Page images
PDF
EPUB

PROTOCOL

SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE

TREATY OF PEACE.

SIGNED AT VERSAILLES, JUNE 28, 1919.*

WITH a view to indicating precisely the conditions in which certain provisions of the Treaty of even date are to be carried out, it is agreed by the HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES that :

(1) A Commission will be appointed by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers to supervise the destruction of the fortifications of Heligoland in accordance with the Treaty. This Commission will be authorised to decide what portion of the works protecting the coast from sea erosion are to be maintained and what portion must be destroyed;

(2) Sums reimbursed by Germany to German nationals to indemnify them in respect of the interests which they may be found to possess in the railways and mines referred to in the second paragraph of Article 156 shall be credited to Germany against the sums due by way of reparation;

(3) The list of persons to be handed over to the Allied and Associated Governments by Germany under the second paragraph of Article 228 shall be communicated to the German Government within a month from the coming into force of the Treaty ;

(4) The Reparation Commission referred to in Article 240 and paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of Annex IV cannot require trade secrets or other confidential information to be divulged;

(5) From the signature of the Treaty and within the ensuing four months Germany will be entitled to submit for examination by the Allied and Associated Powers documents and proposals in order to expedite the work connected with reparation, and thus to shorten the investigation and to accelerate the decisions;

(6) Proceedings will be taken against persons who have committed punishable offences in the liquidation of German property, and the Allied and Associated Powers will welcome any information or evidence which the German Government can furnish on this subject.

Done at Versailles, the twenty-eighth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and nineteen.

[Signatures as on pp. 210-211.]

*Treaty Series No. 5 (1919)."

TREATY

BETWEEN

THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND FRANCE

RESPECTING

ASSISTANCE TO FRANCE IN THE EVENT OF UNPROVOKED AGGRESSION

BY GERMANY.

SIGNED AT VERSAILLES, JUNE 28, 1919.*

WHEREAS there is a danger that the stipulations relating to the left bank of the Rhine contained in the Treaty of Peace signed this day at Versailles may not at first provide adequate security and protection to the French Republic; and

WHEREAS His Britannic Majesty is willing, subject to the consent of His Parliament and provided that a similar obligation is entered into by the United States of America, to undertake to support the French Government in the case of an unprovoked movement of aggression being made against France by Germany; and

WHEREAS His Britannic Majesty and the President of the French Republic have determined to conclude a Treaty to that effect and have named as their Plenipotentiaries for the purpose, that is to say :-

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT
BRITAIN AND IRELAND AND OF THE BRITISH DOMINIONS
BEYOND THE SEAS, EMPEROR OF INDIA:

The Right Honourable David Lloyd George, M.P.,

First Lord of His Treasury and Prime Minister; The Right Honourable Arthur James Balfour, O.M., M.P., His Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs;

"Treaty Series. No. 6 (1919)."

THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC :

Mr. Georges Clemenceau, President of the Council,
Minister of War;

Mr. Stephen Pichon, Minister of Foreign Affairs; WHO having communicated their full powers found in good and due form, have AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

ARTICLE 1.

In case the following stipulations relating to the left bank of the Rhine contained in the Treaty of Peace with Germany signed at Versailles the 28th day of June, 1919, by the British Empire, the French Republic and the United States of America among other Powers:

"Article 42. Germany is forbidden to maintain or construct any fortifications either on the left bank of the Rhine or on the right bank to the west of a line drawn 50 kilom. to the East of the Rhine.

66

Article 43. In the area defined above the maintenance and assembly of armed forces, either permanently or temporarily, and military manoeuvres of any kind, as well as the upkeep of all permanent works for mobilisation, are in the same way forbidden.

"Article 44. In case Germany violates in any manner whatever the provisions of Articles 42 and 43, she shall be regarded as committing a hostile act against the Powers. signatory of the present Treaty and as calculated to disturb the peace of the world."

may not at first provide adequate security and protection to France, Great Britain agrees to come immediately to her assistance in the event of any unprovoked movement of aggression against her being made by Germany.

ARTICLE 2.

The present Treaty, in similar terms with the Treaty of even date for the same purpose concluded between the French Republic and the United States of America, a copy of which Treaty is annexed hereto, will only come into force when the latter is ratified.

ARTICLE 3.

The present Treaty must be submitted to the Council of the League of Nations and must be recognised by the Council, acting if need be by a majority, as an engagement which is consistent with the Covenant of the League; it will continue in force until on the application of one of the Parties to it the Council, acting if need be by a majority, agrees that the League itself affords sufficient protection.

ARTICLE 4.

The present Treaty shall before ratification by His Majesty be submitted to Parliament for approval.

It shall before ratification by the President of the French Republic be submitted to the French Chambers for approval.

ARTICLE 5.

The present Treaty shall impose no obligation upon any of the Dominions of the British Empire unless and until it is approved by the Parliament of the Dominion concerned.

The present Treaty shall be ratified, and shall, subject to Articles 2 and 4, come into force at the same time as the Treaty of Peace with Germany of even date comes into force for the British Empire and the French Republic.

IN FAITH WHEREOF the above-named Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Treaty, drawn up in the English and French languages.

Done in duplicate at Versailles, on the twenty-eighth day of June, 1919.

(L.S.) D. LLOYD GEORGE.

(LS.) ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR. (L.S.) G. CLEMENCEAU.

(L.S.) S. PICHON.

ANNEX.

ASSISTANCE TO FRANCE IN THE EVENT OF UNPROVOKED AGGRESSION BY GERMANY.

AGREEMENT

BETWEEN

THE UNITED STATES AND FRANCE.

SIGNED AT VERSAILLES, JUNE 28, 1919.*

WHEREAS the United States of America and the French Republic are equally animated by the desire to maintain the Peace of the world so happily restored by the Treaty of Peace signed at Versailles the 28th day of June, 1919, putting an end to the war begun by the aggression of the German Empire and ended by the defeat of that Power; and

WHEREAS the United States of America and the French Republic are fully persuaded that an unprovoked movement of aggression by Germany against France would not only violate both the letter and the spirit of the Treaty of Versailles to which the United States of America and the French Republic are parties, thus exposing France anew to the intolerable burdens of an unprovoked war, but that such aggression on the part of Germany would be and is so regarded by the Treaty of Versailles as a hostile act against all the Powers signatory to that Treaty and as calculated to disturb the Peace of the world by involving inevitably and directly the States of Europe and indirectly, as experience bas amply and unfortunately demonstrated, the world at large; and

WHEREAS the United States of America and the French Republic fear that the stipulations relating to the left bank of the Rhine contained in the said Treaty of Versailles may not at first provide adequate security and protection to France, on the one hand, and the United States of America, as one of the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles, on the other;

Not yet ratified.

« PreviousContinue »