Prager Tagblatt
- The Locarno Pact takes effect
- The League protects itself against sabotage
- The British miners’ strike continues
The page places Locarno’s reported entry into force above detailed debate over League Council election rules. Both concern how negotiated arrangements become workable institutions. A short British labour dispatch describes another unresolved negotiation: miners plan to continue their strike after the employers’ rejection of a national wage agreement.
Locarno communiqué, the Council draft’s recorded vote and reset clause, and the complete short miners’ dispatch. Other Council debate, Italian emigration commentary and Spanish reports are not fully transcribed.
Translation
The Locarno Pact takes effect
The League of Nations Secretariat issued the following communiqué today: On the morning of September 14, the treaties and conventions of Locarno were ratified in the office of the League’s Secretary-General. The instruments of ratification were deposited at the Secretariat by representatives of all the signatory states: for Germany, Foreign Minister Dr Stresemann; for Belgium, Senator de Brouquere; for Britain, Chamberlain; for Poland, Zaleski; and for Czechoslovakia, Dr Beneš. Since all the instruments of ratification have been deposited and Germany has become a League member, all the treaties and conventions have entered into force today.
The League protects itself against sabotage
The draft adopted
In the vote, Loucheur’s motion not to count abstentions when declaring eligibility for re-election was finally adopted by the narrow majority of 19 votes to 16. The German delegate on the committee, Dr Gauß, voted with the minority.
The clause was appended to the draft as Article 3 of the electoral rules, in the same form in which it had appeared in the study committee’s May proposal, from which it had been removed particularly at Spain’s request. The new article reads:
“Notwithstanding the preceding provisions, the Assembly may at any time decide, by a two-thirds majority and in application of Article 4 of the League Covenant, to hold a new election of all the non-permanent members of the Council. In that event, it shall be for the Assembly to determine the rules applicable to the new election.”
The British miners’ strike continues
London, September 14. Following the mine owners’ rejection of a national wage agreement, the British miners’ delegates decided today to continue the strike by every means available and to leave any further initiative for settling it to the government.
Context
Why German membership mattered to Locarno
The Locarno settlement was intended to place agreements between Germany and its neighbours inside a wider system of collective security. Its activation therefore depended not just on governments completing ratification, but on Germany joining the League. The UN treaty record gives September 14, 1926 as the entry-into-force date. The communiqué marks the point when the diplomatic promises acquired force within that institutional setting.
Why the Council’s election rules became a political struggle
Permanent and elected Council seats gave countries different degrees of access to the body handling international security. The number of elected seats rose to nine in 1926, making the terms of election and re-election especially consequential. The proposed power to replace all elected members could release the Assembly from an obstructive arrangement, while the abstention rule affected how difficult it was to secure re-election eligibility. Procedures here determined how influence would be distributed.
Why a national wage agreement was central to the coal dispute
The 1926 coal conflict involved proposed wage reductions and a move toward settlements by district. A national agreement offered miners a common bargaining framework; separate district terms could divide their resistance to cuts. That is why the owners’ rejection could prolong the strike even while the miners left the next proposal to government. They were maintaining collective pressure while asking the state to reopen a route to settlement.
Original
Der Pakt von Locarno in Kraft.
Das Völkerbundsekretariat veröffentlichte heute folgendes Kommuniqué: Am 14. September vormittag hat im Bureau des Generalsekretärs des Völkerbundes die Ratifikation der Verträge und Konventionen von Locarno stattgefunden. Die Ratifikationsurkunden wurden von den Vertretern sämtlicher Signatarstaaten im Völkerbundsekretariate niedergelegt, und zwar für Deutschland vom Reichsaußenminister Dr. Stresemann, für Belgien vom Senator de Brouquere, für England von Chamberlain, für Polen von Zaleski, für die Tschechoslowakei von Dr. Beneš. Da sämtliche Ratifikationsurkunden deponiert und Deutschland Mitglied des Völkerbundes geworden ist, sind damit alle Verträge und Konventionen mit dem heutigen Tage in Kraft getreten.
Der Völkerbund schützt sich vor Sabotage.
Der Entwurf angenommen.
Bei der Abstimmung wurde schließlich der Antrag Loucheur, die Stimmenthaltungen bei der Wiederwählbarkeitserklärung nicht mitzuzählen, mit der geringen Mehrheit von 19 gegen 16 Stimmen angenommen. Der deutsche Delegierte in der Kommission, Dr. Gauß, stimmte mit der Minderheit.
Die Klausel wurde in der gleichen Form, in der sie in dem Maiprojekte der Studienkommission enthalten gewesen war, aus dem sie besonders auf spanischen Wunsch entfernt wurde, als Artikel 3 des Wahlreglements an den Entwurf angefügt. Der neue Artikel hat folgenden Wortlaut:
„Ungeachtet der vorhergehenden Bestimmungen kann die Versammlung zu jeder Zeit, und zwar mit Zweidrittelmehrheit, beschließen, daß in Anwendung des Artikels 4 des Völkerbundpaktes eine Neuwahl aller nichtständigen Mitglieder des Rates vorgenommen wird. In diesem Falle ist es Sache der Versammlung, über die für diese neue Wahl geltenden Regeln Beschluß zu fassen.“
Fortsetzung des englischen Bergarbeiterstreikes.
London, 14. September. Die englischen Bergarbeiterdelegierten beschlossen heute unter dem Eindrucke des von den Grubenbesitzern abgelehnten nationalen Lohnabkommens, den Streik mit allen Mitteln fortzuführen und der Regierung jede weitere Initiative zur Beilegung des Streikes zu überlassen.