THE LEAGUE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 27, 26 October 1937, Page 4

THE LEAGUE.

=-Sir Jolrn

Marriott, /

u The Covenant of the League of Nations differs from all its predecessors (except the Holy Alliance) in this; it is not merely project, it has issued in a practical experiment of high significance. In some features — as regards the Assembly and Council for instance — the Covenant closely resembles the earlier projects; in one respect, ht least, it falls behind them. Though it contemplates the possibility of war to enforee its deerees, it provides ffr no pOnhanent international Defence Force. " In other respects it is entirely original. Notably in three. By generai eonsent the most important cog in its maehinery — albeit an expensive one — is the Permanent Secretariat, which has built up an exceedingly efficient international Civil Service. The reference to Labour conditions is also novel. Article XXIII has resulted in the establishmerit of the International Labour Office, That office, though not teehnieally part of the League maohinery, derives its charter from the Preamble of the Peace Treaties, and now forms a very elaborate organisation. "It has eollected and circulated (but again at great expense) a mass of valuable statistics, and has done in other directions some useful work, but in its main task of bringing up labour conditions throughout the world to the highest — let us bluntly say the English — standard, it has f&iled to fulfil expectations. Its main importance, as Sir John Fischer Williams cautiously put it in 1934, 'lies perhaps rather in the possibilities of the future than in the actual results

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