THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1926, Page 7

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL

(Received 11.30 a.m.) GENEVA, May 10. M. Motta, member of the Swiss National Council, has been elected President, and Mr. le Breton, of Argentina, vice-president of the Commission dealing with the reorganisation of the Council. A message from Mr. S. M. Bruce, Prime Minister of Australia was received. At the opening of the Council it was stated that the Council should include permanent and non-permanent members. the former restricted to the Great Powers, including Germany. The Commission's proceedings are open to the public. Senor Cuani. from Uruguay, supported Argentina's original proposal favouring making the Council eventually elective. He agreed that a temporary solution must be found for the basis of permanent and non-permanent membership.— (A. and N.Z.)

The original idea was to form the j League of Nations Council of 11 mem-1 bersT Seven primary Towers tn have per-' manent seats and four secondary Powerß | to be elected annually. The Big Seven | were to have been: Britain, France.) Germany. Italy. Japan, Russia, United j States. * Of these. Germany and Russia' and the U.S.A. are not yet members ofj the League: so there are only four per-1 manent members of the Council. Britain, I Italy, France. Japan. Meanwhile the, number of elected and non-permanent | members has been increased to six. Spain, T'ruguay, Brazil, Belgium. Czecho-Slovakia, Sweden. Now, following the spirit of Locarno, Germany applies to be made a member of the' League, with a permanent seat on the I Council: and she expects that the Council will be otherwise unchanged. But France ( supported by Italy and others) is for putting up Poland for membership. The persistence of Brazil (used as a lay fieure by Mussolini) prevented the entrance of Germany at the last sitting of the Council. The claim of Spain was probably due to Mussolini's intluence with General Primo de Rivera, a fellow dictator. A permanent member of the League cannot be appointed without the consent of the whole.