Imperial Valley press., 1922-02-24
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
FACING HUGE;
DEFICIT
England and South Africa
Head List of Membership
in Arrears

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24.-On Janu-
ary 18th, addressing what Democrats
press agencies characterized as 'an eX
traOrdinary spontaneous demOnstra
tion," but which was, in point of fact,
Il carefully organized and jndieiously
chaperoned crowd, former President
Wilson stated: "There can be no doubt
as to the vitality of the League of Ma
tions. 1t will take care of ITSELF
Two days later the foreign cables
carried the information from Geneva,
the headquarters Of the League cf Ma
tions, that the treasury of t!.e league
is facing n deficit of 10,00G,oD0 gold
francs. The records show HAT .S ma
tions belonging to the leagne, or more
than Onethird of it's total membership,
did not pay their assessments in 1921
Whether it was an inadvertent mis-
statement, or whether it was Il part of
that misleading propaganda when is
characteristic of everything in con-
nectiOn with the League of Nations, the
cable states that the nations which had
refused or neglected to pay their dues
were "chiefly South American copn-
tries and u few of the smaller Euro
pean nations.' But the termination OF
the list of members discloses the fact
that among them are England and
South Africa, neither of which could
be characterized as one Of the smaller
powers. England S delinquency amounts
to $4,000 and South Africa is back in
it's payments to the amount of $3.50 900.
1t is very significant that these two
nations have lost interest in the az
fairs of the League of Nations to such
an extent that they have neglected to
keep up their dues. One of the god
fathers and patron saints of the League
of Nations, credited in well informed
circles as being the individual who
drew up the covenant for the League
of Nations, is Jan Smuts, who repre-
sented South Africa at the Paris Cop
ference and who probably is crotcd
more in the United States by partisans
of the League of Nations than any
other one individual. Then, too, che
home and heart of the propaganda OF
the League of Nations is in England,
where Lord BalfOur, Lord Cecil and
their crowd have kept alive and going,
the Worldwide propaganda in support
of the league, and propaganda espec-
a
the purpose of cajoling or browbeating
it into joining the league. That two
such vociferous exponents Of tho
League of Nations should turn up de-
linquent in their dues is cOmmen-
tary upon the efficiency and effective
ness of the league that can not be ex-
planned away by words.
Such condition was, anticipated as
a result of the assembly of the League
of Nations at Geneva on September
10th last. At that meeting there was
general dissatisfaction expressed by
those nations in attendance. Even Lore
Balfour admitted frankly that league
had been unable to live up to its expect
ations and would be unable to take up
any worthwhile steps toward lighten
ing the burdens of armies and navics
so long as the mind of the world re-
manned as it is.
In point of fact, the League of Ma
tions has not accomplished any tang
ible results toward universal peace and
disarmament. The publicity bureau OF
the league, upon it's second birthday
anniversary, issued a very pretontions
pamphlet purporting to show what the
league had accomplished, but care
full perusal of the pamphlet shows the
press agent very wisely dealt in gen
eralities and promises rather than
specifications of concrete worthwhile
achievements. On the occasion of the
birthday anniversary the Council of
the League Of Nations held n meeting
at which it was announced that the
dispute between Poland and Lithuan'a
over the nationality of Wilma, and the
division of Tipped Silesia between Po-
land and Germany and various man
dates would be discussed. The av'
erage citizen had formed the opinion
from propaganda issued that these
troublesome questions had been settled,