THE LEAGUE

The past week's session of the Fifth Assembly of the League of Nations was one of "alarums and excursions."

P: The stage was set for the interminable wrangling over the protocol of arbitration, security and disarmament, when news was flashed from Berlin that Dr. Gustav Stresemann, German Foreign Minister, quitted his sanitorium* bed, journeyed to the capital to take part in a memorable Cabinet meeting in President Ebert's Wilhelmstrasse residence, which ended in a unanimous decision to apply for membership in the League.

John Corbin, League correspondent for The New York Times, asked Count Harry Kessler, semi-official German delegate to the League Assembly and German delegate to the 1923 Williamstown Conference (TIME, Aug. 20, 1923), to explain the whys and wherefores of the German decision. Three questions were posed:

1) Has Germany demanded and will she be given a permanent seat in the League Council, placing her on an equality with England, France, Italy and Japan?

2) Has she demanded and will she be given a mandate to administer her former colonies lost as a result of the War?

3) Will she sign the protocol establishing arbitration, security and disarmament which binds the signatory nations to cooperate "loyally and effectively" to outlaw war?

P: The substance of Count Kessler's answers:

1) Germany will receive a permanent seat on the Council as the result of diplomatic conversation, not as the result of a demand on her part.

2) Germany has not demanded a mandate to administer her lost colonies, nor will she make such a demand, "at least for the present."

3) Germany is a disarmed nation, as evidenced by the Interallied Committee on the Control of German Arms, which is continuing in enquiry in Germany. What arms there are in Germany are few and out of date, therefore Germany is incapable of cooperating "effectively," no matter how loyal she feels, in putting down aggression by force. Moreover, she was not even in a position to permit a French army, for example, to traverse German territory for the defense of the Little Entente against Russia; for such an action would incur Russia's enmity and might lay Germany open to an invasion which she would not be in a position to repel. The case in point was determinable, not by any lack of sympathy for the League, but by the "sheer facts of Germany's situation."

When Germany would apply for her League membership was a point left in fog of uncertainty. France, it is known, is against Germany's admittance until such time as the Interallied Control Mission has reported Germany to be disarmed. Such a report is almost certain to be made; but the report is not due until December. Germany is, therefore, unlikely to make application before 1925.

P: The progress of the protocol on arbitration, security and disarmament was marred by a series of disruptive, though abortive incidents. New Zealand, Yugoslavia, Italy and Japan threw monkey wrenches of varying sizes into the protocol machinery. Through the masterly tact of Dr. Eduard Benes, Foreign Minister of Czecho-Slovakia, the situation was in each case--except that of Japan--saved. The waves of excitement of the Italian furore, in which France and Britain took a hand, were stilled by an allusion of Dr. Benes to Euclid--that as Italy was in agreement with Britain and that France agreed with Britain and that he agreed with Britain, it was axiomatic that they were all agreed.

P: The Council of the League of Nations received a recommendation from the friends of Miss Sarah Wambaugh, Doctor of Laws, daughter of Professor Eugene Wambaugh of Harvard, that she be appointed a member of the Governing Commission of the Saar Valley in room of the Spanish member, deceased. Miss Wambaugh, not yet 40, is thought by many close students of foreign affairs to be the greatest authority on plebiscites in the world today.

Rights in the Saar Valley or Basin, a rich coal region, were obtained by France from Germany for 15 years in compensation for the destruction of coal mines in northern France during the War. At the end of the 15 years (1934) a plebiscite* is to be held to decide whether the district is to be: 1) autonomous; 2) annexed by France; 3) reannexed by Germany.

*German wags asserted that Foreign Minister Stresemann's malady was due to the chastisements he had received at the hands of President Ebert and Chancellor Marx. He had previously opposed Germany's entrance into the League, but the unanimous decision of the Cabinet, quoted above, showed that he had fallen into line with his chiefs.

*The word plebiscite comes from the Latin word plebiscitum, a decree of the plebs or common people. It was resurrected by the French during the Revolution and possibly its most famed application in modern history was in 1852 when the French coup d'etat of 1851 was confirmed and the title of Emperor of the French given to Napolean III. In Switzerland, under the name of referendum, the plebiscite has been in existence for a long time.