A.—s

far as it related to five States only. The Secretariat is in communication with all five, and, from the the information placed before the committee, there is ground for confidence that ultimately the arrears will be paid, although one of the States has not replied to the communications of the SecretaryGeneral. In the case of China, the sub-committee had before it the representative of that country, who made a suggestion that the Chinese Government should be afforded facilities for the imposition of a special tax. The sub-committee thought that this proposal was not within its competence, but suggested that it should be brought under the notice of the various Governments. Attention may be called to Document A. 10, on the legal position of States which do not pay their contributions to the League. The Fourth Committee's report (.Document A. 71) was before the Assembly on the 22nd September, when it passed the following resolution: — " The Assembly requests the Secretary-General —(1) to continue negotiations with the Chinese Government with a view to arriving at some arrangement by which the contributions in arrears may be liquidated ; (2) to make further representations, through such channels as he may consider appropriate, to the other States at present in arrears ; (3) to submit to the Council in due course a report showing the results of the action taken by him." New League of Nations Building. This question, which has occupied the attention of previous Assemblies, was this year referred by the Assembly itself to a committee of five members, which produced a report on the present position (Document A. 93.) On the 31st August there was in hand on account of the Building Fund the sum of 11,400,000 francs, to which must be added the guaranteed sale price of the present Secretariat (4,000,000 francs), making a total of 15,400,000. This total represents the existing financial position, even after taking account of certain book-keeping transactions. After carefully considering the estimates which had been submitted, the special committee came to the conclusion that ultimately a sum of 19,500,000 francs would have to be provided. It was not necessary to find a further credit this year, and the Assembly passed the resolution at the end of Document A. 93 at its meeting on the 26th September (see also Document A. 110). An amendment by the Netherlands delegation to enlarge the number of plans from which the selection should be made (i.e., twenty-seven preferred by the jury) was not accepted. It may be here noted that difficulty has arisen in acquiring part of the site selected, and the question is now before the Court. The Fourth Committee proposed that the committee set up under the Assembly resolution should be composed of the five members who had studied the question, and the Assembly decided that the task should be entrusted to Messieurs Adatci, Osusky, Politis, Urrutia, and Sir Edward Hilton Young. It is hoped that a plan from amongst the nine which obtained first prizes will be selected before the next Assembly. Proposed Establishment of an Administrative Tribunal. The international status of the League does not permit of its officials bringing actions in their national Courts to enforce the terms of their appointments, and the question of establishing an administrative tribunal to deal with such cases has been under consideration for some time. The matter was referred to the Supervisory Commission, which, after full consideration, drew up a draft statute for the purpose of establishing such a tribunal. The Supervisory Commission's report, Document A. 6, together with the draft statute, was referred to a small sub-committee of the Fourth Committee. There was a conflict of opinion in the sub-committee, and the report which it presented to the full committee is essentially a compromise. It appears that since the existence of the League only two cases of the kind which would be referred to an administrative tribunal had come before the Council. In the circumstances one is inclined to think that a tribunal is unnecessary ; indeed, a proposal was put forward in the sub-com-mittee that if the need arose a Court of Arbitration consisting of two arbitrators, selected from a list drawn up by the Council, one to be chosen by the Administration concerned and the other by the other party to the case, should be constituted. However, the majority of the sub-committee preferred an administrative tribunal, and proposed that one should be set up as an experiment, and function for three years, after which the position should be reconsidered in the light of the experience gained. As the annual expenditure involved, 6,000 francs, is small, there did not seem valid reason for amending the sub-committee's report, and it was adopted, with slight modifications, for submission to the Assembly, which passed the following resolution at its meeting on the 26th September (Document A. 72): — " Subject to the amendment of form suggested by the Fourth Committee, the Assembly adopts the annexed statute establishing a League of Nations Administrative Tribunal. The Assembly of 1931, however, will consider, in the light of the experience gained whether there is reason to abrogate or amend the said statute. The Assembly's resolution of the 17th December, 1920, giving to certain officials in case of dismissal a right of appeal to the Council or to the governing body of the International Labour Office, is abrogated as from the Ist January, 1928." I might mention, for what it is worth, that some stress was laid on the psychological aspect of the establishment of a tribunal.

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