The League of Nations at Work

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 42, 13 November 1926, Page 17

The League of Nations at Work

President’s Opening Speech at the September Assembly

“It is to the delegate of Czechoslovakia that falls the great honour of opening the meetings of the Seventh Assembly of the League of Nations and of inaugurating its work. lam proud of this honour, and it will remain for me an unforgettable memory, particularly as the present Assembly will without doubt be of special importance both m the history ot the League of Nations and in that of European politics in general.”—Dr. Edward Benes, opening the recent meeting of the League of Nations at Geneva.

, ( _ N opening this first meeting.” said Dr Benes, “I do not wish to dwell | too much on the difficulties of the moment. You are as familiar I with them as I am, and we shall have to deal with them during our discussions. But I shall also refrain from sounding a note of triumph, or of ‘official optimism,’ 'regardless of the obstacles which we can hardly hope to surmount without difficulty.

“Without indulging to excess the optimism which must inspire all those who work for the development of the League of Nations and who desire through it to contribute to the-maintenance of world peace; w.Burnt. on the other hand, attempting to ignore the obstacles which daily beset our. path, but without giving way to the misplaced pessimism and unjustified criticisms of the sceptics, who . ng-

ing humanity a step forward in the path which leads to a better, future, I merely desire, in accordance with our young tradition, to give a brief outline of what the League has done directly or indirectly during the last twelve months, and we shall all realise that, while it has not achieved a radical change in the present difficult conditions of political, social, and economic- life, the work accomplished by the League of Nations in the past year has nevertheless been very considerable, that it constitutes a step forward in the evolution of Europe and a proof that the path we have chosen leads, despite all, to a progressive and comparatively rapid improvement of the world of to-day. “The struggle we have undertaken is a hard and difficult one, but it holds out promise of successes and of final victory. And we all realise that this victory can only come slowly and at the cost of great sacrifices. Broadly speaking, the activities of the League during these twelve months may be divided into three categories. The first includes the work of the technical and advisory organisations of the League and of the Council, particularly in economic and financial matters and from the point of view of social and humanitarian undertakings. *

“On two occasions the League of Nations has held general conferences, technical conferences in connection with the Transit Organisation, for the purpose of reducing the numerous formalities which, particularly since the war, have hampered commercial relations. One of these conferences, which dealt with certain technical points concerning inland navigation, was a European conference, while the other was universal. The latter dealt with one of the most irritating of the minor problems of the post-war period—that of passports. In order to remove the most vexatious formalities, forty States sent representatives, who came to an agreement on a number of conclusions.

“In this connection I should like to draw the attention of all the delegations to the fact that it is their duty, once they have returned .to their own countries, to see what effect is given to the decisions taken at Geneva. I am fully aware that our Parliaments, which are often overburdened with work, are obliged to take questions in their order and to postpone, sometimes for too long, the ratification of the jnternatinaljnstrumeffis signed at. the seat of the ■League of Nations. We must iiot forget,' however, that, in this sphere of international conventions, the League lias displayed a reserve and a prudence which have sometimes been judged excessive, that the draft conventions drawn up by it refer to technical questions which it is in the Interest of everybody to have finally settled, and that it has always made every effort to simplify the mechanism of international exchange without detriment to individual interests.

“I think 1 am bound to say that, from the point of view of the conventions drafted by the technical committees: by the Economic, Transit, Health and Opium Committees and by our Disarmament Committees, the situation is not very sat is factory. Indeed, the further progress of our technical work would be a matter of some difficulty if this situation did not improve. The action of our experts and even of our Governments would run the risk of being thwarted if, owing to their non-ratification, it were deprived of the groundwork provided by established conventions; and, knowing your desire to have these conventions put into force, I am convinced that you will convey my appeals to the proper quarter and that it will be hcara in all your capitals.

“In the past year the League of Nations has pursued its efforts to improve international relations in the technical spheres with the assistance of the most qualified representatives which our various administrations possess. To realise this, it is sufficient to peruse the list of tasks undertaken by the Economic and Financial Organisation: Draft Agreement on the Abolition of Import Prohibitions and Restrictions; investigations on Economic Crises and Unemployment; on False Customs Declarations; on Unfair Competition; on Double Taxation and Tax Evasion; on the measures to be taken to prevent the Issue and Circulation of Counterfeit Currency. This enumeration outlines the work of to-morrow —of the economic rapprochement which is essential to the establishment of peace and international co-operation on solid foundations.

. “The second class of questions on which the League of Nations is permanently engaged—l refer to the regular work done by the League and the Council in the sphere of daily political relations between States, the settlement of the disputes which may suddenly arise between Members of the League, and, finally, the special questions like minorities and disarmament —has been marked this year, too, by substantial results.

In this connection I would remind you in the first place of the final settlement of the very delicate Mosul question. It was included in the agenda for 1925 when we were all gathered in this same hall. Several months of work were needed before the Council could arrive at a'solution. That solution was adopted after lengthy reflection, after weighing the pros and cons and after carefully studying the report by the Commission of Inquiry which was sent to the disputed territory. A valuable opinion of the International Court of Justice, that new tribunal of the nations, enlightened the Council on the legal aspect of the question. It finally gave a unanimous award, which seemed to it to be fair and which it surrounded with all possible precautions in the interests of the populations concerned.

“It was certainly not without a deep sense of its responsibilities that the Council took its final decision. Its satisfaction was therefore great when it learned that the two parties in the case, animated by a spirit of conciliation which cannot be too highly praised, had concluded an agreement between themselves to apply the award given. At our last session we took note, with what pleasure you may imagine, of the arrangement concluded between Turkey and Great Britain. All that is now wanting is the logical conclusion, which I hope Turkey will shortly enable us to supply. We shall all be delighted if the iportunity is given to us to welcome her among us as a Member of the League.

“Another case, of a different kind but perhaps no less serious, came before the Council quite recently. That was the dispute which arose on the frontiers of two Members of the League, Greece and Bulgaria. lam quite convinced that unavoidable circumstances forced both Governments into that difficult situation, which found its solution in Paris before the Council of the League This is proved by the readiness with which they acceded to the suggestons we made to them. “

“Those, gentlemen, are powerful assurances for the future, firm pledges of agreement and understanding. These hopes receive strong confirmation if you read through the report of the Council now before you and if you examine the work of the League on the minority questions. , Formerly oppressed, the sport of international ambitions, these minorities arc to-day assured of free development within the States to which they belong. Further, you will find in that report positive and remarkable results in regard to the administration of certain territories, the exchange of populations, the delimitation of frontiers, conciliatory action of all kinds, the work of the Mandates Commission on behalf of native populations, etc.

“It is with the same intention of political pacification that the League of Nations pursues its work on disarmament. Last year you suggested the idea of two great conferences of world importance: the Economic Conference, of which I spoke just now, and the Disarmament Conference.

“No one can be surprised that the preparations for such vast enterprises are not yet complete. Ever since its creation, the League of Nations has, in virtue of its Covenant, been concerned with the problem of disarmament. Pessimists may find that these six years of effort have yielded very meagre results.

That would be a harsh and an unjust judgment. Naturally, we should all like to be much further advanced than we are, but if we glance back at the road we have travelled, we see that in spite of all we are appreciably nearer our goa 1. The problem of armaments is nothing less than the expression of the political, social and, above all,. psychological state of the world. The progress made towards pacification during the last six, and particularly, during the ast two, years will, I am sure, bring the first positive results within our reach at an early date.

“There is tio doubt that even now the disarmament problem cannot be solved in its entirety. What we propose is to accomplish a first stage and to arrive at an initial international agreement on the limitation of the preparations for war, however restricted this limitation may be, though we all hope that it will be as little restricted as possible. No one can fail to realise its importance or to grasp the fact that nothing since the agreements concluded last year at Locarno would be more likely to improve international relations.

“More perhaps than in the case of any other conference, it is important not to approach the final act too heedlessly but to make all the requisite preparations and as far as possible to reconcile in advance the important interests at stake. That is the work of your committees, who know well that the failure of an ill-prepared conference would amount to a catastrophe. The chief of these committees has drawn up a programme of all the technical difficulties to be solved. It has had the co-operation of Germany and of the United States of America. For the study of this programme it established comprehensive bodies of technical experts, which set to work immediately. They will shortly be able to give us the result of their labours. It will then rest with the political representatives on the Preparatory Commission to draw the conclusions and to elaborate a draft agreement for submission to a general conference.

“I now come tp the last class of questions with which our League has been occupied during the last year. These arc for the moment the most important, because they touch upon current questions of European and even world policy, and because their settlement ainw at the reconciliation of the great European nations which took part in the Great War and an ensuring for a long time to come the security and peace of a very large part of the world. I refer to the important international event known as the Locarno Agreements and which, apart from their great international political significance, are of decisive importance to the League of Nations, because they are bound up with the entry of Germany into our League.

“In September last year, M. Painleve, at that time President of the Council, in opening the Assembly, informed it that its previous work for the organisation of peace was on the point of bearing fruit and that, although it was not possible to put 'in force immediately the regulations which the Assembly had drawn up the previous year in drafting the Geneva Protocol, at least the principal European nations, guided by its spirit, were about to conclude between themselves a system of guarantee, pacts and arbitration conventions which, would define the pacific obligations of the Covenant of the League of Nations. He thus emphasised the extreme importance, for the future of peace,'of the year which was to elapse before our present meeting. It is no exaggeration to say that all diplomatic negotiations, at all events in. Europe, since the last Assembly have set in the direction of the League of Nations.

“You are ali familiar with the events to which I allude. Hardly had you, separated last year when a number of European Powers, those who had been most closely engaged in the Great War, met at Locarno to conclude the Agreement and Treaty of Arbitration, of which you will indirectly decree the coming into force this week. Although the Conference of Locarno was held outside the League of Nations, the work accomplished there was none the less inspired by its influence. \

“M. Briand, President of the Council, made the following statement in November last during our Paris meeting:—

“Under the inspiration of a resolution voted by the last Assembly, which gave us great encouragement, we have pursued the limited, but nevertheless important, work of Locarno ... If the negotiations of Locarno . . . have been crowned with success, it is due to the fact that from beginning to end we took the utmost care to conduct those negotiations in the spirit of the League of Nations and of its Covenant. It is because we were guided by all the previous work of the League of Nations that we were able to attain our ends." “Sir Austen Chamberlain, who so largely contributed to the success of this great werk of peace, has on various occasions emphasied its historic importance. Other statesmen who took part in it—M. Mussolini and M. Scialoja, M. Vandervelde, M. Stresemann and M. Lvther, Polish statesmen and political circles in Czechoslovakia—all these, without exaggerating what had been done, have borne testimony that the Treaties of Locarno mark a stage in the political history of Europe. s

“But for the existence of the League of Nations, the Treaties of Locarno would, as you know, be a dead letter. They are, in fact, no more than an application of the Covenant, all the provisions of which they scrupulously respect. They are also the outcome of the great effort made by the fourth and fifth Assemblies for the organisation of peace. Your long discussions, which were the necessary preliminary to the elaboration of the Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance and subsequently of the Draft Protocol, have borne. fruit. Although it has not proved possible to give to the ingenious and effective legal formulas which you devised that universal application which was your desire, at least we have been able to apply them in a restricted field, as you had indeed foreseen. “The Treaty of Mutual Assistance ai d the Geneva Protocol had in view the conclusion of partial agreements carefully annexed to the Covenant of the League of Nations, in conformity-with its provisions and placed under the authority of the Council. The most original of these treaties which could be conceived was concluded last winter at Locarno. It comprises the belligerents in the late war. It is in no way reminiscent of the alliances of a former day, which aimed at establishing a false security by means of a balance between groups of Powers, secret alliances which only too frequently masked ambitions and war-like intentions.

“I think that I may state from this platform, without fear of contradiction, that the negotiators of Locarno were true to the new spirit created by the Assembly of the League of Nations, a spirit which it personifies and which has been acclaimed here in moments of unforgettable enthusiasm by all the representatives of civilised nations. Those negotiators"also took into account the importance which you so rightly attach to the progress of conciliation and arbitration. I know that no policy could be more popular with you and that it will above all meet with the approval of the Republics of Latin America, which have already pursued this path so long and whose wish it has been that their youthful strength, their powers of expansion and their future should develop along, the lines of arbitration and justice.

“Provision is made as between all the signatories of Locarno for the whole series of pacific procedure: commissions of conciliation, arbitration, Court of Justice, Council of the League of Nations. But there is more than this. As a result of the powerful impulse given by the last two Assemblies, a remarkable movement has begun in the political world. In response to the Assembly’s recommendation, the States Members of the League, throughout the world, arc in process of inaugurating among themselves a vast new political system based upon the principle of conciliation and arbitration. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this evolution, of this new procedure instituted by the nations for the settlement of their disputes. What valuable assistance will be given to Governments by this appeal to conciliation, which will make it possible for them to obtain a hearing by organisations at once competent and impartial, and thus to justify the concessions indispensable to a good international understanding.

“I know very well that all is not yet perfect in this system—that there are gaps and that backslidings may ensue. But if you add, to all that has been done voluntarily these last months between the various countries, that supreme guarantee, above all in political matters, offered by the appeal of the Council of the League, you embrace the most complete system that has been established up to the present day for the pacific settlement of international disputes.