A.—sd

I. The memorandum only mentions incidentally the League of Nations. Now the Allied States are members of the League of Nations and are bound by the Covenant of the League, which involves for them clearly defined rights and obligations with the object of maintaining general peace. The German proposals no doubt lay claim to the same ideal, but no agreement could be achieved unless Germany on her side assumes the obligations and enjoys the rights laid down in the Covenant of the League. This agreement, then, can only be conceived if Germany herself enters the League of Nations under the conditions laid down in the note from the Council of the League of Nations dated the 13th March, 1925. 11. The search for the guarantees of securities which the world demands cannot involve any modification of the peace treaties. The agreements to be concluded ought not, therefore, either to imply a revision of these treaties or to result in practice in the modification of the conditions laid down for the application of certain of their clauses. Thus the Allies cannot in any case give up the right to oppose any failure to observe the stipulations of these treaties, even if the stipulations in question do not directly concern them.' 111. The memorandum of the 9th February contemplates first of all the conclusion between the " Powers interested in the Rhine" of a pact which might be inspired by the following principles :— 1. Repudiation of all idea of war between the contracting States. 2. Strict respect for the existing territorial situation in the Rhineland, with a joint and several guarantee by the contracting States. 3. A guarantee by the contracting States of the execution of the obligations concerning the demilitarisation of the Rhineland which Germany has undertaken under articles 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Versailles. The French Government do not fail to appreciate the value to the cause of peace, side by side with a renewed affirmation of the principles inscribed in the Treaty [of Versailles], of a solemn repudiation of all idea 'of war (an undertaking which, moreover, ought not to contain any time-limit) between the contracting States. Those States must clearly include Belgium, who is not expressly named in the German memorandum and who ought to be a party to the pact as a State directly interested. It also goes without saying, and farther results from the silence on this point of the German memorandum, that the pact to be concluded on these lines could not affect the provisions of the treaty relative to the occupation of the Rhineland, nor the execution of the conditions laid down in relation thereto in the Rhineland Agreement,

2—A. sv.

I. The memorandum only mentions incidentally the League of Nations. Now the Allied States are members of T the League of Nations and are bound by the Covenant of the League, which involves for them' clearly defined rights and obligations with the object of maintaining general peace. The German proposals no doubt lay claim to the same ideal, but no agreement could be achieved unless Germany on her side assumes the obligations and enjoys the rights laid down in the Covenant of the League. This agreement, then, can only be conceived if Germany herself enters the League of Nations under the conditions laid down in the note from the Council of the League of Nations dated the 13th March, 1925. 11. The search for the guarantees of security which the world demands cannot involve any modification of the peace treaties. The agreements to be concluded ought not, therefore, either to imply a revision of these treaties or to result in practice in the modification of the conditions laid down for the application of certain of their clauses. Thus the Allies cannot in any case give up the right to oppose any failure to observe the stipulations of these treaties, even if the stipulations in question do not directly concern them. 111. The memorandum of the 9th February contemplates first of all the conclusion between the " Powers interested in the Rhine" of a pact which might be inspired by the following principles :— 1. Repudiation of all idea of war between the contracting States. 2. Strict respect for the existing territorial situation in the Rhineland, with a joint and several guarantee by the contracting States. 3. A guarantee by the contracting States of the execution of the obligations concerning the demilitarisation of the Rhineland which Germany has undertaken under articles 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Versailles. The French Government do not fail to appreciate the value to the cause of peace, side by side with a renewed affirmation of the principles inscribed in the Treaty [of Versailles], of a solemn repudiation of all idea of war (an undertaking which, moreover, ought not to contain any timelimit) between the contracting States. Those States must clearly include Belgium, who is not expressly named in the German memorandum and who ought to be a party to the pact as a State directly interested. It also goes without saying, and further results from the silence on this point of the German memorandum, that the pact to be concluded on these lines could not affect the provisions of the treaty relative to the occupation of the Rhineland, nor the execution of the conditions laid down in relation thereto in the Rhineland Agreement.

9