GENEVA PROTOCOL

GENEVA PROTOCOL; aimed at the peaceful resolution of international disputes, it was adopted by the League of Nations in October 1924. This amendment to the League Covenant proposed a broad extension of courts of arbitration and sought to institute the principle whereby signatory states would come to the assistance of any threatened member state. Requiring great-power approval, the protocol was quickly upheld by France. But the British government, swayed by a negative vote in the Committee of Imperial Defence, rejected it. Unable to commit to a defense of France, let alone pledge his country to defend Poland,* Austen Chamberlain announced on 12 March 1925 that Britain found the protocol unacceptable. Yet while its concept of collective security proved abortive, it was a necessary prologue for the Locarno Treaties.* A resolution of October 1922, also labeled the Geneva Protocol, echoed Article 88 of the Saint-Germain Treaty between Austria* and the Allies in proscribing ‘‘any economic or financial engagement calculated directly or indirectly to compromise'' Austrian independence. The prohibition assumed importance in 1931 when steps were taken to form an Austro-German customs union.