Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-01


down the road to Geneva and
not know, as he viewed the lake
side from afar, that he was look
ing at the meeting place of SO
nations dedicated to the ideal of world
peace There is nothing in the piano.
rama to convey such knowledge 10 nln
But tomorrow he Will be constrained
to pause while still long way off, to
halt in awe and extend a hand anu
cry, Look! There is Geneva, the city
of the League of Nations" as man
coming down the path to Rome would
pause at the first faint, far glimpse OF
the cross of st. Peters and know be-
yond doubt-though he had never been
in Italy before-that this was the Holy
City.
The symbol which will inform our
Geneva pilgrim of arrival at the city
OF the League will be a vast palace of
low lines, simple, beautiful, uncovered
in parkland on the rim of the city-a
white pile symbolizing so plainly in
style and outline the pacific ideals OF
the postwar world that there can be
no mistaking its essential purpose.
In word, the new permanent home
of the League, comprising the great
assembly hall with the secretariat
building and the monumental library
in which So, 100000 of the Rockefeller
money is to be sunk.
1t has all been in the dream stage for
q long time; and even now the dream
will not begin to become a soaring
reality Of stone steel, brick and con-
crete until the Assembly next Septem-
Der presses the button in the shape Of
an official resolution authorizing the
special committee in charge Of the job
to say Col" to the architects and
builders.
There have been so many troubles.
Triumph of Intelligence.
Architectural experts who have seen
the revised plans have pronounced the
conception to be one of the triumphs
of the human intelligence. Psychology
ically, it certainly qualities as one OF
the wonders of the world. Indeed, II all
the difficulties that have arisen and
been surmounted had been foreseen at
the start in all probability the project
would have taken another form and
the League meeting place might even
conceivably have been transferred-aS
some diplomats and practically all the
permanent international secretariat
privately deSire-to Paris or to Brus-
sells.
1t was of course, never intended that
the rambling old Hotel Rationale,
which has been the Leagues headquar-
ters for the last eight years. would
De aI1yIIlIlR DuU d IIldhCoLllICs GIfCLi SAAS
white slab set into the baluStraded wall
and inscribed "A la Memorie de Wood
row Wilson. fondateur de la Societe DIES
Nations" does nothing to relieve the
green-walled, shabby building from that
air Of transience which hangs about all
hotels Besides, it has no room big
enough for the annual Assembly, which
now has to meet at the Sale de Ia
Reformation mile away, with cease
less stream of little motor cars car
rying secretaries and documents to
and fro.
In 1928, therefore, the League Assem-
bly, voted for a new and permanent
home. In 1924 it appointed building
committee. Then a special session OF
the Assembly held in March, 1928. voted
to get an international architectural
competition under way.
1t had already been decided that Tor
l3,500,000 Swiss francs the nations ought
to get suitable palace and at the same
time not get into hot water with the
taxpayers of their respective countries
(recollect that the delegates who agree
to these expenditures eventually have
got to leave Geneva and face a home
electorate or finance minister or die
tator, as the case may be-.
Site Also Has Been Picked.
The site had also been picked. It
fronted on the narcissus-clad shore of
the enchanted lake. 1t was the obvious
place Byron and Shelley had sung the
beauties of the lake in immortal lines
Famous beauties had held court there.
There Gibbon wrote 1.-The Decline and
F'all' and Rousseau his Social Con-
tract; there Professionalism and the
French Revolution were born.
Memories and beauty apart, the per-
manent secretariat were solid for the
lake. There are 500 of these eXileS, rep
resenting 80 different nationalities.
They have their tennis club, their
hockey club, their dramatic club and
their social club. In Winter they can
go over to ski at st. CergueS. In Sum-
lner they can battle from boat during
the lunch interval. How delicious now
to have a private lakeside estate 10
themselves for the best part of the year
(For the Assembly meets but once a
year, the Council but four times, and In
between Office hours are not onerous
and peace reigns)
The competition was announced. Here
the first hitch arose. For the maximum
cost voted by me Assembly was we'll
below a practical figure for such prof.
ect, and immediately perceiving this, a
number of inteI nationally famous archi-
tectS who might otherwise have COM
peted shrugged and stood clear.
However, BIT architects decided TO
ignore the financial factor-which could
not be revised anyway until the next
Assembly, in years time-and studied
the bulky set of plans, maps, specifica-
tons and explanations issued by the
jury to competitors together with a
comprehensive series of air photographs
showing the site at all angles and at
various attitudes, and even including
shot of Mont Blanc taken from the
shore of the lake,.
will Symbolic Ideals.
The building had to be designed mot
only to provide accommodation Of the
most modern and practical kind for all
the organizations essential to the
Leagues work. but also to symbolic in
style and outline the pacific ideals of
the twentieth century" Then the site
was described :. "a magnificent one:
its highest part adjoins the Route de
Lausanne, and it slopes gently, with
lawns and shady avenues, to the shores
Of the Lake of Geneva. The grounds
border the lake for more than 400
meters, and path (Which can be
wideneO on the property makes an
admirable walk by the lakeside and has
marvellous view, including Mont
Blanc"
The 377 architects made their designs
in accordance and sent in some thou
sands of drawings. These were exam
ined by the distinguished international
jury appointed by the League. On it
there were an Englishman, a Dutchman,
a Spaniard, an Austrian, a Frenchman,
a German, an italian and a Swede. A
Belgian presided. Interpreters were at
tached to bridge the language gulf.
But no human agency could bridge
the gulf between rival architectural
ideas and ideals. What looks good to
a Frenchnan excites the ridicule of q