A.—sb.

its President to appoint the person, who should be proposed later by the Supervisory Commission, subject to subsequent ratification by the Council. In this suggestion the Council readily concurred, and passed the following resolution :— " The Council, — Empowers its President to appoint as Auditor to the League of Nations, subject to ratification by the Council at its session of May 1938, the person who will be proposed by the Chairman of the Supervisory Commission." (Documents C. 40, 1938, X, and C. 44, .1.938, X.) (2) Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs.—Both Greece and Czechslovakia had proferred requests for representation by their nationals on the Opium Advisory Committee, and, further, the Council was required to aj:>point two assessors to fill vacancies which occurred in 1937. The Advisory Committee itself proposed the reappointment for one year of M. de Myttenaere, and this was agreed to by the Council; but in the absence of any recommendation as to the filling of the second vacancy no further action was taken. As to the requests of the Governments of Greece and Czechoslovakia the Council's Rapporteur, the representative of Latvia, recommended that they be acceded to and the Council agreed. This action involves the creation of one additional seat only on the Advisory Committee, since the Swedish Government has given notification that in future it will not be represented on the Committee (see Documents C. 53, 1938, XI, and C. 54, 1938, XI). (3) Status of Women. —This is a matter which has been dealt with by the First Committee of more than one Assembly and at considerable length. Its inscription on the Assembly's agenda has been due in the main to the pressure exercised on delegates by women's organizations. The question was considered by the Assembly of 1937, and space is devoted to it in my report on that Assembly. In the resolution of the Assembly there is an implied recognition that the question is a national rather than an international one, and that all that was contemplated was the preparation of a comprehensive study giving full information on the legal status enjoyed by women in the various countries of the world as the result of the provisions of national law and the application of these provisions. The study is to be made by competent scientific institutes under the supervision of a committee of experts appointed by the Council. For additional information on the duties of this Committee of Experts I would refer you to Document C. 52, 1938, V. At this session the Council was called upon to appoint the Committee, and the Rapporteur, the President himself, suggested the following : — Mine Paul Bastid (France). M. de Ruelle (Belgium). Mme. Anka Godjevac (Yugoslavia), Mr. H. C. Gutteridge, K.C. (United Kingdom). Mile. Kerstin Hesselgren (Sweden). M. Paul Sebestyen (Hungary). Miss Dorothy Kenyon (United States of America). As is usual when questions affecting women's rights are under discussion at Geneva, women's organizations were very active. The organizations were not unanimous in regarding all the persons who it was proposed should be invited to serve as best fitted to do the work, and in their desire to have on the committee well-known and strong advocates of women's rights, they lost sight of the fact that the committee's duties do not include the study of propaganda, but an examination of facts—i.e., the legal status of women as defined in national laws and the results of the application of those laws. I had received representations by cable from the Chairman of the Australian and New Zealand Equal Rights International urging the appointment to the Committee of Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, and there waited on me a deputation of women, representing various groups, who urged not only this appointment, but the appointment of others. When the matter came before the Council I mentioned that representations had been made to me and asked that consideration might be given to them at a convenient opportunity. There can, however, be no question of additions to the committee as the amount voted by the Assembly will not cover a larger number than seven. In view of the difficulty which had been experienced in selecting from the many able and suitable persons whose names had been submitted, the Council accepted the Rapporteur's suggestion and appointed the seven persons mentioned above. (4) Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments. —After the lapse of considerable time the Bureau of the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments met in May, 1937, as the result of a resolution of the Assembly of the previous year. The Bureau, during its short session, had under consideration, amongst other matters, the draft Convention on Publicity for National Defence Expenditure which had been elaborated by the Conference itself, and as a result of such consideration, Governments which had taken part in the Conference were asked by letter whether they were in principle prepared to agree to a system of budgetary publicity based on the Convention. The Bureau hoped to meet again in reasonable time for the consideration of replies to the circular letter, and it was left to the Council to fix a date. Replies have, however, been slow in coming to hand, and, in spite of a reminding letter, only twenty-four have been received. Further, replies are still lacking from some of the chief military and naval Powers. In the circumstances, no useful purpose would have been served in fixing a date for the reassembly of the Bureau, and the Council postponed consideration until its next session (see Document C. 47, 1938, IX). The Council then went into public session and discussed the remaining items which appeared on the agenda for the day.

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