At Lyon

At Lyon, French city of which Premier Herriot is Mayor, was held the eighth plenary Assembly* of the International Federation of League of Nations Societies. All countries, including the U. S. and Germany, were represented. During the deliberations, a friendly tiff occurred between a Japanese delegate, M. Sugimura, and an American delegate, Dr. Clyde A. Duniway, but was amicably settled. Count von Bernstorff, onetime German Ambassador to the U. S., made a highly-flavored speech in support of a "United States of Europe" and spiced it with numberless illogical comparisons and deductions. But the most soul-disturbing event was the arraignment of the Haitian policy of the U. S. (TIME, July 7).

Dantes Bellegarde, Negro diplomat, Haitian leader and orator, and one-time Haitian Minister to Paris, stigmatized the U. S. occupation of Haiti as unjustifiable and productive of great harm to the Haitian people. Dr. C. A. Duniway, head of the League of Rations Non-Partisan Association, defeated a Bellegarde resolution calling for the withdrawal of American "devil dogs" (Marines) from Haiti by substituting one of his own, which reiterated U. S. Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes' statement that the U. S. would withdraw from Haiti as soon as internal affairs made such a step possible. The resolution was carried and was satisfactory to the U. S. and Haitian delegates.

M. Bellegarde, however, took an early opportunity to plunge into a dissertation on the Haitian dissertation on the Haiti question and to appeal for "justice and liberation." The assembly cheered him to the echo and several delegates cried "Bravo!"

Dr. Duniway stoutly defended his country and declared that occupation was justified by the disorder in Haiti. He concluded thus: "Santo Domingo is free, and Haiti will be free when she has satisfied the conditions and has shown that she is capable of self-government. Our attitude is one of benevolent serving--not our own cause, but Haiti's."

*The Assembly is unofficial and is composed of societies for propagating the League faith.