ARTICLE 1. The two states mutually guarantee to each other their territorial possessions based on the treaties from which the independence and organization of the state of Poland and the state of Czechoslovakia depend. The two states shall reach an agreement, when occasion demands, upon the application of treaties signed in common.

ART. 2. The two states engage to preserve benevolent neutrality in case either of them should be attacked by one of their neighbors, and especially to insure free transit of war materials.

ART. 3. Czechoslovakia declares herself disinterested in the question of eastern Galicia. In consequence of this she undertakes the obligation of dissolving the Ukrainian formations which are interned in Czechoslovakia and to repress all active propaganda intended to detach any territory from the Republic of Poland.

Analogous obligations are taken by Poland with regard to Czechoslovakia.

Henceforth each of the two states engages not to tolerate on its territory any political or military organization directed against the integrity and security of the other state.

ART. 4. The two Governments take note of the political, military and economic conventions concluded between Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Jugoslavia on the one side, and the analogous conventions concluded between Poland, France and Rumania on the other.

ART. 5. A commercial convention between Czechoslovakia and Poland shall regulate between these states all economic and financial questions as well as those relative to transit.

ART. 6. Both parties engage that, in all disputed questions of any considerable importance, the two states shall have recourse to an arbitration. Questions before being settled by arbitration may, by common agreement between the two Governments, be submitted to arbiters ad hoc, or else shall be brought before the Court of International Justice.

ART. 7. Reciprocal engagement is taken by the two states that no new agreement contravening the present agreement shall be concluded by them with other states.

ART. 8. The duration of the present agreement is five years, dating from the exchange of ratifications, but each of the two Governments is at liberty to denounce it after two years upon giving the other state six months' notice in advance.

ART. 9. The present agreement shall be ratified and the instruments of ratification shall be exchanged as soon as possible.

In faith whereof, the plenipotentiaries have signed the present agreement and have affixed their seals thereto.

Done in duplicate at Prague, November 6, 1921.

(Signed) EDOUARD BENESH.

CONSTANTIN SKIRMUNT.

3. CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND AUSTRIA

Austria was the next state with which such an agreement was sought by Czechoslovakia. The move was noteworthy because it was the first move by any of the victorious powers on the entirely normal basis of customary peaceful relations. The undertaking to "carry out in full" the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye is perhaps quixotic, since all active financial provisions of that treaty were already suspended by agreement; but that may be regarded as a declaration of principle. This agreement also provides for settlement of all disputes. It was signed at Prague on December 16, 1921, and is as follows1:

The Government of the Czechoslovak Republic on the one part and the Government of the Federal Republic of Austria on the other part, with a view to maintaining peace in Europe and to regulating their mutual political and economic relations, have arranged to conclude a political agreement and have for this purpose appointed as their Plenipotentiaries:

The President of the Czechoslovak Republic:

M. Edouard Benesh, the President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs;

The Federal President of the Republic of Austria:

M. Jean Schober, Federal Chancellor and Director of the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs,

who having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following provisions:

ARTICLE I. Both states undertake to carry out in full all the provisions of the treaty of peace concluded with Austria at St. Germain-en-Laye on September 10, 1919, and the treaty of peace concluded with Hungary at Trianon on June 4, 1920.

ART. II. The two states mutually guarantee their territories as fixed by the treaties of peace referred to in Art. I; and, with a view to maintaining peace and safeguarding the integrity of these territories, they undertake to afford each other mutual political and diplomatic support. ART. III. Each state undertakes to remain neutral should the other be compelled to defend itself against attack.

ART. IV. Both states undertake not to tolerate on their territories any political or military organization directed against the integrity and security of the other contracting party. They agree to work together

'League of Nations, Treaty Series, IX, 257.

and afford each other mutual aid against any plans or attempts to restore the former régime, either as regards foreign and domestic policy, or in respect of the form of the state and of Government. The competent authorities of both states shall afford each other mutual assistance in effectively combating secret intrigues having this object.

ART. V. The Czechoslovak Republic will communicate to the Federal Republic of Austria certain political and economic conventions which the Czechoslovak Republic has concluded with the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Kingdom of Rumania and the Republic of Poland. Similar conventions concluded by the Federal Republic of Austria shall be communicated to the Czechoslovak Republic.

ART. VI. Both states undertake to enforce the observance of agreements concluded or to be concluded for the settlement of economic and financial questions, or of questions relating to minorities, and to arrive at an understanding as soon as possible with regard to any disputes which may not yet have been settled.

ART. VII. Should disputes arise between the two states after the conclusion of the present agreement, the two Governments undertake to endeavor to settle them by amicable arrangement; they will if need be submit the dispute to the Permanent Court of International Justice or to an arbitrator or arbitrators chosen ad hoc.

ART. VIII. Each state undertakes not to conclude with any other state any agreement which would conflict with the Agreement now entered into by the two contracting parties. They further declare that the present Agreement is not in conflict with agreements previously concluded.

ART. IX. The present agreement is concluded for a period of five years dating from the day on which the instruments of ratification are exchanged; after a period of three years dating from the said date, each of the contracting parties is free to denounce the present Agreement, six months' notice being given.

ART. X. The present agreement shall be ratified and the instruments of ratifications shall be exchanged at Prague as soon as possible.

ART. XI. The present agreement shall be communicated to the League of Nations.

In witness whereof the two plenipotentiaries have signed the present agreement and affixed their seals thereto

Done in duplicate at Prague on December 16, 1921.

(L.S.) Dr. EDOUARD BENESH. (L.B.) SCHOBER.

IX. THE PACIFIC PACT

When the United States took the initiative in the summer of 1921 in calling a conference on the limitation of armament, the invitation specified that Far Eastern questions would also be considered by the conference. The first completed work of the conference in treaty form was a document technically entitled a treaty relating to the insular possessions and the insular dominions of the contracting states in the region of the Pacific Ocean.

There was much discussion in the United States as to whether or not this was an alliance. Its entrance into force has the effect of ending the Anglo-Japanese alliance. The prevailing American opinion eventually arrived at was that the definite provision that there should be an understanding as to the most efficient measures to be taken with respect to aggressive action constituted a satisfactory distinction between this treaty and an alliance. The treaty itself reads1:

The United States of America, the British Empire, France and Japan, With a view to the preservation of the general peace and the maintenance of their rights in relation to their insular possessions and insular dominions in the region of the Pacific Ocean,

Have determined to conclude a treaty to this effect and have appointed as their plenipotentiaries:

[Here follows list of names and titles.]

Who, having communicated their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed as follows:

I. The high contracting parties agree as between themselves to respect their rights in relation to their insular possessions and insular dominions in the region of the Pacific Ocean.

If there should develop between any of the high contracting parties a controversy arising out of any Pacific question and involving their said rights which is not satisfactorily settled by diplomacy and is likely to affect the harmonious accord now happily subsisting between them, they shall invite the other high contracting parties to a joint conference to which the whole subject will be referred for consideration and adjustment.

1Sen. Doc. 126, 67th Cong., 2nd sess., p. 889.

II. If the said rights are threatened by the aggressive action of any other power, the high contracting parties shall communicate with one another fully and frankly in order to arrive at an understanding as to the most efficient measures to be taken, jointly or separately, to meet the exigencies of the particular situation.

III. This treaty shall remain in force for ten years from the time it shall take effect, and after the expiration of said period it shall continue to be in force subject to the right of any of the high contracting parties to terminate it upon twelve months' notice.

IV. This treaty shall be ratified as soon as possible in accordance with the constitutional methods of the high contracting parties and shall take effect on the deposit of ratifications, which shall take place at Washington, and thereupon the agreement between Great Britain and Japan, which was concluded at London on July 13, 1911, shall terminate. The Government of the United States will transmit to all the signatory powers a certified copy of the procès-verbal of the deposit of ratifications. The present treaty, in French and in English, shall remain deposited in the archives of the Government of the United States, and duly certified copies thereof will be transmitted by that Government to each of the signatory powers.

In faith whereof the above named plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty.

Done at the City of Washington, the thirteenth day of December, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-One.