and also such of those other States named in the Annex as shall accede without reservation to this Covenant. Such accession shall be effected by a Declaration deposited with the Secretariat within two months of the coming into force of the Covenant. Notice thereof shall be sent to all other Members of the League.

2. Any fully self-governing State, Dominion or Colony not named in the Annex may become a Member of the League if its admission is agreed to by two-thirds of the Assembly, provided that it shall give effective guarantees of its sincere intention to observe its international obligations, and shall accept such regulations as may be prescribed by the League in regard to its military, naval and air forces and armaments.

Text of May 7:

Any fully self-governing State, Dominion or Colony not named in the Annex may become a Member of the League if its admission is agreed to by two-thirds of the Assembly, provided that it shall give effective guarantees of its sincere intention to observe its international obligations, and shall accept such regulations as may be prescribed by the League in regard to its military and naval forces and armaments.

3. Any Member of the League may, after two years' notice of its intention so to do, withdraw from the League, provided that all its international obligations and all its obligations under this Covenant shall have been fulfilled at the time of its withdrawal. Note to I, 1

The protocol opened for signature on September 30, 1938 would, when ratified, revise article 1 to read as follows:

"1. Any fully self-governing State, Dominion or Colony not being a Member of the League of Nations may become a Member thereof if its admission is agreed to by two-thirds of the Assembly, provided that it shall give effective guarantees of its sincere intention to observe its international obligations, and shall accept such regulations as may be prescribed by the League in regard to its military, naval and air forces and armaments.

"2. Any Member of the League may, after two years' notice of its intention so to do, withdraw from the League provided that all its international obligations and all its obligations under this Covenant shall have been fulfilled at the time of its withdrawal."

The Albanian regime set up after the Italian coup d'état of April 7, 1939 gave a notice of intention to withdraw that was not accepted at its face value by the Secretary-General and was referred by the Council to the Assembly, which did not consider the question at its session in December 1939. Albania was subsequently retained in the budget for a token annual payment.

Austria, after the occupation by Germany on March 13, 1938, was the subject of a notice by Germany to the Secretary-General on March 18 that Austria had "ceased to be a member of the League of Nations" from the promulgation of a federal law dated March 13. The Assembly in 1938 decided that this communication was not a notice of withdrawal; it made no claim for payment by Austria of budgetary contributions after March 18, 1938.

The French Government at Vichy gave a two years' notice of withdrawal on April 19, 1941 (Doc. C.26.M.23. 1941). On April 15, 1943 General Henri-Honoré Giraud and on April 16 General Charles de Gaulle, acting for the groups which joined to form the French Committee of National Liberation, addressed telegrams to the chairman of the Supervisory Commission and the Secretary-General, respectively, in which they were requested "to be good enough to consider that the said notification made under foreign pressure can have no effect and that consequently France continues to be a Member of the League of Nations" (Doc. C.8.M.8. 1943; see also file 500.C001/1525 and 500.C001/1527).

Note to I, 1-Continued

Honduras, Hungary, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru were in arrears in their contributions to the League budget at the expiration of their membership. After 1940 all failed to keep up the annuities under the consolidated arrears contracts.

China, which was unwilling to accept articles 156-158 relating to Shantung by signing the treaty of peace with Germany, became a member of the League of Nations by signing and ratifying the treaty of peace with Austria, which entered into force on July 16, 1920.

Rumania's membership in the League resulted from its ratification of the treaty of peace with Hungary on September 4, 1920.

Ecuador ratified no treaty of peace but took up membership in the League of Nations in September 1934 as a consequence of its being named an original member in the annex.

The parties of the second part of the treaties of peace with Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and Hungary were admitted to the League of Nations in virtue of article 1 of the Covenant as follows:

Germany, Italy, and Japan, the signatories to the treaty of September 7, 1940 establishing the totalitarian "Axis", withdrew from membership in the League of Nations in order to gain freedom from the obligations of the Covenant under the following circumstances: Japan

On February 24, 1933 the Assembly of the League of Nations adopted a resolution that found against Japan in the "Manchuria Incident" which began on September 18, 1931. The Committee of Inquiry, headed by the Earl of Lytton, had incorporated in its report detailed suggestions for the orderly reconciliation of the complex relations between China and Japan, and that program of reformation and reorganization was repeated in the resolution adopted by the Assembly in February 1933. Japan alone voted against the resolution, its vote not counting under article 15, paragraph 10, of the Covenant. The Assembly of the League simultaneously set up under a further resolution a Far East Advisory Committee to follow events and to concert action to maintain non-recognition of the existing regime in Manchuria. On March 27 the Japanese Government telegraphed to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations that the "gross errors" in the Assembly showed a failure to grasp realities in the Far

Note to I, 1-Continued

East, exhibited a misapprehension of the "spirit of Japan”, and that the "challenge" of Japan's recognition of "Manchukuo" cut "away the ground for the stabilization of the Far-Eastern situation". Since the Japanese Government realized that there was "an irreconcilable divergence of views, dividing Japan and the League on policies of peace", the Government, carrying out a rescript of the Emperor, believed that "there remains no room for further collaboration". For such reasons, Japan gave notice of an intention to withdraw from the League, which became effective on March 27, 1935.

Germany

Germany was admitted as a member of the League of Nations and voted to a permanent seat on the Council on September 8, 1926, following an extensive period of political rapprochement. The adoption of the plan of the First Committee of Experts (Dawes Plan) on reparation in 1924 led, by a series of political negotiations, to the proposals which culminated in the Locarno settlement of October 16, 1925, the several instruments of which entered into force upon the admission of Germany to the League.

An important development in 1925 was the organization of the Preparatory Commission for the disarmament conference, which included Germany as a member. The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments began on February 2, 1932. On December 3, 1932 the Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany subscribed to a common declaration divided into three parts, in the first of which the Governments of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom assured Germany "equality of rights in a system which would provide security for all nations". Adolf Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933 and thereafter negotiations in the conference to find a formula for the limitation of land armament to which France and Germany would agree made little headway. The German Minister for Foreign Affairs on October 14, 1933 sent to the Bureau and the General Commission of the conference a telegram in which he stated that "the German Government is accordingly compelled to leave the Disarmament Conference". The reasons given to justify this conclusion were that the conference "will not fulfill what is its sole object-namely, general disarmament"; that the sole cause was "the unwillingness on the part of the highly armed states to carry out their contractual obligation to disarm"; and that "this renders impossible the satisfaction of Germany's recognized claim to equality of rights", a condition on which its continuance in the conference hinged.