360 Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1914– )protection of minorities were included in the respective peace treaties.
Separate minorities treaties were then concluded with three newly created
states (Poland, Czech o slo vak i a, and Yugo slavia), plus Romania and Greece.
Commitments to minority protection were also made by way of declara-
tions to the League Council by Albania, the three Baltic states, and (later)
Iraq. A noteworthy feature of the minority arrangements was provision for
continuous oversight of their observance. Th is was undertaken by the Mi-
norities Section of the League secretariat. Matters could be brought before
the council and decided by majority vote (i.e., with unanimity not being re-
quired as it was generally in League bodies).
Arrangements in the form of bilateral treaties were employed for two ar-
eas. One was Greece and Turkey. Here, the solution— a decidedly drastic
one— was to make a dramatic reduction in minority problems by means of a
mass population exchange, agreed in 1923. Th e other special arrangement
concerned Upper Silesia, a region contested between Germany and Poland.
Aft er a plebiscite failed to resolve the matter, the two countries concluded a
bilateral treaty in 1922, which partitioned the area and also contained prom-
ises for fair treatment of minorities.
Th e Upper Silesia Convention had the dubious honor of being one of the
lengthiest treaties ever concluded. More interestingly, it diff ered from all of
the other minorities arrangements in establishing a special tribunal to hear
complaints by individuals in either minority community of mistreatment by
their new (and oft en unwelcome) masters. Th e arrangement worked badly, in
the event, largely because of the very diff erent degrees of education and po-
liti cal awareness on the part of the ethnic Germans and ethnic Poles. Th e
Germans were the more prosperous and better educated, and they made
vigorous use of the complaint procedures. As a result, the arrangement prob-
ably ended up producing at least as much friction and ill will as genuine
minority protection.
Minorities issues became a very fruitful source of business for the World
Court, most commonly concerning treatment of ethnic Germans in Poland.
On two occasions in 1923, Poland was found to be in breach of its minorities
treaty. Th e Upper Silesia situation came to the Court’s attention on a num-
ber of occasions, resulting in rulings that Poland was in breach of the 1922
convention. Litigation was also brought concerning the adherence of Al-
bania to its minorities treaty. Over time, the League’s minorities system