Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter III. The Baltic Minorities' Rights detailed. Paper read at the Assembly of the International Law Association at The Hague, September 1921
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furthermore, their express desire for full rights of equality among other
nations, is tantamount to a resolution to keep to the tenets of
civilised rule. „Noblesse oblige“. It may therefore be taken as a foregone
conclusion that these States, if sincere and loyal to their professed
political standpoint, are bound to respect and carry into practice those
fundamental principles which are acknowledged by democratic
communities and belong to positive International law. They should
therefore enforce those minorities’ rights enumerated in the treaties
concluded by the Allied Powers with Poland, Austria, Hungary, Roumania,
Turkey, Yugo-Slavia, Czecho-Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece and Armenia,
which are applicable to all the racial minorities in the world, and for
whom the League of Nations have assured fair treatment, which rights
the Baltic Minorities likewise desire to enjoy, viz.:
(1). A full amnesty to be granted to those natives of whatever
racial origin or religious denomination they may be, who, for political
reasons, have been deprived of their lawful civic rights. Those who
sympathised with Bermont’s ill-advised venture,[1] had to fly abroad
for their lives, thereupon, their property was confiscated, and they
were stigmatised, „political criminals“. In somewhat similar
circumstances an amnesty was granted by the afore-mentioned Treaty with
Turkey (Art. 144) by which the Ottoman government recognised the
injustice of the law of 1915, and its additional treaties, concerning the
abandoned properties, (Enval-i-Metrouke) and declared these decrees to
be null and void, both with reference to the past and in the future.
The Ottoman government likewise pledged itself to „make facilities
for — as far as possible — persons of non-Turkish origin belonging to
the Ottoman Empire, who had been forced into exil for fear of their
lives, or being persecuted, since January 1st 1914, and to enable them
to return to their homes and to re-establish their business. The Turkish
government recognise that real or personal property belonging to such
like persons must be restored to their rightful owners as soon as
possible. The property must be returned free of any charge or tax, and
without any indemnity whatsoever being made for the benefit of the
actual holders.“ Thus, a precedent of a case in point is established,
which may serve to make clear the position of the owners in Eesti and
Latvia.
(2). The reinstatement to the right of property of those who have
been thus deprived, adequate compensation being given for any
inflicted loss by the Estonian and Latvian governments; and the
inviolability of the right of ownership for individuals and „personnes
morales“, in so far as expropriation is not demanded by actual public
necessity, real requirements for land for the agricultural classes being
adequately satisfied. For all deprivation of property and expropriation
meted out in accordance with public requirements, and inflicted loss
caused by the Estonian and Latvian governments, a just and adequate
compensation should be given. This would compare with similar
provisions made by the Treaty with Turkey (Arts. 126: 128: 144: 281:
287: 288); with Poland (Art. 3); with Austria (Arts. 78: 250: 259: 264);
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