CZECHOSLOVAKIA. (Hansard, 3 July 1939)

§ Mr. Butler

Following is the text of the communication:

Geneva

29th May, 1939.

TO THE SECRETARY-GENERAL.

At the first private meeting of the Council, on 22nd May last. I referred to a communication from Dr. Benes, which, owing to difficulties of a legal character, I was unable to read to the Council then in my capacity as President.

My Government, which has received a copy of Dr. Benes' communication, has instructed me to request that the communication be brought to the notice of the next Assembly.

I therefore have the honour, on behalf of the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, to request that you should communicate the attached copy of the telegram to the Members of the League.

I have the honour, etc.,

(Signed) J MAISKY.

946W

Pittsburgh,

13th May, 1939.

AVENOL,

Secretary-General,

League of Nations,

Geneva.

On 16th March, after the military invasion of Czecho-Slovakia by the Germany of to-day, I sent you a telegram of protest which I asked you to transmit to the President of the Council for appropriate action. In view of the present session of the Council of the League of Nations, I venture to renew this request, adding the following additional protest: After the German military invasion of Czecho-Slovakia and the establishment of the so-called German protectorate over Bohemia and Moravia and over Slovakia, the Hungarian Government, in breach of its previous freely-accepted undertakings, attacked with its armed forces the territory of Slovakia and Sub-Carpathian Russia, having forced the country and the local authorities, who have no means of successfully defending themselves since the mutilation of Czecho-Slovakia, to allow the entire territory of Sub-Carpathian Russia and part of Eastern Slovakia to be occupied.

Since the fundamental Articles of the Covenant of the League of Nations and the recognised general principles of international law have been thus infamously violated, since the Council of the league of Nations was entrusted by the special treaty which guaranteed the local autonomy of Sub-Carpathian Russia within the structure of the Czechoslovak Republic with the duty of ensuring the maintenance of that guarantee, a right and an obligation which the Council of the League of Nations conscientious and successfully enforced and discharged for 20 years, since consequently not only the rights of the Czecho-Slovak Republic and the Carpatho-Russian people but also the rights and duties of the Council of the League of Nations have been illegally destroyed and such violence cannot be tolerated by any member of the League of Nations without inflicting a fresh humiliation upon it and involving a violent attack on its existence, I respectfully appeal, as former President of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, to the President of the Council not to ignore this fresh crime against international law but to submit the question to the Council for appropriate action in virtue of the Articles of the Covenant that have thus been violated.

I would add that, though she still maintains her legal existence, Czecho-Slovakia is temporarily unable, suffering as she does from a regime of oppression and violence, to appear at Geneva in the full exercise of her rights. The former President of the Republic who, on behalf of Czecho-Slovakia, worked for 17 years at the League of Nations with extreme devotion for the maintenance and consolidation of international peace and who was elected President of the Assembly and, on several occasions, President of the Council of the League, will, I trust, be permitted, therefore, to make this appeal to the Council and to invoke not only the imprescriptible rights of Czechoslovakia and the Carpatho-Russian people, but also the duties and rights of the League of Nations.

EDOUARD BENES,

Professor at the University of Chicago.