A.—s A

1937. NEW ZEALAND.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS HELD AT GENEVA IN THE YEAR 1937.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. New Zealand Government Offices, 415 Strand, London W.C. 2, 10th June, 1937. Sir, — In company with the Honourable H. T. Armstrong as co-delegate, and Dr. W. B. Sutch as substitute delegate, and Miss J. R. McKenzie as Secretary to the Delegation, I attended the Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the League of Nations convened for the purpose of considering the request of Egypt for admission to the League. The Assembly held its first meeting on Wednesday, 26th May, 1937, at 11 a.m. In the chair was M. Quevedo, delegate of Ecuador and President of the Council; later M. Riistii Aras (Turkey) was elected President of the Assembly. In his opening speech M. Quevedo expressed his personal views in regard to the admission of Egypt, because as a Member of the Council and as representative of an American State he was anxious to acclaim the important political event represented by the admission of a new State to the League, especially when that State was Egypt. New Zealand was nominated for the Credentials Committee, its representative being appointed Vice-Chairman. The matter coming before the committee was of a routine nature ; Abyssinia not having sent a delegate, there were, of course, no credentials submitted to the Committee, and the question did not therefore come up for consideration. However, when the Chairman of the Credentials Committee reported back to the Council the Polish Representative, as had been anticipated, rose to put a point of view as follows : — " The Credentials Committee, for reasons of which it is the only judge, has not thought it expedient to deal with the question left in suspense in the report of the Credentials Committee at the previous Assembly. If it is thought desirable that this question should not be mentioned at the present time, although the de facto situation allows no doubts to remain such as existed in September last, I desire to state that my Government, having no interest, either direct or indirect, in the part of the world in question, and being concerned exclusively with the future of international collaboration within the framework of the League of Nations — which must base its existence on realities —considers that this question is settled in so far as it is concerned." The position, that there should be no suggestion for the exclusion of the representative of a member from the League, was put by the representative for Mexico as follows : — f It was with the greatest attention that I listened to the statement just made by the honourable representative of Poland. If I understand him aright, he makes no definite proposal. Nevertheless, as Mexico's silence might be misinterpreted, I desire to emphasize in the clearest possible manner our opposition to any suggestion whose object would be to prepare the way for the exclusion of the representatives of a State member of the League of Nations. As this question does not appear on the Agenda, I do not consider it necessary to develop the reasons on which the attitude of my Government is based." There was no further reference to the Abyssinian question, but it is assumed that this matter will again be discussed at greater length at the next meeting of the Assembly.