18 SEPTEMBER 1936, Page 2

Next Week at Geneva Great Britain has sent to Geneva

no proposals for the reform of the League of Nations, but the British delegation, presumably through the mouth of Mr. Eden, will lay its ideas verbally before the Assembly, which opens on Monday. No complaint can be made of that. If it were likely to be the conclusion of the Government that an extensive revision of the Covenant was called for there would be the strongest reason for it to put its proposals on paper and have them circulated as soon as possible. If, as is much more probable, British Ministers, like French, have concluded that the Covenant had better be left substantially as it is, subject to some interpretative resolutions, the matter ceases to be of urgency and can well be dealt with in an Assembly speech. There are more important questions to deal with at Geneva than that. To try to reopen the dis- armament discussions sounds almost grotesquely quixotic in present circumstances, but present circumstances provide the strongest reason for the attempt, and if M. Blum has anything practical to propose it is to be hoped that Mr. Eden will give him full support. The least sign of progress in that direction, and in the approach to some saner relationship between States in economic matters, would redeem the Assembly from failure and even mark the beginning of the League's rehabilitation. * * * *