The next breach in the League’s structure was made by Germans-. In October 1933 Hitler withdrew from the League On March 16, 1935, he denounced the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles that limited German armaments and began openly rebuilding the German armed forces.
The response to this illegal act set the pattern for the next few years. On April 17, 1935, the League of Nations formally condemned Germany’s repudiation of treaty obligations—and Germans’ continued to rearm. In May 1935 France and the Soviet Union concluded their treaty of alliance against German aggression—and Germany continued to rearm.
In June 1935 the British signed a naval agreement with Germany limiting the German navy to one-third the size of the British and German submarines to 60 percent of those of Britain. Hitler’s next act was the “reoccupation” of the Rhineland in March 1936—that is, the sending of German troops into the western German zone demilitarized by the Treaty of Versailles. Britain and France once more did nothing.
