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Satu Matikainen
The British parliament took a keen interest in the international protection of minorities during the interwar era. Minority treaties addressing the rights of minorities in east central Europe had been concluded and placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations after the First World War. The main focus here is not on the situation of individual minority groups but rather on the general operation of minority protection and the attempts to improve it during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the principles and procedures of minority protection were widely discussed. As a key member of the League, Britain had a strong interest in the smooth functioning of the system. This article shows that parliamentary questions constituted an important form of parliamentary pressure on the government's conduct of foreign affairs during the interwar era, and that the questions were, in some instances, co-ordinated with the efforts of voluntary associations and publicity in the media. In order to present the viewpoint of the government as well, the preparation of the answers and other responses to the questions by the foreign office is also examined. The source material reveals that there was complex interaction between parliament, the government, and voluntary associations in defining British policy vis-à-vis the League of Nations.
