If this matter is looked at realistically and concretely we find that there is hardly any possibility of the Protocol of Geneva being signed by any State which is a non-Member of the League. The United States and Russia will certainly not sign; the admission of Germany and Turkey to the League is contemplated. The only other States[4] of any international consequence outside the { 12} League are Mexico and Egypt; and the likelihood of either of these two States becoming a party to the Protocol of Geneva is too remote for serious consideration.
Accordingly, in the subsequent discussion, I shall assume that, whatever may be the legal possibilities, there is no real possibility of any State which is not a Member of the League of Nations becoming a party to the Protocol of Geneva.
[3] Under the Resolution of the Council of May 17, 1922, any State may accept the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court by filing a declaration to that effect; but this is not the same thing as acceding to the Protocol of December 16, 1920.
[4] See Membership in the League of Nations, by Manley O. Hudson, A. J. I. L., July, 1924.
RELATIONS INTER SE OF THE SIGNATORIES TO THE PROTOCOL.
It is here assumed that only Members of the League of Nations may become parties to the Protocol of Geneva[1]; the Protocol is a development of the Covenant and it would, in any view, be logically impossible for any State, not a Member of the League, to become a Signatory to the Protocol; on the other hand, Members of the League are, of course, not obligated to sign or to ratify the Protocol of Geneva.
Accordingly, if the Protocol shall come into force, the Powers of the world, from the point of view of the Protocol, will, at least theoretically, be divided into three classes:
1. Members of the League of Nations who are parties to the Protocol.
2. Members of the League of Nations who are not parties to the Protocol.
3. Non-Members of the League of Nations who are not parties to the Protocol.
From this it follows, again looking at the matter from the point of view of the Protocol of Geneva, that the international relations of the various countries of the world would fall into the following six classes:
1. Relations _inter se_ of the Signatories to the Protocol.