A.—s

54

1 am afraid, however, that the absence of any discussion concerning the treatment of minorities in any particular country cannot be considered as evidence that all States concerned are now satisfactorily carrying out tho terms of the Minorities Treaties. In the ease of Bulgaria and Greece, where the treatment of minorities has been a fruitful source of friction, it was announced during the Assembly that the Mixed Commission which has boon supervising the carrying-out of the Greek-Bulgarian Emigration Convention has offered its good offices to tho two Governments in the application of the Minorities Treaties, and that both States had agreed to accept the assistance, thus offered. As the difficulties in connection with minorities are frequently duo to mutual suspicion, the help which can bo rendered by an impartial body, such as the Mixed Commission, is often extremely valuable. Eastern Carelia. —Document A. 88 gives in summarized form the position regarding this subject. The Finnish Government recognizes the impossibility of the League accomplishing anything practical at present in this connection, but desires to maintain its right to reopen the matter should altered circumstances hold out any prospect of pressure being brought to boar on Soviet Russia to fulfil its obligations under tho Treaty of Dorpat. MEETINGS OK BRITISH EMPIRE DELEGATIONS. Several meetings of the representatives of Great Britain and the various Dominions wore held during the, course of the Assembly, as in previous years, although on this occasion the meetings wore not quite so numerous as usual. One. subject of considerable difficulty considered at these meetings arose out of the understanding lust year that India's objection to tho proportion of the expenses of the League allocated to her under the provisional arrangement adopted at the last Assembly would be mot by assistance being rendered by Great Britain and the other Dominions, if necessary, in the proportions mentioned in my report on the Third Assembly. The Indian delegates drew attention to the fact that whim they had endeavoured to arrange a discussion between the. representatives of the six Governments concerned, in order to settle the details of the assistance to be given to India, they were met by the refusal of the British Treasury to enter on such a discussion except on tho preliminary understanding that in no conceivable circumstances could the British Government increase, its share of the total Empire liability beyond lire 95 units for which, apart from Lord Balfour's undertaking, it would, in any case, have been separately liable. Ultimately Lord Robert Cecil, as principal British delegate, stated that the Treasury had agreed to the matter being considered by the Imperial Conference, and on this specific understanding the Indian delegates allowed the matter to drop for the time being. DOCUMENTS. For convenience of reference, the, Assembly documents referred to in this report are arranged in numerical order. The text of all the resolutions adopted by the Assembly will be found in Special Supplement No. II to the Official Journal for October, enclosed. Complete sets of verbatim reports of Assembly meetings and of the Official Journal are also included with tire documents forwarded. CONCLUDING REMARKS. I have referred fairly fully to the Italian-Greek trouble in this report, and have only to add that the prestige of the League of Nations was undoubtedly damaged by the precipitate and unjustifiable action of tho Italians. The report of the President of tho Council contained the following paragraph : — " The members of the Council being in agreement that any dispute between members of the League likely to load to a rupture is within the, sphere of action of the League, and that if such dispute cannot be settled by diplomacy, arbitration, or judicial settlement, it is tho duty of tho Council to deal with it in accordance with the terms of Article 15 of the Covenant." The concurrence of tho Italian delogato on tho Council in this resolution may do something to rehabilitate tho League, but there still remains the one groat defect in a League of Nations organization whilst the United States of America, Germany, and Russia remain outside the fold. There are two other questions to which it seems necessary for mo to allude —firstly, the propaganda work done inside the League by individual nations, and sometimes by groups thereof, for their own particular interest; and, secondly, tho financial situation. On tho latter point I have submitted to you my opinion in previous reports, and it remains for me to say that, in my judgment, tho expenditure for highly paid officials and for the staff generally as arranged at this Assembly is more than can be justified by comparison with the British staff, which, being the highest-paid staff amongst the various nations, was taken as the basis in fixing tho salaries of tho members of the League's staff. 1 have, &c, Tho Hon. the Acting Prime Minister, Wellington, New Zealand. J. Allen.