LEAGUE ASSEMBLY

Grey River Argus, 15 September 1937, Page 5

LEAGUE ASSEMBLY

INDIAN AS PRESIDENT Various Quarrels [British Official Wireless]. RUGBY’, September 13. The Agii Khan, the chief delegate for India, was unanimously elected ■ President of the League of Nations Assembly. GENEVA, September 13. The Secretary-General received a letter from Selassie, stating he was unable to send a delegation, but he continued to have faith in the League. Selassie scorns Italy’s claim to effective occupation of Abyssinia, and declares that the Ethiopians’ active and passive resistance is untiringly growing. Although to-day's proceedings were only formal, the lobbies and Press galleries were exceptionally animated. M. Negrin, opening the Assembly, declared in his presidential address, I hat although Spain was a matter or the gravest international concern, he was not speaking of it, except to say that Spain preserved faith in the League’s ideals, which had not dimmed. The world was living in a strange period, in which the moral sense of nations had .retrogressed. Treaties were no longer respected, and signatures were binding only so far as the signatory himself wished. If the League were destroyed, this generation could not rebuild it. The Assembly adjourned to await the report of the Credentials Committee.

All the League delegates received a pamphlet, couched in violent abusive language referring to M. Negrin as a “bandit” signed by a “group of patriots.” Xs a result, the precincts of the Assembly were closely guarded.

The Committee received a letter from General Franco, protesting against the recognition of the Valencia Delegation. The Committee decided that the question was not within its scope. New Zealand representatives on the various committees are, Messrs Jordan, Campbell and Knowles, and Miss McKenzie.