A.—sa.

resolution I therefore took advantage of the opportunity to raise the subject of freedom of the press in the following form :— " Since the matter of Swiss neutrality is before the Council, may I ask His Excellency, the Swiss representative M. Motta, if we can have an assurance that there will be absolute freedom for representatives of the foreign press to transmit accounts of our proceedings so far as they are made available to them, together with the freedom to transmit such comments as they think fit." In the course of his closing remarks M. Motta replied :— The Federal Constitution proclaims the freedom of the press. The Swiss people is profoundly attached to that freedom. I can therefore give an assurance that the representatives of the foreign press will always be freely able to address to foreign newspapers any communications, any comments that they may deem expedient with regard to questions dealt with in the League of Nations." The resolution, as passed by the Council, with two abstentions, reads as follows " The Council of the League of Nations, in presence of the Swiss Government's memorandum dated April 29th, 1938, " Having considered the requests put forward in the memorandum of the Swiss Federal Council, and explained by the representative of Switzerland at the meeting of May 11th, 1938, " Having regard to the special position of Switzerland resulting from her perpetual neutrality which is based on age-long tradition and recognized by the Law of Nations, " Recalling that, by its declaration made in London on February 13th, 1920, the Council recognized that the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland is justified by the interests of general peace and as such is compatible with the Covenant, " Approves the report of the representative of Sweden, And in these circumstances takes note that Switzerland, invoking her perpetual neutrality, has expressed the intention not to participate any longer in any manner in the putting into operation of the provisions of the Covenant relating to sanctions, and declares that she will not be invited to do so, " And places on record that the Swiss Government declares its determination to maintain unaltered in all other respects her position as a member of the League, and to continue to give the facilities which have been accorded to the League for the free exercise by its institutions of their activities in Swiss territory." At a private meeting of the Council held on the morning of the 11th May, the following items of the agenda were under discussion Budgetary and Administrative Questions. {a) The appointment by the President of the Council of M. U. A. J. Brunskog as Auditor of the League of Nations was confirmed by the Council (see Documents C. 96, M. 49, 1938, X, and C. 159 1938, X). (b) The various transfers from one item of the Budget to another as disclosed in Documents C. 107, 1938, X, and C. 158, 1938, X, were approved. (c) The Council took note of the suggested appointments to and promotions in the Secretariat since the last ordinary session covered in Document C. 134, 1938. Appointments. (a) A reference to my report on the January session of the Council will show that there was still to be filled a vacancy of Deputy Judge of the Administrative Tribunal (which deals with staff matters), created by the death of M. Vezensky. The Council accepted the proposal of its Rapporteur the representative of China, that the vacancy be filled by the appointment of M. G. Havelka, a Judge of the Supreme Administrative Court of Czechoslovakia, his term of office to be the balance still to run of the term of office of his predecessor. The appointment will expire on the 31st December 1939 (see Document C. 163, 1938). (b) Fiscal Committee.—A corresponding member in Denmark, Dr. E. von der Hude, has recently died, and the question of the appointment of a successor having arisen, the Council accepted the suggestion of its Rapporteur, the representative of Sweden, that Dr. Carl Nyholm, Chairman of the Board of Taxation in Denmark, should be invited to fill the vacancy. Dr. Nyholm, should he accept, will complete the current term of office, which will expire in January, 1940 (see Document C. 138, 1938, 11, A). At the public meeting which immediately succeeded the private meeting on the morning of the 11th May decisions were taken on the following:— Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery. Report on the work of its fifth session. The documents are C. 112, 1938, VI (which is the report of the Advisory Committee of Experts) and C. 173, 1938, VI (which is the report of the Council's .Rapporteur, the representative of the United Kingdom). The first of these reports gives a great deal of interesting information on certain aspects of slavery or on systems of the nature of slavery still prevalent in parts of the world, whilst the Rapporteur's report is in the nature of a comment on the

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