FROM COVENANT TO CHARTER
SIR,—I am sorry that Miss Freda White does not like the sentence in my letter which contrasted the right of veto given by the Charter to the Big Five in the Security Council with that conferred by the Covenant on every Member of the League of Nations in the Council and in the Assembly. But Article 5 (I) of the Covenant leaves no room for doubt. It reads:—
"Except where otherwise expressly provided in this Covenant or by the terms of the present Treaty, decisions at any meeting of the Assembly or of the Council shall require the agreement of all the Members of the League represented at the Meeting."
Passing from Covenant to Charter, the right of veto is curtailed in the (Security) Council and disappears altogether in the (General) Assembly. How the Covenant worked in practice is another matter, a matter of history: history which Miss White thinks I have distorted in order to belittle the League. However, I agree with her that the goodwill of its Members often enabled the League to evade the veto in the Covenant. May we not look forward to the United Nations exercising equal goodwill to elude the lesser veto in the Charter?—Yours, &c.,
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