A.—s

1940. NEW ZEALAND.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE TWENTIETH ASSEMBLY AND THE ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, HELD AT GENEVA IN THE YEAR 1939.

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

TWENTIETH ASSEMBLY AND ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. New Zealand Government Offices, 415 Strand, London, W.C. 2, 22nd December, 1939. Sib, — On Sunday, the 3rd December, the Secretary-General of the League of Nations addressed a telegram to the Members of the Council and the Members of the League containing the text of a letter he had received that day from the Permanent Delegate of Finland accredited to the League of Nations, calling attention to an attack delivered on the morning of the 30th November by the forces of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics on Finnish frontier positions and on open Finnish towns from the air, and requesting the Secretary-General to summon meetings of the Council and the Assembly of the League in virtue of Articles 11 and 15 of the Covenant. The Secretary-General accordingly requested Members of the Council to meet in Geneva on the 9th December at 12 noon, and the telegram concluded by stating that he was submitting to the President of the Assembly a proposal to convoke the Assembly on the 11th December. A subsequent message from the Secretary-General confirmed the date of meeting of the Assembly. I left London on Friday, the Bth December, and reached Geneva on the morning of the 9th, having travelled by aeroplane and train. One member of my staff, Mr. C. A. Knowles, was already in Geneva for the purpose of attending the session of the Fourth Committee, whilst two others, Mr. R. M. Campbell and Miss J. R. McKenzie, followed me to Geneva. The Council and the Assembly were called mainly to consider the Finnish appeal, but advantage was taken to deal with one or two other pressing matters. It will, however, be convenient if instead of writing one report on the proceedings of the Council and another on those of the Assembly I combine in one document an account of the proceedings of the two bodies. The Council met in private at 12 noon on the 9th December, under the Presidency of Count Carton de Wiart, the Belgian representative. The session was to have opened in September, and there was in existence an agenda of many items for consideration then, but the outbreak of war had prevented the holding of the usual sessions of the Council and the Assembly. Time pressed, and there was a general desire to consider only those items which were of paramount importance. The agenda for the session was therefore limited to the few matters shown on paper numbered C./106th Session, Agenda 2. The Council at its first meeting formally adopted this amended agenda. The representative of China, after referring to the fact that the Council remained seised of the Chinese appeal, stated that he did not intend to raise it again on this occasion, but would like an opportunity of making a short statement to this effect at a public meeting. Another private meeting was called in the afternoon, but this second meeting was preceded by an exchange of views between members of the Council. No record is