Skip to item: of 138
Information about this record Back to top
Open in Universal viewer
Open in Mirador IIIF viewer

'League of Nations, Conference for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition and in Implements of War, Geneva, 17th June 1925' [‎54r] (114/138)

The record is made up of 1 volume (65 folios). It was created in 1925. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

Transcription

This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.

Apply page layout

19
insertion of the prefatory words that appear in the first line of Article 6
of the new Convention, and the second declaration in the Final Act.
53. Publicity of export and import having been established as a
fundamental principle of the Convention-to-be, and the connection between
it and publicity of manufacture having been relegated for discussion as a
side-issue not properly germane to the Conference's task, the more thorny
questions remained of the application of the principle, of exemptions from
its application, of the limits within which it should be applied, and of the
organisation by which it should be applied.
54. The admission that producing States are less disadvantageonsly d . Exemptions
affected by publicity in regard to traffic than non-producing countries from publicity.*
encouraged the European States that border Russia and were formerly part # See also para,
of the Russian Empire and which are a]l, as it happens, non-producing 103 (i).
States, to claim that they have a right to special treatment. The delegates p, . „
for Roumania {M. Comnene) and Poland (General Sosnkowski) were neighbour to
prominent in voicing their claim, which they supported by appeal to para. 2 Russia.
of Article 8 of the Covenant; Russia, they argued, is or is feared to be a
great armament manufacturing Power; Russia is not and is not likely to
be bound by any of the principles underlying the Arms Traffic Convention,
least of all the principle of publicity; Russia openly advocates the use of
gas warfare ; Russia constantly adopts a minator}?- attitude to her neighbours,
and her neighbours would be even more at her mercy than they already fear
themselves to be, if they were compelled to publish their imports of arms
and their suppliers to publish their exports. The General Committee
recognised the force of this claim so far as to appoint a special
Sub-Committee to consider it more fully and to examine the means for
meeting it and the similar claims which were thereupon made by
the delegates for Persia and China, two of Russia's Asiatic neighbours ; the
Turkish delegate made no similar demand on behalf of his Government.
This Sub-Committee heard the representations of the various delegations
affected and recommended that the circumstances of the five European
States immediately bordering upon Russia were such as to justify special
treatment, so long at least as Russia remains outside the pale. Their The Special
recommendations emerged from the Drafting Committee in the form of an Committee's re-
Article which, while in no way infringing the sovereign right of any High commen a 10ns '
Contracting Party to publish whatever statistics of trade in arms might be
required by its internal laws to be published, offered these five States an
opportunity to make reservations, and a promise to respect their reservations
in regard to their amenability to the publicity enactments of the Convention.
The appearance of this draft Article in the General Committee at the
second reading was the signal for the renewal by States bordering on
the five States accorded special treatment, of demands J or similar treatment.
The Lithuanian delegate was especially energetic in pressing this demand,
urging that his country also was formerly within the Russian Empire and is
even now only excluded, by the interposition of a very narrow strip of
country, from the category of actual neighbours of Soviet Russia ; but
Bulgaria and Serbia, and, after Serbia, Greece, were almost as emphatic in
claiming equal treatment, though their claim has evidently less justification.
Mr. Burton silenced their clamour in his most pontifical manner, pointing
out that any extension to any other country of the limited exemption
recommended, with great hesitation, for the five immediate neighbours of
Russia, would lead by an obvious progression, of which sufficiently clear
indication had been given, to universal exemption. The Article which now Reservatioiis
appears as No. 29 was eventually adopted, the Persian delegate indicating permitted by
that his Government might reserve the right to claim similar treatment. ■ Rr ^ cle 29 ■
The representatives of the five States named in Article 29 took, without
exception, the opportunity afforded to make a reservation against the publicity
rules, as they affixed their signatures to the Convention.
55. The risk that States granted this exemption might abuse it bv
accumulating in the secrecy thus afforded stocks of munitions not only from
High Contracting Parties that are producing States but also from Russia—
a risk whose reality was perhaps suggested by the nonchalant attitude of

About this item

Content

The volume contains the following two documents: League of Nations, Conference for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition and in Implements of War: Convention, Declaration regarding the Territory of Ifni, Protocol on Chemical and Bacteriological Warfare, Protocol of Signature, Final Act (CCIA 91 (2)) and International Arms Traffic Conference, Geneva, May-June 1925, Report by the Delegates for India .

The delegates for India named in the second of these documents are Major-General Sir Percy Zachariah Cox and Colonel W E Wilson-Johnston.

The first of these documents is in both French and English.

Extent and format
1 volume (65 folios)
Arrangement

There are tables of contents towards the front of the first document, on folio 5v; and towards the front of the second, on folio 45v.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at 1 on the front cover and terminates at 66 on the back cover. These numbers are written in pencil, are enclosed in a circle, and appear in the top right hand corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. page of each folio. Foliation anomalies: ff. 13, 13A.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
View the complete information for this record

Use and share this item

Share this item
Cite this item in your research

'League of Nations, Conference for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition and in Implements of War, Geneva, 17th June 1925' [‎54r] (114/138), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/748, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024090486.0x000073> [accessed 28 March 2024]

Link to this item
Embed this item

Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.

<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100024090486.0x000073">'League of Nations, Conference for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition and in Implements of War, Geneva, 17th June 1925' [&lrm;54r] (114/138)</a>
<a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100024090486.0x000073">
	<img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000193.0x0002d4/IOR_R_15_1_748_0114.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" />
</a>
IIIF details

This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000000193.0x0002d4/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images

Use and reuse
Download this image