USA HISTORY

This Geneva Protocol, drawn up by Britain and France in 1924, said that if two members were in dispute they would have to ask the League to settle the dispute and they would have to accept the Council’s decision. It failed because:

(A) ** The new government in Britain was worried it was not in its own interests.

(B) The new government in France was worried it was not in its own interests.

(C) The new government in Italy was worried it was not in its own interests.

(D) The new government in Japan was worried it was not in its own interests.

Concept note-1: -The 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons in war. The Protocol was drawn up and signed at a conference which was held in Geneva under the auspices of the League of Nations from 4 May to 17 June 1925, and it entered into force on 8 February 1928.

Concept note-2: -British Conservatives condemned the proposal for fear that it would lead to conflict with the United States, which also opposed the proposal, and so it was shelved.

Concept note-3: -Four of the war victors, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan, gave consent for ratification, but it failed to enter into force as the French Third Republic objected to the submarine provisions of the treaty.

Concept note-4: -There is no “punishment” for breaking the Geneva Conventions. The conventions are not laws. They are conventions: standards of conduct which are observed by mutual agreement among nations. Nations may agree by treaty to observe the Geneva Conventions, but any such agreement is voluntary and may be rescinded.