Allies maintained and inserted in the German and other treaties their right to "reapply" all "multilateral treaties which seemed to them to be compatible with the new conditions arising out of the War," and "to indicate which of these treaties with Germany they intend to revive or allow to be revived." The Allies particularly in sisted on making Germany grant for limited periods to the Allies themselves, or to some of them, certain terms already granted to her friends or neutrals. But they did not demand that Germany should be prevented from negotiating new instruments with states other than the Allies after certain limited periods had passed; e.g., Article 268, of German Treaty. Nor did Germany fail to avail her self of her power. After having been compelled to abrogate the treaties of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia, she negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with them on April 16, 1922. The Allies con tended that Germany had not the right to do it. (H. W. V. T.) It was hoped in 1919 that grievances created by the various treaties of peace would be mitigated by the security afforded to Europe through the League of Nations and the Court of Inter national Justice, to which agencies there were added regional guarantees like the Pact of Locarno. These hopes were seriously overcast when Japan in her dealings with China, Italy in con quering Ethiopia, and Germany in occupying the Rhineland ig nored treaty obligations. It was evident (1936) that respect for international law of every kind was gravely weakened and that, under a system of armaments, the theory of treaties had proved to be largely academic. See also COMMERCIAL TREATIES.