Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter V. Instances of Breach of the Minorities' Rights in Latvia and Eesti - Chapter VI. Nationality. A plea for Reform. Paper read at a Committee on Nationality appointed by the International Law Association at 2 King's Bench Walk, Temple, London on February 24th 1922
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38
therefore for being a partisan of Bermont. The fourth gentleman Baron
Hahn (Postenden), was, up to the last day of the war against the
Bolsheviks, at the front at Lettgall, risking his life for the liberation of
Lettland. No-one in the whole district of Talsen has ever looked upon
these gentlemen as a menace to the country, but a press organ of the
government considers itself justified in opening an attack upon them.
Consequently, the head of the district / has taken the matter up, and
demands* the town council to pass a vote against these gentlemen. He
avers that these four gentlemen are, stirring up the people* and that
therefore they should be forced into banishment from the country!"
Apart from the flagrancy of such an act against four citizens of the
unblemished reputation, this case of attempted expulsion from the State
territory also merits comment from the point of view of International
law. Since every State has the right to. refuse admission to a foreigner
deemed undesirable, it cannot be accepted in principle that a citizen
is banished from his own native land, for he might be refused
admittance to foreign States.") ’ ^’I’l ,-M
This will suffice to give an idea of the position of the minorities in
Latvia and Eesti. The picture is fittingly completed by a declaration
of the Prime Minister, Mr. Meijerowiz, given to the Secretary General
of the League of Nations, which runs as follows: — „Concerning the
protection of minorities in Lettland, I beg to point out that the Latvian
Constituent Assembly has already taken measures which guarantee to
the minorities the1 widest possible scholastic and cultural autonomy —
measures which correspond to the general principles such as were
formulated in the minorities’ treaty, and the precise observance of
which is assiduously controlled by the government4’. (Sic!)
Chapter VI.
Nationality. 1 - | J j
A p 1 e a f o r R e f o r m. -It’ l.fr’
Paper read at a Committee on Nationality appointed by the
International Law Association at 2 King’s Bench Walk,
Temple, London, on February 24th, 1922.
The term nationality is often used in different ways; to one it
conveys the meaning of racial affinity, to another it has a territorial
significance comprising the whole population of any given State. Has
it a purely ethnographical meaning or is it a conception of municipal
law? Surely, there can be little doubt about the true sense of nationa
lity. Subjects of the law of nations and the League of Nations are
not racial unities but political entities recognised as such by Public
Law-viz., States. Racial affinities in many instances may have exercised
a constructive agency in the formation of a State, but, again, in other
cases this has not been so. It is not therefore possible to identify racial
unity and the State and to use both terms promiscuously. Moreover,
many states like China, Russia, the LJnited States of America, Great
**) Vide Chapter VI.
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