Under the Protocol, the agreement of the parties thereto (Article 2) not to resort to war with one another is, if the terms of the Protocol are carried out, absolute. The only stated exceptions in Article 2 of the Protocol are (1) in case of resistance to acts of aggression and (2) when acting in agreement with the Council or the Assembly under the Covenant or the Protocol. The first exception relates to defence and, if there be no aggression, as there would not be if the Protocol is lived up to, there would never be any need of defence against aggression. The second exception, so far as it relates to a Party to the Protocol against whom force might be used, relates primarily to an aggressor, as defined in the Protocol. Of course this second exception in this regard goes beyond the question of defence, strictly speaking, because it would permit a State, not attacked, to go to the defence of another State attacked if and when the application of the Sanctions of the Protocol is called for by the Council[1]; but if the Parties to the Protocol carry out their agreements as therein expressed, there could never be any war between two or more of them. There appears to be another possibility of the use of force within the language of this second exception; this is the case where a State, against which has gone a decision of the Court or an arbitral award, fails to carry out the decision or award. The provision of the Covenant regarding such a situation is contained in Article 13, where it is said that the Council shall "propose what steps should be taken to give effect" to such decision or award. Obviously such proposals by the Council would not have any binding effect upon the Members of the League. However, under the Covenant, the State in whose favor the decision or award had gone _might_ lawfully have resorted to war against the State refusing to carry out the decision or award, {51} provided merely that it delayed resort to war for three months thereafter, under the language of Article 12 of the Covenant. In other words, if an award or decision was made and a State refused to carry it out, the successful party, under the Covenant agreed merely to refrain from war against the defeated party for a period of three months. The Protocol (Article 4(6)), as interpreted by the Report to the Assembly, still permits the successful party to use force in such a case but only when the Council authorizes the use of force, such authorization being brought within the terms of Article 13 of the Covenant. It is true that the Council is first to exert its influence to secure compliance with the decision or award and that, if the use of this influence fails, the Council may then propose measures short of force before authorizing the use of force itself.