Curtain for the League of Nations

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 360, 17 May 1946, Page 16

Curtain for the League of Nations

(By

GEORGES

AVENEG

in the "Christian Science Monitor" )

ASSIVE, graceful, imposing, the concrete palace of the League of Nations stands on a ridge in Geneva’s Ariana Park, overlooking the choppy waters of Lake Leman Eastward, across the lake, loom towering Alpine peaks, their. summits crested with snow; while behind the palace rises the lesser Jura range, also snow-capped. Time and the elements have yellowed the white travertine facing of the palace. It has a forlorn appearance. On nearly all its windows, blinds are drawn Its car parks, providing accommodation for 500 vehicles, are empty; its courts and purple gravel walks, deserted. A lone peacock, last of the flock that strutted so proudly through the palace grounds, shelters disconsolately in the Court of Honour behind the gilded armillary sphere, gift of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. "Sic transit gloria mundi." The League of Nations, first great experiment in international co-operation, is to be disbanded and replaced by the new United

Nations Organisation, which will be quartered in the United States. Designed, like its successor, to safeguard world peace, the old League failed; not, as is often charged, because of intrinsic defects in its structure, but because timid or short-sighted statesmen declined to enforce its Covenant. Arrangements for liquidating the League have been entrusted to its Control Commission, whose recommendations will be referred for ratification to the League Assembly at a final meetinz in Geneva. At least four of the 16 sections of the League Charter-those headed Opium, Economic, Finance and Health-are to be takerr over by the UNO. Other sections, and the incomparable League Library with its 329,000 volumes, probably will be taken over also. * * * URING the war most of the League’s political. activities were suspended Diminished contributions soon necessitated drastic reductions in the Secretariat staff, but several of the non-poli-tical sections continued to render valuable service. In 1940, when German

troops appeared on the Franco-Swiss frontier, less than 15 minutes’ march from the League Palace, and when Switzerland seemed in danger of invasion, precautions had to be taken against a possible interruption of remaining functions. Accordingly, the Opium Section was transferred to Washington, D.C.; the Economic Section to Princeton, N.J., and. the Finance and Health Sections to Great Britain. At the same time, the International Labour Office moved its working base te Montreal. , However. the Permanent Court of International Justice, obliged to abandon its seat at The Hague, sent its Registrar and other officials to Geneva. To-day, less than a fourth of the 400odd offices in the League palace are occupied. The Secretariat, which in January, 1939, numbered 654, is now reduced to less than 140. The only part of the palace that is heated is the southeast wing, where the Secretariat is quartered. Visitors nowadays to the League palace are comparatively rare. For the most part they consist of American soldiers

on leave, small groups of whom are shown daily through the building. They are advised against refhoving their caps and overcoats, as the temperature of the unheated parts of the building is at least six degrees below that outdoors. Entering the grounds by the main gate, one no longer is halted by a guard. His duties have been taken over by the concierge, who sits behind the desk just inside the palace entrance hall. Outside and in, one encounters everywhere evidence of unremitting care. Walks, gardens and shrubbery are all in perfect order; clocks perfectly timed; the linoleum flooring of corridors as spotless and shiny as ever. The numerous committee rooms-the Assembly alone has 10-appear just as they were in the heyday of the League, ready for immediate use. # * * HE League palace is a masterpiece of architecture, approximating in dimensions the Palace of Versailles. It covers, roughly, an area of 20,000 square yards, has a volume of about 450,000 square yards, and its perimeter measures about

a mile and a quarter, Started in September, 1929, it was first occupied in February, 1936, It cost 7,500,000 dollars. From whatever angle it is approached, the palace gives a striking impression of harmony. Yet it was not an easy building to design, and its creation gave rise to intricate architectural problems, Assembly and Council Halls, as well as the various committee rooms and lounges connected with them, and the quarters of the Secretariat and Library, required semi-independent buildings, each with its own special services and approaches. The site was obtained from the Genevese authorities, in exchange for a much smaller one previously assigned on the lake front between the Park Mon Repos and the International Labour Office. No less striking than the palace itself are its interior decorations. Many of the rooms are adorned with priceless tapestries, carpets, and other furnishings, donated by member states, Of its numerous valuable paintings, the most famous undoubtedly are those of the Spanish artist José Maria Sert in the Council Hall, There is a touch of irony, almost prophetic irony, in Sert’s paintings as they appear to-day in the silent emptiness of that hall, particularly in the panels, "Victors and Vanquished," on the back wall,. facing the Council table. One of these portrays the victors bearing a heavy coffin; the other, the vanquished standing amid their slain populations and proclaiming their. desire for vengeance, A bare panel in the Private Council Chamber, where members were wont to discuss the order of the day, marks the place p posed occupied by a Gobelin tapestry donated by the Austrian Government. After, the the German Government requested, and obtained, the return of this tapestry. In anothér private room of the Council a glass panel, donated by the Czechoslovak

Government, remains unfinished. Before the panel could be completed German troops had occupied Czechoslovakia. The passing of the League will be mourned in Geneva, particularly by the business interests. For whatever the sentiments elsewhere in Switzerland — and many Swiss feel that the presence of such an international organisation on Swiss soil might serve ultimately to involve the nation in war-a considerable portion of the League’s annual budget of 7,500,000 dollars was spent in Geneva. | of % WHAT is to become of the League palace and its furnishings? Various suggestions have been advanced: That the building be used as an international university to train officials for the UNO; that it be conyerted into a huge sanatorium for the victims of Nazi concentration camps; that it be used for certain branches of the UNO, which might thus be enabled to continue work in Europe; and that it. be made the permanent home of the International Labour Office, which has a less. pretentious building on the shores. of Lake Leman, However, Labour officials are said to fayour the re-establishment of the international office at a site near the seat of the UNO; and none of the other suggestions has yet taken concrete form. Some of the furnishings almost certainly will be used in the new UNO headquarters in the United States. The old League has given place to the new. In the words of Sean Lester, Acting General Secretary of the United Nations Organisation: "Whether, in many respects, it is bétter than the machine that is being discarded is not the important thing. Success will depend on how it is used, on the justice, wisdom, and: courage of leaders; and, above all, on the vision and determination of the common people. Such truisms cannot be too often repeated in view of the immensity of the task that again faces humanity." |