Dreams Born and Shattered 359form of the multilateral Montreux Convention. It provided that the mixed
courts would be wound up in 1949 and that, until that time, they were to ap-
ply Egyptian instead of foreign law in their proceedings.
Th e Chinese government had less success in eliminating extraterritorial-
ity. Th e republican government was less relaxed than its imperial pre de ces-
sor had been on the subject and pressed energetically for its abolition. A
potentially important step took place at the Nine- Power Conference of 1922,
which established a commission to look into the matter. Th is body, however,
to the intense disappointment of the Chinese government, did not recom-
mend the immediate termination of extraterritorial arrangements. Nor (as
noted previously) did China succeed in enlisting the aid of the League of
Nations Assembly.
Unilateral abrogation of Western privileges was attempted, with varying
results. In 1927, the Persian government unilaterally denounced all of its
capitulation treaties en bloc. Th is proved eff ective. Th e Chinese govern-
ment, though, had less success with this strategy. When it purported to end
Belgium’s extraterritorial privileges in 1927, the Belgian government re-
fused to acquiesce and brought a claim against China in the World Court
for breach of its treaty rights. A settlement was reached, in which Belgium
agreed in principle to end its privileges— but only when other countries did
so. Other states made similar commitments, but to no practical eff ect. No
state took the decisive fi rst step of actually relinquishing its privileges, so
that extraterritoriality remained in place in China throughout the interwar
period. But at least the principle of abolition had been established.
Minority Protection
International commitments for fair treatment of minority groups were not a
complete novelty in the post– Great War era. In 1878, upon attaining in de-
pen dence from Turkey, Romania was placed under a treaty obligation to re-
frain from discrimination against minority populations. It was only aft er
the war, however, that this strategy of minority protection by way of treaty
commitment was employed on a large scale. Th is was, in eff ect, the quid
pro quo for the attainment of in de pen dence by the various former parts of
the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. In the case of the four defeated Cen-
tral powers— Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey— provisions for the