The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-12-22

applicable to the existing condi- tions, and members of the league were entitled to put those provi- sions into action.
 Japan Stung by Action
 Collective action was impossible The leagues action, however, stltag Japan. Within a few weeks Tokyo had ceased all cooperation with the leagues non-political work.
 Spain, at the May session of the council, made last effort to bring political help from the league, in the form of ending the non-inter- ventionist policy of Britain and France and thereby regaining the right to buy arms and ammunition abroad. Alvarez del Vayo, Spain's minister of foreign affairs, accused Italy, and to a lesser extent Ger many, with continued aggression against the Spanish republic. He challenged the council to adopt his resolution which would have ended the policy of non-intervention. In the voting which followed, however, only Poland and Rumania backed Britain and France. Spain and Russia voted for the resolu- ton, while the remaining nine
 members of the council abstained. Republican Spain made no fur- ther political appeal to the league. At the assembly, however, Del Vayo bluntly charged the Western powers with responsibility for the collapse of the league as a political power, and for the catastrophe that seemed 50 imminent. Maxim Litvinov. Soviet CommiSsar for foreign affairs, also launched an attack on the policies of the west- ern democracies, sarcastically ac- cusing them of granting bonuses for saber-rattling and recourse to arms for the solution of two inter- national problems"
 The league, however, responded to two demands of Republican Spain during the fateful assembly of 1898.
 The first was an appeal from the loyahst government for help in feeding the 3,000,0O0 refugees bkI6L 1ldO 4ACu 4AOk11 3NdV1OAAhA4ot OC4 ritory on to loyalist ground.
 The second request came when Premier Juan Negrin made his dramatic appearance before the assembly and announced the Re- publican governments decision to withdraw all foreign volunteers. The council eventually granted his request that an international com- mission should be sent to Spain to provide an international guarantee of the loyalists' withdrawal of their volunteers.
 The league lost two more South American states in 1888, Chile and Venzuela. The with drawal of Chile, announced at the council session in May, was half-antici- pated in view of the small progress made by the league toward realiz- ing the aims of Chile's league re- form campaign.
 Nevertheless, evidence of the leagues desire to retain the CO., operation of the Latin American continent was evident in the Po- desta Costa tour in Latin America, and in the organization of the All American Rural Health Confer ence that will be held at Mexico City, 1t is expected during 1899. Drug Trade Watched
 In other branches of it's activi- ties the league continued in full vigor. Extending it's anti-epidemic campaigns in China, pushing ahead with schemes for raising the standard of popular nutrition and physical fitness, worldwide anti. disease campaigns, furthering in- ternational intellectual co-opera- ton, the protection of women and children. It fought traffic in wo- men, kept as close watch as possible on the drug trade, while the Nansen Office continued its task of caring for half a million refugees.
 With the end of 1888 the Nan. sen Office will cease to exist. Its work will be taken over by the new international refugee organization created by the Evian Conference, which, in addition to the 500,0O0 Nansen refugees, will assume re- sponsibility for refugees fleeing from the racial and religious per- secutions in Germany and other parts of Europe. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Nansen Office was a tribute to a great career.
 Thus the league, at the end of 1888, has an uncertain future. The secretarit itself faces reorganiza- tion and 8 drastic reduction of staff, put, in some quarters, at as much as 33 per cent. Numerous of- ficials have become redundant.