Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-01-09
LEAGUES WORK
FOR TWO YEARS
SUMMARIZED
Second Anniversary Finds
Abandonment by u. S. of
Isolation Theory.
FIFTY-ONE IN ASSEMBLY

view of the Washington conference ana
Americas abandonment of the isolation
theory, the League of Nations News Blu
reau has made public q brief resume OF
the leagues work which it is felt Is
very largely unknown in this country.
Two years ago when the league came
into being it was composed of but thir-
teen former allied powers. Since then all
the allied powers except America have
Joined the thirteen former neutral
powers invited to adhere have done So
and two Of the four enemy states and
half dozen new states born i'll the war
have been admitted. Today, on its sec
ond anniversary, the league numbers
fifty-one nations, the largest collection
of states ever brought together.
In those two years there has been built
up loose, flexible association Of CO.
operating nations able to focus attention
on any international problem from
purely humanitarian project to the most
serious diplomatic issue. The outline OF
a general international structure has been
drawn to be filled in as time and ex-
perience seem to justify. In certain ma
jor matters of common interest most Of
the worlds nations, whether of Europe,
the Americas, Asia or Africa, have
learned to confer about a common table.
MANY DEPARTMENTS
NOW FUNCTIONING.
There are now functioning an annual
assembly of fifty-one nations; a council
Of the eight larger nations; permanent
court Of Justice; q permanent secratariat;
technical organizations on international
health, finance economies and freedom of
communications and transit; an intera-
tiOnal labor office; permanent committees
on ornaments and mandates; special
bodies on the suppression of the interna-
tional opium and white slave traffics,
repatriation Of pris )ners, the relief Of
typhus in Poland, the protection of min
critics, and the administration of the
Saar Basin and the Free City of Dan
zig.
The leagues first task, of course, IS to
prevent war Already five disputes
threatening world peace have been
brought before it. Three have been
settled finally and two are in negotiation.
Procedure wholly new in diplomacy has
been used on several occasions, but force
never.
The first conflict settled was that be
tween Sweden and Finland over the
strategic Asland Islands, when detailed
negotiations gave the sovereignty Of the
islands to Finland, assured absolute pro-
lection to their predominant Swedish
population, and effected their neutraliza-
ton through a ten-power treaty.
Second was the Polish-Lithuania dis
pute, where the league has prevented the
hostilities threatened by Zoligovski's
seizure of Wilma and offered a project Of
settlement which is still being negotiated.
TROUBLE ALLAYED
IN UPPER SILESIA.
Third was the Upper Silesia dispute
which, because Of the deadlock between
Great Britain and France, threatened the
breakup Of the entente, and which was
only xrba IN
in and drew up an entirely new form Of
solution safeguarding economic as well
as nationality interests
Fourth was the Yugo-Slav invasion of
Albania, when Lloyd Georges telegram
to the league requesting the application
of the economic blockade against Servia
for having begun hOstilities without arbI-
tration and the immediate public ses-
siOns Of the council sent Yugo-Slav ex-
change tumbling, held up an important
loan and forced the YugO- Slav govern
ment to withdraw its troops behind the
frontier
Finally, the three cornered Tacna-Aricn
dispute was argued at length in public
session on demand of Bolivia and
although the results were not conclusive
it is interesting to note that Chile has
since initiated direct negotiations with
Peru on the question and has definitely
proposed a plebtscite.
But the mere settlement Of disputes
already arisen is not sufficient guarantee
of peace, for if disputes are allowed to
develop until they become critical the
time is certain to come when one amongst
them will get out of hand and the worlds
peace be again ruptured. Consequently.
an even more constructive work has been
undertaken first in setting about remOv-
ing as many general causes Of difficulty
as possible and second in providing a
permanent machinery to be ready at all
times
ASSEMBLY CROWNS If
PEACE WORK.
The crown Of that work is the assem-
bly,, where representatives, Of the fifty
one league members come together auto
maticaily on the first Monday in every
September to discuss any question which
any nation wishes to bring up as affect
ing the peace or well-being of the world.
Through its two sessions at Geneva the
assembly has become a welI-oiled,
smooth-running forum, without power IF
compulsion, but with great moral author
ity.
The council consisting Of representa-
tives of Great Britain, France, Italy and
Japan permanently and Of Belgium, Bra
ing its sixteenth meeting at Geneva. 1t
is a small informal body charged with
he general direction Of the league and
able in emergencies to meet on a weeks
notice. 1t was just some such body as
this that Sir Edward Grey failed to find
when the Austrian crisis of 1914 pre-
cipitated the World War and which the
recent four power treaty aims to set up
for Pacific questions
The third central body is the secre-
tariat, an international civil service of
about 2JO people and over thirty ma
tionalities, charged with carrying on all
the daily work of the league, serving
as an international center Of experts
named for their knowledge rather than
their politics, and specifically entrusted
with the publication of all treaties regis
tered by league memLers, some 2JO of
which have already been received Its
headquarters are in the former Hotel
National, at Geneva, which the league
s~s=asased at a cost of about 81 900 600
COURT FOLLOWS
LEGAL PRINCIPLE.
next IS the permanent court of inte-na-
tional justice, a court Of law baslng it's
judgment not on diplomatic adjustment,
but on legal principle, and entrusted,
with the council, in making effective the
covenants fundamental principle that no
nation shall go to war without arbitra-
ton or Cancellation. Here the league
has achieved its greatest single tri-
umph, for as against the failure Of The
Hague and other conferences 1t has sue
ceeded in creating 4 court Of eleven
Judges and four fudoec which