The League of Nations
The Fifty-Fourth Meeting of the Council
STEADY PROGRESS. _-
Some eight years ago Mr. Elihu Root, who has been the dominating figure in the background at Geneva in this past week, observed to me at Washington, apropos of something we were then discussing, that " leg after leg the dog got to Dover." That old tag applies well enough to the proceedings of the League Council meeting that ended last Saturday, for its main feature was a conspicuous absence of fireworks, even where fireworks were expected, and a steady persistence in constructive effort towards the League's permanent goal of the promotion of international co-operation and the achieve- ment of international peace and security.
It may seem labouring the obvious to insist once more that the supreme service the League of Nations renders is to keep the men actually responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs in each country in constant touch with one another, but the more that fundamental fact is grasped the more adequately will the new situation in the world be appreciated. Take, for instance, this last Council meeting. Sir Austen Chamber- lain could talk with M. Briand and Dr. Stresemann over the various problems that concern Western Europe ; with M. Zaleski, Foreign Minister of Poland, about the difficulties and hopes in the east ; with the Foreign Ministers of Bulgaria, Jugoslairk, and Greece over the situation in the Balkans ; and with M. Walko, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, over the troubles ..and dissatisfactions of Central Europe. Consider similarly whom M. Briand talked to, whom Dr. Stresemann saw, the contacts of M. Zaleski, the interviews of the various other Foreign Ministers; and, you gain some approximate con- ception of whatLeague Cohneil may count for, quite outside the formalbusine;ss altogether.
But in point of fact the formal business was very far from unimportant. Merely to have paved the way for the entry of the United States into the Permanent Court of International Justice is no small thing in itself. To pave the way is not the same thing as to tread the road through to the goal, but, once more, " leg after leg the dog got to Dover," and the fact that Mr. Kellogg, in reopening the Court question, had spoken of the League itself in terms of unexampled cordiality ; that a man of the age and reputation of Mr. Elihu Root; coming to Geneva primarily to sit simply as a member of a League Committee, brought with him a detailed plan which the chief members of the League Council were prepared to accept in principle the moment they saw it ; that the Council resolution on this subject, presented by Sir Austen Chamberlain, was not adopted till every member of the Council had individually expressed his cordial satisfaction at the new developments ; all these circumstances are of the most hopeful omen for the further development of a rapprochement which, it is hoped, will reach its' consummation in the definite and formal association of the United States with the Court at a conference to be held during the Assembly next September.
THE FINANCIAL WEAPON.
Thus to fortify the prestige of law is to lay one more brick on the wall the League is slowly raising against war. But those bricks are of various sorts and sizes, and a great many of them will be needed to give the structure strength and dura- bility. Another, to which too little attention has so far been given, figures under the depressing description of " Financial Assistance to States Victims of Aggression." The first thing to do about that title is to try and dispel the impression it creates. As a matter of fact the idea underlying the scheme which the League has now blessed in principle and forwarded for examination, to all Governments—whether of States members of the League or not—is simple. One of the smaller States of Europe, Finland, said in effect a few years ago, " It is all very well for you to tell us to disarm, and to object to our piling up stores of war material. We are only too anxious to follow your advice. But if we were threatened with aggression, where should we we ? Our credit would be shat- tered id a week or a day, and we should be ahsolutely unable in the moment of crisis to buy the munitions we needed for -self- defence. Show us a way round that difficulty and we are with
you." • The League Financial Committee took the challenge up. Sir Otto Niemeyer, then at the Treasury, and Sir Henry Strakosch making contributions of special value to the study of the problem. The result is a draft convention based on the idea that the .Governments of League States shall undertake to underwrite, up to a limited amount, a loan which the League Council will be empowered to authorize in case of need for the benefit of a State threatened with external aggression. The State itself would raise the loan on the world-market in the ordinary way and the liability of each guaranteeing State would be limited to a percentage of any ultimate default on the part of the borrower. While primarily financial in character the proposal has, of course, far-reaching political possibilities, for knowledge that the League con- templated using the financial weapon for the help of a particular State would act as a poWerful deterrent to the Potential aggressor. MINORITY GRIEVANCES.
That is another brick in the peace-wall. A third, or indeed half-a-dozen more, will be available if so fruitful a source of discontent as minority grievances can be so dealt with as to turn agitation into harmony. That will be neither a rapid nor an easy process, and the Council took only the first step in the matter this time. But it took it in an atmosphere less electric than might have been expected, considering the vigour of the speeches on this subject at Lugano in December. Much of the credit for that is due to Dr. Stresemann, whose exhaustive Criticism of the present situation was studiously temperate. This is a disease for which there is no complete cure. In some degree minorities will always be factious, particularly when external agencies arc egging them on. In some degree Governments will always be narrow-minded and oppressive—some Governments, at any rate. The task, as M. Briand observed, is to balance the just rights of minorities against the just prerogatives of national sovereignty. So far the League has only succeeded indifferently in its endeavour to see fair play to both sides. All that could be expected at this Council meeting, as the Spectator observed last week, was that the question should be ventilated, sonic constructive suggestions put forward, and the details of a new procedure left to a competent committee to work out. That was done. The ventilation was complete and beneficial. The suggestions were all in the direction of increased publicity in regard to minority petitions and their fate. And the sub-committee appointed, Sir Austen Chamberlain, Senor Quinones de Leon. and Baron Adatei, is well chosen, particularly as its findings will be fully considered by the Council in what the Americans call a " conunittee of' the whole."
BUILDING THE WALL.
These were the larger-sized bricks. But the smaller ones make a respectable showing between them. The Council welcomed the removal of the legal difficulties with the Swiss Government over a League Wireless Station for use in time of crisis and set on foot arrangements for an appropriate celebration when the foundation-stone of the new Secretariat, Assembly Hall and Library are laid next September. A very interesting report from the Permanent Mandate Commission was considered and a controversial point in connexion with the liquor traffic in such areas settled, by the adoption of the figure of 20 per cent. alcoholic strength as marking the distinction between spirituous liquors, which are banned, and wines, which arc not. The request of the Chinese Government that Dr. Ludwik Rajehman, Director of the Health Section of the Secretariat. should visit China to advise on the organization of a national health service was cordially approved. The British proposal for the dispatch of a commission of inquiry into opium-smoking in the Far East was finally adopted. The conference on the Codification of International Law was fixed for the spring of 1930. Reports on the progress of the Economic Committee's inquiry into the international aspects of the coal problem were noted with an interest to which Sir Austen Chamberlain gave. verbal expression. -
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