Evening star., 1927-09-18
BY FRANK III. SIMONDS.

~ ENEVA. - Never in it's short
history did the League of
Nations enter upon an as
~ sembly In an atmosphere of
gloom more general or
amidst expressions of cynicism so
nearly universal. Nor could any one
mistake the fact that these conditions
are the natural consequences of what
has been beyond debate the most dis
appointing year in the history of the
Geneva institution.
While it is possible to find many ex
plantations for the disappointment of
the past six months, these can be
compressed into the single statement
that the League has utterly failed in
dealing with the largest task which
can confront 1.-THE task to perform
which 1t was indeed created-namely,
the work Of making impossible a rep
etition Of the world catastrophe of
1914. Not only has the League been
unable to make any positive contri-
button to the establishment of perrna-
nent peace, but it's fumbling failures
have once more awakened all rhe
earlier doubts as to the possibility of
achievement.
Disarmament Still on Program.
Today, as always, that problem which
we Americans describe as disarma-
ment, and Europeans as security,
still stands at the head of the League
agenda. But on the opposite page are
written reports of the collapse of the
Leagues own preparatory conference
on disarmament and the subsequent
rupture of the three.power naval
meeting held at least under the
shadow of the League.
To understand the present detection
1t Is necessary to look back over the
short annals of the League. Created
at the close of the war, it expressed
the almost universal craving Of man
kind to find some guarantee against q
recurrence of the ruin of 1914.1S. Yet
almost at the outset these hopes were
shattered by circumstances and the
character of the treaties made at
Paris and the subsequent withdrawal
Of the United States.
Thereafter the first four years of
league history were years of OBJ
scurity and impotence. While the
great battle which eliminated in the
occupation of the Ruhr was fought
between France and Great Britain
and European chaos continued and
expanded, the league existed but did
authority was invoked in any of in
Vulnerable conflicts. Two wars were
conducted-the Russo-Polish and the
Greco Turkish. The Ruhr occupa-
ton developed into something almost
worse than war. Yet from Geneva
no voice was heard.
Nevertheless, through the efforts
of the small powers, represented by
nnGid0rahln ORGANIZATION
was created. While its actual mission
is rigidly restricted to the perform
ance of minor chores, to dealing with
issues in which the consent of the
great powers was given in advance,
these contributions were useful
enough to justify the existence of the
institution. But, on the other hand,
they did not warrant any conclusion
that the league would be able to
achieve the main purpose for which
it had been created.
Not until 1924, when political revo-
lutions called radical governments
into power in Britain and France, did
the great powers take Geneva seri-
ously. Then Macdonald and Herriot
came to the League Assembly, and all
European peoples, with the shadow
Of the Ruhr catastrophe over them,
looked once more to the League as
the sole means of escape from final
ruin.
League Marks Time.
From this assembly of 1924 there
emerged the famous protocol which
was the first really systematic effort
to organize peace on a basis of arbi-
tration, security and disarmament.
The following year the League
marked time while great negotiations
were carried forward which culmi
mated in Locarno. Every one now
recognized that real progress could
only be made when the great German
people had become equal partners in
the enterprise. Nevertheless, the
British rejection of the protocol in
aster for the League, for it abolished
it's only real contribution to the or.
ganization of European order.
Last year the entrance of the Ger
mans into the League obscured all
else, and the assembly was no more
than a rather spectacular marriage
of Locarno to Geneva marked by the
exchange of Franco-German civilities
terminating in the brilliant but eva.
nescent hopes of Thoiry. With the
entrance of Germany, however, and
the elimination of war and postwar
passion, one might fairly conclude |
that the League was at last ready |
for the main business before it.
But precisely at this moment be- |
gan the failure and paralysis which |
have continued to the present hour. |
Since the entrance of Germany IL |
ago not only has there been |
no progress toward any system of |
peace, but all that has happened has
tended to make the obstacles in it's
pathway seem insurmountable, and,