The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-18
SATURDAY, DECEMBER IS. 1920.
Thank Heaven We Are Out of It f!

The first meeting of the League OF
Nations, organized under the sleazy
Covenant which President WILSON in
sisted upon Intervening with the
Treaty Of Peace in a manner defying
extrication, Is expected to come to
an end to-day at Geneva.
The situation as depicted In the
reports to the newspapers most
friendly to the League idea requires
plain speaking. This situation would
be ridiculous If it did not involve con-
sequences, actual and probable, moth
ing short of tragic in their relation to
the ideals Of lasting peace Of the
world. Instead Of illustrating that
apocalyptic harmony upon which the
hopeful have dwelt so rapturously as
the presage of new order Of things
in International intercourse and in
human nature, the session winds up
with a split and a squabble between
Council and Assembly amounting al-
most TO internecine war. Such was
Z the inevitable fate Of a scheme Of
4 organization conceived IN generous
emotions and presented in high sound
ing but elusive phraseology.
Thus we are candidly told By the
correspondent Of the New York Times
that the controversy over the refusal
of the Council to permit the Assem-
bly's Committee on Mandates to su-
pervise or even discuss the Councils
secret proceedings for the partition of
Asia Minor among the great European
Powers disguised as mandatories is
really serious" and may deeply af-
feet the future of the League Of
Nations"
The correspondent OF the New York
World reports "a sharp conflict" be-
tween the two legislative bodies, and
further informs us that Lord ROBERT
CECIL, speaking from the Assembly's
point OF view, "stigmatized the Coun-
ellis attitude as "a piece OF imbecility'
and said 1t was playing the old game,
understood by the old time diplomats,
secret diplomacy" This is a suffi-
ciently distressing picture OF what
was to be the home and perpetual
headquarters Of "open covenants,
openly arrived at"
r. AS to the Evenirg Post, its reporter
on the spot Is ominously reticent; but
he does contribute the interesting In
formation that the British representa-
tives of the old odious, selfish dlplo-
macy are claiming that the freedom
of trade clause in their Mesopotamian
mandate does not apply to their oil
monopoly there because the monopoly
antedates the mandate"
Altogether, the finale Of the last act
of the Geneva session Of 1920, as por-
trayed In yesterdays dispatches, war
rants the belief that the wild, fierce
animals in the Ark of the Covenant
have broken loose and got beyond the
control Of NOAH or any Of his progeny,
and are proceeding to devour the
smaller creatures without mercy and
without shame.
Summed up impartially, the net re-
suits Of the first meeting Of the League
supergovernment are not achieve
ments but failures TO achieve; dis
couragements and not encouragements
for those who have hoped that the
rainbow might materialize into q per-
manent and glorious arch~ay Of en-
trance into new and better age.
Some more small nations have been
admitted to membership, and one
greater Power, Argentina, has with.
drawn and gone home In disgust.
There has been no satisfactory solu.
ton OF any Of the prime problem.
menacing the worlds future peace
There has been an unpleasant reve.
lation Of the expensive scale on which
the Secretariat establishment Of Sir
ERIC DRUMMoNp is conducted. A the.
oretical Court of International Jus.
tice has been created. practically i'm.
potent because no provision has been
made, or can be made, for the physi.
cal enforcement of its decisions and
DEGREES. No progress that counts has
been effected in the direction of gen.
eral disarmament. The mechanism OF
the supergovernmental concern has
proved itself 10 be impracticable
There has been clear recognition OF
the fact that the Interpretation placed
upon Article X. by apologists for the
Covenant was inaccurate and that the
apprehenslons expressed In the Sen.
, ate and elsewhere by those who op
posed ratification were fully justified
M to the responsibilities incurred
hereunder The theory Of benevolent
mandates has disclosed its true In
pardness In the shape Of nine hundred