THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1924, Page 1

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

RECORD OF ACCOAIRLJSIJ.MEXTS. EUROPEAN FINANCIAL RECONSTRUCTION. LONDON. .January if. On January 1011 1 , 1920, t]j<> League nl Nation., came into official existence, ami the anniversary of this event is the excuse for a review of the work of the League during the past four years. It is considered that the League's greatest achievement so far is the fin-

ancial reconstruction of Austria, which luts made a marked advance during the past year. Conclusive evidence of this is the ho t that the Austrian currency Inis heen stabilised and that- instead of "the flight from the Crown,” which had assumed serious proportions before the League’s scheme was initiaated. the attraction of foreign capital to Austrian enterprises has steadily increased. Deposits in Austrian banks and Savings Hanks have increased by 1000 per cent. Unemployment fell from 109.1 17 in February, 19-11, to T 0,77.9 in October. although 50.009 State officials were dismissed during the same period. This is the first case in history of international co-opera-tion on silt'll a large scale, lie I’oro the League took over the task, each of the Allied Governments had declared that it could do nothing further to save Austria from collapse. And yet these

same Governments, when working through the League, were completely successful. No less than .-€25,000,000 had been spent in Austria ito no purpose. The League's scheme cost £7OOO, of which the British taxpayer had to find 0700. An incidental feature of the rheme is that now the British Treasury will recover a loan to Austria of 112,000.000, all hope of which had heen abandoned.

There is no doubt that ihc League’s scheme for Austria F likely to he the type for fnluru reconstructive. efforts. Hungary is about (o undergo similar treatment. Albania is moving forward oniler the League economic tutelage. (1 recce, too, with the assistance of the League, is -eeiug a way out of hor accumulated difficulties. The same machinery, now tried and tested, is ready to use to save Germany. Xor is it an insuperable obstacle that the economic restoration of Germany cannot- fie undertaken without some solution of the linked problems of reparations, iuter-Allied debts, and security of frontiers.

TREATY OF MUTUAL ASSISTANCE. The Treaty of Mutual Assistance hat already been approved in principle by tin* League’s Assembly and is now before the Governments of the fifty-four Member-States of the League. Here at last is a resolute practical endeavour to outlaw aggressive war. The firs*

article of the draft Treaty says: ‘‘The High ( oiUraeling Parties solemnly declare that aggressive vat* is an international crime and severally undertake that no one of them shall he guilty cl it- commission.'' The idea that all nations who >o desire should give definite guarantees to protect each other against unprovoked external aggression : hut that these guarantees shall not take effect until a general reduction of armaments lias actually commenced. The attitude of Franco towards this Treaty is most encouraging. She sees in it a practical proposal that i - likely to give her a measure of the security she vainly sought ‘rum ail Anrde- America n Alliance

HEALTH U'UliK Tlii> League'--. 111 ;iciiiiioi'v l'or health work is now permanent, so that its results will he eiuuulatiVe and continuous. In the absence of the League, Central am! South-Eastern Mu rope, and - probably Western' Europe as well, would, have been overrun by the frightf 11 1 epidemics of typhus, relapsing fever and cholera, which have decimated llm Russian borderlands. Tho League has built up an intelligence service which treats the world s health as a unit. To encourage practical cooperation between nations on health matters, the League has organised a series of interchanges of Public Health personnel. These interchanges have already made possible a valuable firsthand pooling of knowledge and methods. The liockfeller Foundation has helped to finance the interchanges. Antitoxic sera are being standardised, so that all nations can benefit by successful experiments anywhere. On tho health side of its work the League is practically universal. The l nited Srates, Germany, and "Russia all take some part.

COMET OF INTERNATIONA]

.1 (STICK. Dming the past year the Permanent Court of International Justice was instrumental in settling a didicult ond possibly dangerous dispute between

Great Britain and France. I lii.s arose out of the French claim to impose tho obligation of military set vice on Brijt'b subjects resident in -Morocco. The Permanent Court upheld the British

view that the cpteslion was one of international concern*. Germany was arraigned before the Permanent Court to ■diow cause why she had stopped the British vessel Wimbledon in the Kiel Canal. Although the Wimbledon was laden with arms and munitions for Poland, the Allies claimed that in stopping her Germany had violated a. clause of the Treaty of \ ersailles, and must pay damages. During the hearing of this case, a German Judge. Dr. Walter Suckling, was co-opted as a member of the Court. The Allies won the case.

Twenty-one nations have signed and ratihed the protocol accepting the compulsory jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of .International Justice. There is the possibility ot the early adhesion of the l toted State- to the Permanent Court: hut its necessary connexion with the League is -till a difficulty in America.

PREVENTION' OF WAR. If the League of Nations had not been in existence, there would almost certainly ltavve boon war between Sweden and Finland over the A aland Islands; the frontier trouble between Jugo-Slavia ami Albania in 10-1 would probably have resulted in a new. Balkan war. involving Italy: the vexed problem of the partition ol 1 PPor Silesia would have remained a serious menace to the peace of Europe; ami the ownership of Vilnn would hjife been decided by recourse to arms between Poland and Lithuania. The League was not directly concerned in the recent disputes between Italy and Greece-; hut the very existence of the League and the fact that the Assembly a-as in session at the time, had a moderating influence. HEM A NIT All I AN WORK. The League’s first great humanitarian task was the repatriation through Dr Nansen’s organisation, of 330,000 prisoner- of war, who otherwise would certainly have perished. Continuous efforts have been made to assist Governments in finding work for refugees, who are gradually becoming self-supporting. In the case of Greek

refugees, the League has assisted thousands temporarily, has set up model settlements, and now has in hand a. practical scheme for .settling nearly one million in productive employment in Northern Greece.

The League has made definite progress—incidentally arousing public attention to tin extent quite unknown before—in checking the traffic in women and children, and the traffic in opium and other harmful drugs. In both eases the League has gone to the root of the evil and in both cases has concentrated on making the control as far as possible universal. The League’s policy against the opium traffic, for instance, is to restrict the world’s production of opium to the ascertained medical and scientific requirements of ihe world. This year two world eonferoitces are to he held b the League with a view to applying this policy. The United States co-operates officially on the I engue's Commissions on the traffic in women and children, and in the traffic in opium.