LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 24, 29 January 1934, Page 9

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

CRITICAL DAYS PRESTIGE SHAKEN fA >VAVERING FAITH Four years ago, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the founding of th» League of Nations, Lord Cecil of Cnelwood —whose wholehearted aovotion to the cause of peace commands the world's respect—wrote:— ♦'■Unquestionably the Loaguo is advancing in. strength and efficiency. . . . It strides boldly along the path of ' peace, applauded by tho world and led by the chief statesmen of .Europe. . . . "If is the chief international force. Its influence on all world affairs is decisive." That was a not untrue, if a highlycoloured, picture in the year 1929. Since then, writes E. C. Bentley in the "Daily Telograph," there has been * a change. In December last M. Avenol, the Secretary-General of the League, and its chief permanent official, spoke ilhus of the position in the course of .his address to a meeting of members of IPariiament:— \ "The very largo majority of countm«9 In the world who still believe in thie League appear to be1 losing confidence in its ability to deal effectively wftfc the major problems of the day.... t4ln. the last two years there has been admittedly a considerable reaction, and the* League has lost in popularity and preirtige." This is certainly not an exaggerated account of the falling-O,ff in the. general repuiiation of the League which has happened "in the last two years''—the period covered, that is to say, by the sitting* of the Disarmament Conference and tihV affair of Manchuria. The League of Nations stands today, in fact, at a most anxious crisis. The withdrawal of Japan has been followed lately by the withdrawal of Germany. And now there, are- the plainest indication* tftat Italy is, at the best, a dubious and Bali-hearted adherent. A month ago Sign or Mussolini threw all the forces which support the movement into confusion by declaring that "with the withdrawal of several Great Powers the League has now become an absurdity." . . : Later, the. Fascist Grand Council passed a resolution to tho effect that "the continued collaboration of Italy with th & League of Nations shallbe conditional on tho radical reform of the League in* its constitution, 'organisation, and objectives within the shortest possible timte." ' V : Since Rusiria and tho Ifnited States have held .aloof from the outset, the position today is that Great Britain and France alone, out of the seven Great Powers, are declared supporters. SOME ACHIEVEMENTS. What, then, is the record of the . League? It must have not a little.to , itsj credit to have earned the position in which ■it stood after ten years of existence. Above all, it is judged, by its performance as an organisation.'for the peaceful adjustment Of international disputes. It has many other functions, and they are invaluable ones; bat in tho general mind it stands-as a mechanism for tho prevention «£ war. Up to the present time if; has been called t»p6n to deaj with upwards of forty disputes, great and small. In most eases these were not disputes directly involving Great Powers. But all were oftne kind which, before its machinery became' available, aeuld have:vied 'to !a' drift 'into largoi*esle war. la the Majority of these disputes the League hfts been able either to bring about a settlement or to give assistance to that end. ' ■ . Perhaps the best of ell examples of a complete, settlement of a dangerous dispute ia that iof tho defining, by a Commission, of tho boundary, between : Turkey and Irak, then governed by Great Britain as a mandated territory, STOPPING FIVE WARS. In five bases it succeeded in stopping war after hostilities had actually broken out. These were the disputes between Poland and Lithuania (l»30), Jugoslavia and Albania (1921), Greece and B*ia (1925), Turkey and Irak (1928), and Bolivia and Paraguay (1928). \ - _Even in one of these,' the first of them, the besetting trouble of the League made its appearance. Hostilities between Poland and Lithuania were brought to an end, but Poland remained, and still remains, in possession of Vilna, the illegal seizure of which, caused the fighting. Again, in 1923, Italy, acting uadcr great provocation, sent an ultimatum to Greece. Greece appealed to Geneva, but Italy, regardless of it, inflicted her own punishment by bombarding and occupying Corfu. The bombardment was an act for which the League should have been able to secure compensation for Greece, but Italy paid nothing. The most important failure, and for itself the gravest iv its consequences, was the Far Eastern dispute wMeh led to the quitting of Japan. It was this that demonstrated to the world what had always been maintained by the critics Of the. League system—that in a ease in which the League had at last gone to'tho extreme of formally1 condemning the action of a Great Power, it was unable to do more. From another point of view, it bore out the apprehensions of those who had hem that the rules governing its action wefo too rigid^ to allow of a raally equitable decision in a caseinl w&ich there was no indisputable mo.ral tipht on either side. Apart from the category of disputes, national minorities included in certaan countries were placed by tho Treaties under the care of the League. There is bo doubt that this has told in favour <jf their better treatment; for pressure o;f civilised opinion is the strongest weapon in the League's armoury. It is held by many that it was a mistake to attempt to furnish it with any Other. It is at least true that its having been furnished, by its constitution, with other means of pressure, which it has not used when ifc camo. to the point, has left to the discrediting of the League. It has not used them because of the rule that all its acts must bo decided unanimously. That *nle, again, has been called a fatal weakness. It is certain, however, that it would never have conio into existence at all bufc for that rule being laid down in 1019. It preserved that advoreign.ty which no country was ready to compromise when joining the League. As Sir Eric Drummortd, lately Secretary-General, has written: "The League Is as powerful at the Governments" which compose it dosire to make iV The League's repute, again, has not been improved by the international jealousies which have compelled, more than once, additions to the membership of the League Council, originally dominated by tho Great Powers. Still less has the world been impressed by: the rather shabby lobbying which takes place when tho whole membership elects those States which are to occupy the ndrt-perm&nent seats on the Council. The events of last year have seen tho attack on the League concentrated on another undeniable weakness. The German contention, supported by Italy, is that tlie League should not be bound .up with the Peaeo Treaties of 1919, as it is, by the Covenant being made a part of each of those Treaties. This,

it is said, perpetuates within its ranks the classification of victors and dofea'ted. ■*■ President Wilson, to whoso personal insistence this inclusion of the Covenant in tho Treaties was due, imagined that it would fortify the. position of the League. In fact, it is ono of the threats to its existence. , POLITICAL FAILURES. Tho Italian demands for reform arc concerned mainly with the point that the League shall bo dissociated from tho Peace Treaties. The demand that the voting rights of small States shall no longer bo equal to.thoso of Great Powers is directed partly to tho same purpose—to render less difficult tho process of Treaty revision. Both points raise difficulties of the most formidable kind. ,< Yet it may now be said that there is very widespread admission of the need of a material re-' form of the Lcagiio constitution, such as to allow of its becoming once moro an organisation of international scope. President Wilson, who, as its principal author, 'made errors enough, was wise at least in laying down the two essentials—that it should provido "an easy and constant method of conforence" on international difficulties, and also "a machinery Of readjustment" for items of the Peace Treaties which, he well realised, might prove fruitful of dissension.; The unreformed League has provided the one. Theoretically, it provides the other. Ca,n a reformed League supply a "machinery of readjustment" that willdo its work? Failure on its political side ought not to bo allowed to obscure —as it unhappily does—the record of its remarkable success in other directions. Financialasisstanee which it has organised has been,the saving of Austria, Hungary, and Greece. WORTH-WHILE SERVICE. There is, too, its wholly admirable record in, humanitarian and social achievement. The story of its fight against epidemic disease in post-war Eastern Europe is one of the noblest in the history of medicine. The Leaguti is carrying on: tasks that were never attempted before in the international campaigns against thQ ( illicit drug trade, against slavery, against the traffic in women and children. What it has done for the relief of prisoners of war and of refugees has saved the lives,' and renewed tho means of livelihood of hundreds of thousands. Whatever inav be its future in its political aspect, it is inconceivable that the world will allow any weakening in that national co-operation which has so wonderfully proved its' worth.