The League of Nations
Some Aspects of the League
WE may consider at once the central purpose of the League, that of preventing war. A recollection of the Greco-
Bulgarian situation will serve to illustrate, roughly, the working of this great machine for the world's peace : and it must also prove, incidentally, that as servant of the governments of the world, Sir Eric Drummond, the League's far-sighted and tactful Secretary-General, occupies a place that no man before him was ever privileged to hold, perhaps the most important position in the world. This is what happened.
When the Greeks invaded Bulgaria, the news was flashed to Geneva early on the morning of October 23rd, 1925. Sir Eric Drummond went to his telephone and called up M. Briand in Paris, who was President of the Council of the League at the time. Within a few minutes he knew that M. Briand was prepared to hold an extraordinary session of the Council as soon as possible. The Political Department of the Secretariat thereupon immediately cabled to each of the seven members of the Council. They caught their trains, they gathered in Paris on October 23rd (the Swede arriving by air to save time), they discussed the situation with data before them that had long been prepared by the Secretariat, and the combatants were ordered to suspend hottilities within twenty-four hours, and to withdraw their forces within sixty hours. The telegram announcing this decision reached the battle line one and a half hours before a fight was due to begin, thereby saving many lives. A military commission from Belgrade was sent to see that the protagonists did as they were told. This and the rest of the story is, of course, history. The point is that it was brought about through the League's machinery, and that another war was averted similarly last night. (I write on Sunday, December 11th.) Poland and Lithuania were reconciled. Nobody supposes that the declarations actually made before the Council are the prime cause of the settlement that we hope is in progress. That might have been so were the League a super-State ; there might then have been a compromise imposed on the disputants by force after a public vote of the Council. Such a settlement would only have embittered Lithuania and served no good purpose. Instead, we have seen a combination of public and private discussions which have led to the end of a fictitious state of war and the beginning of the peaceful solution of a difficulty which ten years ago would certainly have been " solved " (or aggravated) by the pressure of Polish troops in Kovno.
How came it to pass that after seven years of wrangling, compliments were exchanged between Poland and Lithuania last night ? The real decisions were taken in secret : representatives of the Great Powers lunched and dined together, common pressure was brought to bear on both sides. The Secretariat of the League only provided a convenient locale and the necessary material to allow the common sense of mankind to express itself. That was all, and everything.
In the big entrance hall of the Secretariat, where the journalists gather to gossip and watch the entrance of the diplomatists, you may hear all the tongues of Pentecost— and some others also. The "Great Pertinax " is there, who is reputed to know what M. Briand thinks, and M. William Martin of the Journal de Geneve and a remarkable Polish- Parisian diplomatic writer with the bald head of a Martian ; the huge Jonkheer de Jong van Baerendonck, a famous Dutchman, and the representatives of Reuters, the Associated Press, and twenty other agencies and two hundred other trusted writers whose words will be read by many millions of people in a few hours. British and Imperial representatives are there, and Swedes, Finns, Czecho- Slovakians, Japanese—the register of the newspapers watching this Council would take one all round the world.
Especially in the translation department the pressure of work mounts giddily duEng the public sessions. Whether or not it would be possible to have some forms of mechanical apparatus to obviate the present necessity of translating every speech, I do not know. The majority of speeches are in French. If a microphone were provided, linked to an interpreter in another room, the interpreter could translate the speech into English and telephone it almost simultaneously to those who did not understand French, who would "listen in" with ear-phones. The converse, English into French, might be translated as it now is, to avoid the rather ridiculous spectacle of a whole assembly being telephoned to.
The total expenses of the League are now about £1,000,000 a year, out of which England contributes £100,000. To arrive at this figure, years of discussion were required and we now contribute more than any other country, but we also have more representatives and draw more in salaries, That England and France will always have a preponderance of the Secretariat staff is only natural, however, for the two languages of the League make this necessary. it is a notable fact, which cannot be too often repeated, that an international organization such as this, maintaining branches in five capitals, with a whole separate organization (the Labour Bureau) financially dependent on it, as well as the Permanent Court of Justice at the Hague, and the various humanitarian, financial, and political commissions prosecuting their activities in various parts of the world, together with the ever-increasing secretarial work in Geneva itself, should cost less in upkeep than one first-class battleship.
Next to the Political Department of the Secretariat, Finance and Health are, perhaps, the most important sections. Loans have been made to Austria, to Hungary, to Greece, to Bulgaria, to Danzig, to Estonia. Under consideration is another loan to Bulgaria for reconstruction, and to Portugal for the same purpose. In every case where a loan has been made, it stands at a premium to-day. The work of Sir Arthur Salter and his assistant economists is little known to the general public, but in financial circles due credit is given to him and to them for labours which have literally set half Europe on its feet.
Of the Mandates and Minority Commissions it is not possible to say anything in my limited space : their titles describe their very necessary functions. The social and humanitarian work, conducted under the directorship of Dame Rachel Crowdy, has already been described, at least in part, in the Spectator, as also has the question of public health. The Permanent Court of International Justice sitting at the Hague is the first international Court which has ever succeeded in appointing a bench of Judges, and is one of the most notable achievements of the League. It has held thirteen sessions and has become an organic part of international life. The Committee on Intellectual Co- operation (forbidding title !) is not so "high-brow" as it sounds. It has many spheres of activity, such as the education of the young in the ideals of the League, co- ordination of scientific work, efforts Lo have truthful history written instead of the prejudiced and parochial versions now so often taught to children, and inquiry into international copyright law and literary and artistic co-operation. Through its efforts and by the kindness of the French Government, the Institute of Intellectual Co-operation has been founded in Paris. It has great possibilities as an auxiliary of the League, and must form the subject of a separate article.
This morning, as I look out on the Place des Alpes, parties
of pierrots and pierrettes are still coming home with the milk, singing, Ce que lé n'haut, the Genevese paean of deliverance. We foreigners should celebrate the Lithuanian, peace also, for it is only a question of time before the work of the Council (and especially the peace pledged last night) will be remembered as one of the early triumphs of the League. The results achieved were gained by no recondite path, but simply by the use of conciliation and common sense. Conciliation and common sense : these are the springs of the League on which the ear of peace draws—slowly perhaps—to its beautiful destiny.
YEATS-BROWN.:
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