Four Y ears Old

THE LEAGUE

Four Years Old

The League of Nations celebrated its fourth birthday. On Jan. 10, 1920, the foundation of the League was laid; for on that date the Covenant of the League, which was included in all the main peace treaties with the enemy States, came into force concurrently with the Treaty of Versailles. During the following eleven months the superstructure of the League was built and in December, 1920, the first Assembly of the League of Nations met in Geneva, the permanent headquarters of the organization.

A rough outline of the League's membership, successes, failures, tells its own story:

Membership. 1920, when the League formally came into being: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, Guatemala, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Persia. Peru, Poland, Siam, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay; Feb. 10, 1920: the Serb-Croat-Slovene State (Yugo-slavia); Feb. 16, Colombia; March 3, Venezuela; March 5. Norway; March 8, Cuba, Denmark, Switzerland; March 9, Holland, Sweden; March 10, San Salvador; March 30, Greece; April 8, Portugal; June 30, Haiti, Liberia; July 16, China; Sept. 10, Rumania; Nov. 3, Honduras, Nicaragua; Dec. 16, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Finland, Luxembourg; Sept. 22, 1921, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania; Sept. 18, 1922, Hungary; Sept. 1923, Abyssinia, Irish Free State. Total: 54 nations.

Non-Members. The principal countries are: Afghanistan, the new Arabian States, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, United States of America.

Successes. Settlement of the Swedish-Finnish dispute over the Aaland Island; settlement of the Germano-Polish dispute over the delimita- tion of Upper Silesia; settlement of the Yugo-Slavian-Albanian fracas, which threatened to bring on a new Balkan War; financial administration of Austria, which has gone a long way toward putting that country on its feet. Many legal matters have been settled by the League and many are under consideration. Special Commissions have been formed to deal with international questions of health, drug traffic, economics, finance, communications, armaments, White Slave traffic, labor, customs, relief of refugees, etc. The activities of the League in this direction have been as innumerable as they have been beneficent. Moreover, more than 500 treaties have been filed with the League. The significance of this is that it tends to extirpate the evils of secret diplomacy by destroying its means.

Doubtful Successes. Under this heading come a number of cases where League settlement was unsatisfactory, but opposed by the fact that threatened war was undoubtedly avoided by League action: Vilna dispute between Lithuania and Poland, not yet definitely settled; Corfu incident between Italy and Greece, settled by Council of Ambassadors and World Court after recommendations were made by the League.

Failures. There have been no absolute failures. Cases, such as a dispute between Hungary and Rumania, were brought before the League by one party but were not agreed to by the other (Rumania). This is only an indirect failure which was caused not by any action of the League but by the recalcitrant party or by the Convenant, depending upon the point of view. There are, however, other matters under the care of the League, upon which the League has taken action, such as mandates, etc., the worth of which can be decided only after a period of time has elapsed.

World Court. The Permanent Court of International Justice (World Court) may be said to have been born in 1923, although the idea was projected as early as 1920. On the juridicial side, the Court is utterly divorced from the League; on the administrative side, it is largely a department of the League.

Settlements. Kiel Canal case.

Allies vs. Germany--Allies won; Upper Silesian case, Germany vs.

Poland--opinion asked by League, Court decision favored Germany; Teschen dispute, Czecho-Slovakia vs.

Poland--advisory opinion asked by League, decision favorable to Czecho-Slovakia. The International Commission of Jurists of the World Court drew up rules to govern warfare.

Failure. Eastern Karelian case, Finland vs. Russia. Russia refused to recognize the Court; the Court declared its incompetence to deal with the case.