LEAGUE EXPENSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 238, 7 October 1932, Page 6

LEAGUE EXPENSES.

Under Article XXIV. of the Covenant the expenses of any bureau or commission which is placed under the direction of the League may be included as part of the expenses of the Secretariat. Besides committees, there are 500 oi'gariisations, societies, commissions and bureaux which, in virtue of this Article, have the right to participate in such financial manna as finds its way into the League's coffers. It is therefore small wonder that there has been trenchant criticisms of the growing cost of the Secretariat expenses. A writer in the "National Review" deals caustically with the astounding number of International Associations deriving assistance under Article XXIV. He mentions the International Society for the Study of Clouds, and a Commission for the Revision of Nosological Nomenclature, which, however, seems to have nothing to do with noses, but is dealing with the classification of disease. The total cost of the League is now over £.1,000,000 a year. Much of this growing cost is due to the fact that the gradual development of the League's work makes some expansion of its expenses essential. If it did not expand, this would mean that the League was, in a measure, stagnating. The League is increasingly called upon to undertake exhaustive investigations into the financial condition of States appealing for international loans, into the causes of economic depression, into matters of slavery and forced labour, into the traffic in dangerous drugs, and numerous matters affecting national health. Still the important fact remains that the salaries of civil servants in most countries are being reduced, and League salaries are mounting. The financial position is made worse by the default of many members in paying their contributions. There seems room for an economy commission, and there is no reason why the essential work of the League should suffer by a judicious pruning of salaries and Secretariat expenses.