Evening star., 1935-12-01

D1 A1NA<As
IN THE fifteenth year of its life, the
League of Nations has had to deal
with its first aggressor and for the
L first time the system of collective
sanctions is being put to the test.
The newspapers in both the Old and
New Worlds overflow with all kinds of
information, comments and forecasts
about that sequence of dramatic de-
velopments.
What has not been generally per-
| ceived or emphasized is that in order
to undertake its new task the Geneva
institution has been compelled to
change itself from top to bottom, to
give up some of its most cherished
shibboleths and to breathe a fresh
spirit. With hardly any exaggeration,
it can be said that the League of Ma
tions, as we knew it between 1920 and
| 1894 (the final failure of the DiSarma-
ment Conference can conveniently be
taken as the closing of historical
period)-this League, for all practical
purposes, is dead. In its place there
is emerging a sort of rough coalition
of member states, the main II not the
exclusive task of which is to keep un-
| der restraint or even to bring to book
the Covenant breaker of today and,
in addition, to prepare to meet the
next danger of war, this time on the
European continent.
Until this year, article Is (the article
in the Covenant which makes provi-
sion for resistance TO an attacking ma
tom had been given the clumSiest and
most theological Interpretation 1t
was admitted that the aggreSsor ought
to be designated" by a unanimous
decision to the Council; and (the
acme of absurdity) the text, as it
had been drafted in 1919, gave a right
to the governments directly involved
in the conflict to cast their votesl
Indeed, an amendment to the Cove
nant was actually adopted by the As
sembly of 1922 (but failed to secure
the requisite number of ratifications
to become binding) to put an end to
that extraordinary state of affairs.
Right Of Council Challenged.
Meanwhile, the right Of lawful de-
fense was of course recognized, and
it was upon that basis that France
vas able to build its network of alli-
anceS and associations with Belgium.
with the states of Central and Eastern
Europe and, moreover, to have in
serted in the Rhineland pact of Lo-
carno a paragraph to the effect that
the guarantors could take military
action without having to wait for the
meeting of the Geneva Council. But
nevertheless, the right of the Council
TO interfere with the arrangements of
the national governments and to
overrule them had never been seriously
very doubtful to many whether, for
the keeping of general peace, the
League of Nations could be considered
as an asset. Personally, always
doubted it.
It was to get out of that dangerous
situation that for more than a decade
the reform of the covenant was con-
tinuously on the agenda of the Ge-
neva discussions. Thus the ambitious
schemes of 1928 and 1924 (the latter
known under the famous appellation
Of the ''protocolO were launched.
How was it possible to overcome the
futile rule of unanimity and make the
Council such an efficient body that
national governments should no longer
insist upon the prior right of lawful
defense and of automatic alliances?
For the same purpose, too, an effort
was made, in 1928 and 1929, to har-
monize the covenant with the Kel-
logg pact about the outlawing of war |
The difficulty was that in certain cir |
cumstances-for instance, whenever
the Leagues Council cannot reach a |
unanimous recommendation as to the |
peaceful settlement of a conflict-war~ |
fare can be lawfully resorted to,
whereas, under the Kellogg pact, no
such concession to the free play of |
military forces is made.
Sentenced to Paralysis.
These were the great days of Lord |
Cecil of Chelwood, Of poor Henri de
Jouvenel (who recently was found |
dead on a bench in the Champs
Elysees), of Mr.. Benes and of Mr.. |
Politis, those ENJOYS Of small coun- |
tries who tried hard to achieve fame |
through making the world safe for
peace. All those issues were debated |
ad nauseum. BRAND, Herriott, Austen
Chamberlain joined the great oratori-
cal battle It came to nothing. The
British ministers were then deeply per-
meated by the spirit of the pacif1st
and even of the conscientious objector.
The reform of the League more than
once was coldly slaughtered In London,
or to say the least and to alter the
metaphor, at London the League was
sentenced to general paralysis.
The League at last has had trial
and all the judicial problems, so long
a torture to so many ingenious lawyers,
have vanished as though by magic.
Where there is will there Is a way.
1t shows, incidentally, that interna-
tional treaties, though actually left
unchanged, can be given various
meanings under the overwhelming
pressure of concrete interests-that
everything depends upon the views OF
those making the interpretation-that
all quibbles speedily disappear before
an impending peril.
1t was discovered by the British rep
resentatives that there was good deal
to be said for the French and their
associates in Central and Eastern
Europe who maintained that the es-
sential line in article Is was the fol-
lowing: Should any member Of the
League resort to war in disregard to
its covenants it shall ipso facto
be deemed to have committed an act
of war against all other members OF
the League. :"
What does this mean but that when
ever q member state commits an
aggression in violation Of its pledges |
every other member state has right
to decide by itself and for itself that
the aggression Is directed against itself
as well as against the actual victim