The League of Nations

True and False Economy at Geneva

FOLLOWING upon declarations that the Rhineland ought to be evacuated, various occupying Powers, together with Germany, forthwith began discussing how to do it. They have been carrying on a series of conversations, several informal, between individuals, and three rather more formal as a group, and have succeeded at any rate in finding a starting point for more detailed discussion by experts. All this has happened en merge de l'Assemblee as the familiar local phrase has it. It did not, that is to say, fall actually inside the League framework, but if the Assembly had not been sitting,

representatives of the different countries would not have been in personal contact with one another at all, and if the general tradition of reaching agreement at Geneva had been less strong the contacts might not have borne fruit after all. As it is a first step towards evacuation has certainly been taken. The negotiators seem reasonably satisfied with themselves. The bulk of the talking naturally fell to M. Briand and Herr Muller, but Lord Cushendun would appear to have played a useful mediatory role.

As for the Assembly itself we are in the thick of a con- troversy about shekels, the nature of which can best be indicated by the transcription of a single colourless entry from the Assembly's official journal. It runs as follows :

A letter was read from the Chairman of the Fourth Committee laying stress on the importance of a reasonable limitation of expenditure and in particular of the postponement to some sub- sequent year of any proposed conferences the convening of which, during 1929, was not entirely indispensable. The Committee took note of the above-mentioned letter, and, in view of the very great importance it attached to the holding of the First Codification Conference during 1929, decided to reaffirm its opinions previously expressed in that sense.

Behind this lies a long story, familiar enough to anyone who frequents the Assembly year by year. One of the incon- venient aspects of the work of the League, as of the work of most other institutions, is that sooner or later it has to be paid for. Consequently, the greater the field of service opening before the League, the heavier the League's budget is likely to be. It is a no very distended affair at the worst. The total last year was just over £1,000,000, and that covered all expenses, not only of the League itself but of the International Labour Office and the Permanent Court of International Justice as well. This year the estimates show an increase of 1,500,000 Swiss francs or £60,000, which falls in fixed pro- portions on all the fifty-four States at present members of the League. Great Britain's share of the increment is about 16,000, which will bring her League contribution for the ensuing year to roughly £107,000.

That is, of course, only if the budget as presented goes through, and the British Government through its repre- sentative on the Fourth Commission of the Assembly (which devotes itself solely to League finances) is doing its utmost to prevent it going through. Mr. Locker Lampson, who came out at the last moment to replace Sir Edward Hilton Young (an old hand at this business) had a difficult job. He was naturally unfamiliar with League procedure, but handled what was no doubt a Treasury brief very ably so far as pre- sentation of it goes.

As to the actual proposal he'put forward, which was for a blind cut of a million francs to be effected by a body known as the Supervisory Committee, which' his already boiled every item of superfluous expenditure out-of the estimates, opinions not very flattering have ' been expressed., Treasury brief or no Treasury brief the British _delegate exposed himself to effective replies on the Part both Of the Secretary-General

of the League and of the Director of the International Labour Office. Sir Eric Drummond could hardly' be expected to

refrain from obseiviag that .only a week prior to Mr. Locker Lampson's proposal for a .reduction of the budget by a million

francs Lord Cusheaduri hadinade a proposal in the Council for an opium inquiry which would involve an increase of close

on half-a.million, a fact which appeared to suggest some deficiency of staff work inside the delegation. In the kune way M. Albert Thomas in the course of a brilliant, if slightly misplaced, display of his• torrential oratory pointed out that while the British delegate on that occasion was moving for' a reduction of expenditure by running two of next year's Labour Conferences into one instead of holding them separatelY, the British Government delegate on the Labour Office's Governing Body had specifically agreed to the larger expenditure involved by separating the Conferences from a conviction of the advantages accruing from that course. Nothing is more desirable for governments, observed M. Thomas with severity, than that they should speak with a single voice.

These annual budget discussions would be hardly worth dwelling on if they did not involve important questions of principle. The League of Nations has a solid money value, the weight and volume of which can obviously not be precisely assessed. It is quite certain that but for its existence, national budgets would be higher than they are by much more than the amounts each country sends annually to Geneva.

The League of Nations is covering a vast field. Mere enumeration of a few of its varied duties—minorities, mandates, financial reconstruction, disarmament, health, transit, women and children, opium, arbitration—makes that clear enough. Obviously it cannot be left to each organ of the League to spend what it likes on whatever enterprises may aPpeal to it at the moment. There must be selection and there must be restriction. It is all to the good that the Fourth Commission every year should spend heated hours day by day endeavouring to reduce this item and that item of the budget. But while there must be restriction there must at the same time be expansion unless the League is to stand still in its tracks. Someone proposed stabilizing the budget at a fixed figure. Stabilization, rejoined the Norwegian delegate, himself an advocate of economy, means stagnation. In point of fact every item in the budget the British Government was So anxious to reduce represented expenditure on work definitely authorized and approved by the Assembly itself, the British delegates therein, of course, concurring. What happens is, as a passage quoted above indicates, that the Fourth Com- mission suggests to one of the other five (there are six Assembly Commissions in all) that some particular piece of work should., be dropped for financial reasons. The Commission concerned replies politely that it realizes the need for economy, but that particular piece of work is so important that it would be out of the question to drop it. That recurs all along the line and in the end the budget goes through very much as presented.

It would be unfortunate if false impressions regarding this matter were created. The League is not an extravagant body and its budget is, in fact, incredibly low; in relation to the work being done. A sum of a little over £1,000,000 a year contributed by over fifty nations and covering the work of three international bodies like the League, the Labour. Office and the Court can be barely adequate for the work that has to be financed. And a country with an £800,000,000 budget like our own is not going to be shot into the abyss of insol- vency by the addition of 16,000 a year to its League contri- bution. Everything is to be said for economy within reason, but to cut down expenditure which yields a productive return, as it may justly be argued, expenditure on the League of Nations does, is not economy, at all, and in pressing its demand for reduction so far as it has, the British delegation seems to many of its friends to have taken a rather unfor- tunate line.

One sentence must be added regarding my references in last week's Spectator to the difficulties about the site for the League's new permanent buildings. The problem has been apparently solved by the decision of the city of -Geneva to offer for the purpose a public park, which is considered. to be in most respects entirely suitable.

Yoma GENEVA CORRESPPNDENT•

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