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Exposé sur la question du trafic de transit à travers la Suisse12

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III. The development of the transit question

since the beginning of 1944

It has already been said that the restrictive measures taken for the traffic South-North cannot be as such extended to the traffic North-South. This traffic was however influenced recently by altered conditions. It is well known that Germany has supplied Switzerland with considerable quantities of coal indispensable for the economy of the country. This import has suffered a considerable reduction in the course of the last few weeks. Under these circumstances and despite the obligations about which more will be said later, Switzerland could no longer tolerate the transit of coal in former quantities. The Federal Council therefore took measures for establishing a certain relation between the quantities of coal transported through and those imported into Switzerland. This will be attained by prohibiting the transit of coal until

1) a certain quantity will be supplied for arrears of January;

2) the import of coal, as from February 1st, will equal the quantities transported in transit since then.

After arriving at this balance, half of the coal received at the Swiss-German border will be put at the disposal of the Swiss consumption while the other half will, upon request, be accepted for transit.

It may be presumed that this regulation will result in a considerable reduction of the transit of coal to Italy.

IV. Legal position, outlook

The following is a short survey of the legal position. Enter into consideration first of all the contents of the Gothard convention concluded between Switzerland, Germany and Italy on October 13th, 1909. Article 3 reads as follows:

«Sauf les cas de force majeure, la Suisse assurera l’exploitation du chemin de fer du St-Gothard contre toute interruption. Toutefois la Suisse a le droit de prendre les mesures nécessaires pour le maintien de la neutralité et pour la défense du pays.»

Accordingly Switzerland is in a position to restrict her transit traffic only within the limits of her rights and obligations as a neutral country. Which are these rights and obligations? They are specified by the Hague Convention of 1907 regarding the rights and obligations of neutral countries and persons in the case of war at land, particularly by article 2 and 7 which have the following contents:

Article2: «Il est interdit aux belligérants de faire passer à travers le territoire d’une puissance neutre des troupes ou des convois, soit de munitions, soit d’approvisionnements.»

Article 7: «Une puissance neutre n’est pas tenue d’empêcher l’exportation ou le transit, pour le compte de l’un ou de l’autre des belligérants, d’armes, de munitions, et, en général, de tout ce qui peut être utile à une armée ou à une flotte.»

Article 2 refers to transit traffic between countries at war while article 7 has in view transports made by private persons and firms on account of belligérants. The traffic between Italy and Germany having to be considered as traffic between two States, Switzerland has, from the beginning, based her transit regulation on the more severe stipulations of article 2. The interpretation of this article applied by the Federal Council has, as already mentioned, resulted in a prohibition from transit not only of troups and war material, but of all goods which may be intended for the approvisionment of an army at war. Furthermore he prohibited the transit of goods which are obtained by military measures. To go further by instituting unobjective limitations or by stopping the transit traffic altogether would mean to favour one belligerent party and to disregard the obligations towards the other group. The Federal Council has severely, not to say passionately, upheld the neutrality of the country during the time of the whole war and could not lend hands to such practices. He is convinced that the powers represented here will understand and appreciate this point of view. As already pointed out, the transit traffic, particularly in the direction South-North, has been considerably reduced on account of the measures taken by Switzerland. Owing to the present circumstances and the recent regulation regarding the coal traffic great reductions will result also in the traffic North-South. The remaining traffic can no longer be of considerable importance for the conduct of war. The Swiss Delegation expects confidentially that the representatives of the Allied powers will, after having gone into this matter, see their way to rally themselves to this opinion.