Resolutions concerning the League of Nations, passed at the Washington Congress of the W.I.L.P.F.
1. This Congress is of opinion that the Draft Treaties of Mutual Assistance presented to the Assembly of the League of Nations, and referred by it to the respective Governments for consideration, would increase the difficulties which already stand in the way of American membership of the League, and should be rejected for the following reasons among others: --
(a) A general Treaty cannot provide any effective military protection and will in practice be broken up into partial treaties.
(b) Partial military treaties are injurious to the solidarity of the League of Nations and [reintroduce] the worst features of the Balance of Power.
(c) It is most improbable that the Treaties would result in any substantial reduction of armaments, and they might actually in some cases increase armaments.
(d) It is impossible to define "aggression" in any way that will be satisfactory in practice, still less define what is "aggressive policy" or "menace of aggression."
(e) Any partial treaties of the kind contemplated would concentrate the attention of the Council of the League of Nations on force -- the [organization] of force and the danger of force -- instead of upon conciliation and justice; they would deprive the judgments of the League even of the measure of impartiality they now posses.
2. Resolved: First, that the Fourth Biennial Congress of the W.I.L.P.F. urges the League of Nations to [organize] a special permanent Committee on National Minorities.
Second, that the Minority Treaties be amended in [favor] of the National Minorities and the Treaties so amended be observed in all countries which are members of the League of Nations.
3. Resolved that the W.I.L.P.F. shall apply to Germany, Mexico, Russia, Turkey and U.S.A., as important states yet outside the League of Nations, urging them earnestly to declare that they are ready to join the League on the condition that the Covenant be so amended that the League may become a more satisfactory instrument of goodwill, justice and democracy.
4. This Congress recommends National Sections to work in their own countries to induce their respective Governments to sign the optional protocol of the Permanent Court of International Justice, thereby undertaking to submit to judicial decision legal disputes with other countries signing the protocol.
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