A.—s

In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, the Assembly elected as its six Vice-Presidents — M. Scialoja (Italy), who received forty-three votes ; M. Briand (Prance), who received forty-one votes ; Sir Austen Chamberlain (Great Britain and Northern Ireland), who received forty-one votes ; Dr. Stresemann (Germany), who received forty-one votes ; Mr. Nemours (Haiti), who received twentyeight votes ; Count Mensdorff (Austria), who received thirty-two votes. For the sixth appointment it was necessary to proceed to a second ballot. The President of the Assembly, the Vice-Presidents, and the Chairmen of Committees form the General Committee of the Assembly, which on this occasion made an addition to the General Committee by appointing as an honorary member M. Motta, the chief delegate of Switzerland, who has represented his country so often, and is this year again President of the Swiss Confederation. Debate on the Report of the Secretary-General. The debate on the report on the work of the Council, on the work of the Secretariat, and on the measures taken to execute the decisions of the Assembly (Documents A. 13, A. 13 (a), and A. 13 (b)), began on the 6th September and continued to the 12th. As is usual in this debate, advantage was taken to introduce motions. There was one by the Italian delegate suggesting the creation at Rome of an International Institute of Educational Cinematography, to be maintained at the expense of the Italian Government (Document A. 51); and another by the delegate of the Netherlands, designed to refer to the appropriate committees of the Assembly the study of the fundamental principles of the Geneva Protocol of 1924, and the conclusions of the Report of the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference (Document A. 50) ; and yet another by the delegate of Paraguay, asking for the preparation of a general and comprehensive plan of codification of international law (Document A. 59). On the 9th September the Portuguese delegation introduced a motion to refer to the Sixth Committee all documents issued in connection with mandates since the seventh Assembly (Document A. 55). The debate on the report gives an opportunity for a general discussion on the principles and aims of the League, and on the work accomplished, and for making suggestions for the future. This year's debate can be followed in the Journal, and there is no need to deal with it here in its more general aspects. The Swedish, and especially the Norwegian, delegates were very critical of the methods of the Council, and deplored the tendency shown by certain members of that body to discuss amongst themselves questions, and even to arrive at decisions, without the precincts of the Council Chamber ; the Japanese delegate referred to the desire of his country to put an end to the ruinous race in armaments, and to reduce them to the minimum required for national security and the fulfilment of international obligations ; the Hungarian delegate asked for a declaration by the Council of its interpretation of the obligations imposed upon it by the Treaties of Peace in the protection of minorities ; and there were many happy references to the recent International Economic Conference, which is generally considered to have been a most successful gathering, and to have given a clear indication of the steps which must be taken if many of the ills from which the world is suffering in the economic sphere are to be cured. But it was the speech of the Netherlands delegate, and the motion he introduced regarding the Geneva Protocol, which was the centre of interest. The motion reads as follows : —• " The Assembly, convinced that, without reopening the discussions on the Geneva Protocol of 1924, it is desirable to consider whether the time has not come to resume the study of the principles on which that protocol was based, and considering it of the highest importance that the Assembly should give an impulse to the work of the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference, decides to refer the study of the fundamental principles of the Geneva Protocol, and the conclusions of the report of the Preparatory Commission, to the appropriate committees." A bomb has certainly been dropped in the Assembly, for I do not think there were many people not members of the Dutch delegation who had any notion that the protocol would be resurrected at this stage, especially in view of the impending Conference on Disarmament. It is true the Dutch delegate did not ask that the study of the protocol in all its details should be resumed, but that consideration should be given to the general principles on which it was based, with the object of making an effort to close the supposed gaps ii* Article 15 of the Covenant, by excluding the idea of a legitimate war, and by characterizing aggressive war as an international crime ; and, further, to embody in any plan which was evolved the principle that compulsory international jurisdiction was the necessary complement of these ideas. It was two days later before any speech of moment concerning the protocol was made in the Assembly. Indeed, it was only when M. Politis, one of the Greek delegates, mounted the rostrum that the Assembly seemed to get to real grips with the subject. What would he, one of the authors of the protocol, say of the child of his invention ? What would be his opinion in the present international atmosphere of an instrument which insists on arbitration in all disputes not settled by conciliatory methods (that is, by the Council of the League or by judicial procedure), and on sanctions to be applied to the offending party should methods of conciliation or arbitration fail and war be resorted to —an instrument which even gives power to refer to the Council under Article 11 of the Covenant, a matter which has been declared to be domestic by the Court, or by the Council itself— an instrument which makes it obligatory on the parties subscribing their signatures to recognize as compulsory, ipso facto, and without special agreement, the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice in the cases covered by paragraph 2 of Article 36 of the Statute of the Court, although certainly giving the right to make reservations compatible with that clause of the statute ? Tt became clear that M. Politis has not lost faith in his child : he still firmly believed in the principles

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