Council of Madrid

In Madrid last week the League of Nations Council adjourned for the 55th time after sidestepping its two most explosive problems and passing others over for future study. By far the most picturesque meeting in its history, it was one of the least fruitful. General Primo de Rivera's government had contrived to make it, with the Seville and Barcelona Expositions (TIME, May 20), Spain's biggest show. Hampered by publicity, the Council members resorted more than ever to secret sessions and corridor conferences to get their real work done.

Only a hint of what went on in private leaked out during the public Council sessions. Famed sleepy-eyed Pacifier Aristide Briand exerted himself to keep harmony.

Assembling in the unused Gothic Senate chamber, literally under the shadow of a Bourbon throne, attended by experts and flanked by 100 newsgatherers, the 14 Council members sat about the Council table (brought especially from Geneva) for four days. From the galleries half the grandees of Spain and members of the Diplomatic Corps, watched the proceedings. Only once were they treated to a sharp word skirmish.

Heading aggressively into the stormy problem of protection for political minorities (viz. German communities in Poland), Germany's solid, monkish Stresemann had announced that he was not satisfied with the Council's treatment of minority questions, would appeal to the World Court and the League Assembly for a "positive, crusading attitude rather than a negative, legalistic one on behalf of oppressed peoples."

Up spoke M. Briand: "The German delegate is shaking the foundations of the League for domestic political advantage," he rasped. "He is abusing the confidence of the public and giving the League a black eye before the world for inferring that it has not been doing its fullest duty toward minorities."

Herr Stresemann uttered no word. Chairman Adatci of Japan had already persuaded the Council to accept unanimously a compromise minorities plan, having three main features: 1) The Council's subcommittee on Minorities shall make its proceedings public; 2) shall meet more often; 3) and in case of a world-shaking dispute shall have its members increased from three to four. Herr Stresemann's challenge was only a warning that Germany would consider this plan purely temporary.

Besides her complaint on Minorities, Germany was urgently pressing the question: "When will the Allied Powers get out of the Rhineland?" Brought up in Council session, Minister Briand met it by playing for time. France cannot answer, he said, until she knows 'the views of Ramsay MacDonald, newly-elected British Prime Minister. He suggested that it be settled along with other details of the Young Reparations Plan at an International Conference proposed for July or August.

Turning their backs with relief on such dangerous subjects the Council accepted U. S. reservations on adherence to the World Court, as passed by the U. S. Senate in 1926 and, more important, rewritten by Elihu Root last March (TIME, March 18). With the Council's approval given, approval by the World Court membership in September seems assured. Optimists foresaw U. S. entrance to the World Court within a year. The last remaining obstacle is the biggest. Will Mr. Root's version of the reservations satisfy the U. S. Senate?