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[1] [p 41] THE COURT,
composed as above,
after deliberation,
[2] Having regard to Article 48 of the Statute,
[3] Having regard to the Counter-Memorial filed on behalf of the Six
Governments,
[4] Having regard to the Memorial and Counter-Memorial filed on behalf of
the Polish Government;
[5] Having regard to the Order (evidence) made by the Court on August 15th,
1929;
[6] Having heard the observations and submissions of the representatives of
the Six Governments and of Poland;
[7] Whereas, in their Counter-Memorial, the Six Governments request the
Court to rule that the passages of the Polish [p42] Memorial containing
references to the records of the preparatory work of the Treaty of
Versailles and quotations from these records are to be disregarded ; as, in
their oral observations, they have asked the Court to rule that no attention
is to be paid to these passages or to certain passages in the Polish
Counter-Memorial;
[8] Whereas, in his oral observations and submissions, the Agent for the
Polish Government has stated that he defers to "the wishes of the Six
Governments to the effect that no account shall be taken of the passages in
question" and that he "does not insist upon" making use of these passages in
his defence, adding however that "the Polish Government reserves the right
in the argument on the merits to avail itself of references to or citations
from" the aforesaid preparatory work "in so far as it has already been made
public";
[9] Whereas three of the Parties concerned in the present case did not take
part in the work of the Conference which pre-pared the Treaty of Versailles;
as, accordingly, the record of this work cannot be used to determine, in so
far as they are concerned, the import of the Treaty; as this consideration
applies with equal force in regard to the passages previously published from
this record and to the passages which have been reproduced for the first
time in the written documents relating to the present case;
[10] Whereas, in any particular case, no account can be taken of evidence
which is not admissible in respect of certain of the Parties to that case;
[11] Whereas, in the present case, the only preparatory work in question is
that performed by the Commission on Ports, Waterways and Railways of the
Peace Conference;
[12] Rules that the Minutes of the Commission on Ports, Waterways and
Railways of the Conference which prepared the Treaty of Versailles shall be
excluded as evidence from the proceedings in the present case.
[13] Done in English and French, the English text being authoritative, at
the Peace Palace, The Hague, this twentieth day of August, one thousand nine
hundred and twenty-nine, in eight copies, one of which is to be deposited in
the archives [p43] of the Court, and the others to be forwarded to the
Agents of the Governments of Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, His
Britannic Majesty in Great Britain, and Sweden, as also to the Agent of the
Government of Poland, respectively.
(Signed) D. Anzilotti,
President.
(Signed) A. Hammarskjöld,
Registrar.
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