RESIGNS POST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 177, 27 July 1940, Page 9

RESIGNS POST.

HEAD OF LEAGUE. M. Avenol's Work To End At Geneva. COMMITTEE TO CONTINUE. Unit*.*! Prpss Association.—Copyright. (Received 11 a.m.) GEXEVA, July 20. M. Joseph Avenol has telegraphed his resignation from the SecretaryGeneralship of the League of Nations to all the member Governments. The resignation operates from August 31, after which date a committee of three will handle the League affairs. M. Avenol's telegram states that the duties remaining to the League no longer justify the maintenance of high political direction. He is considering measures to ensure that the administrative work will continue.

Monsieur Joseph Avenol entered the French civil service in iiis youth, and eventually obtained a place in the Finance Ministry. From 1916 to 1923 he was financial representative of the French Government in London. In 1920 he was appointed a member of the Finance Committee of the League of Nations, and four years later he was given the important post of deputy Secretary-General of the League. M. Avenol was considered o#e of the greatest financial and economic authorities on the staff in Geneva, and headed missions to Austria, Hungary and other countries which requested the League's advice on financial rehabilitation.

In October, 1932, he was chosen to succeed Sir Eric Drummond as Secre-tary-General, a post he took over in July, 1933. It was hie fate to see the gradual waning of the League's influence, its last important political action being the inception of half-hearted sanctions against Italy for her aggression in Abyssinia, a move which annoyed the Italians without affecting their operations. The idea of "collective security" then seemed to have been abandoned. Various countries left the League, and subscriptions fell in arrears. In 193S M. Avenol decided that drastic economies were necessary, and he was credited with the policy of weeding out all officials with pronounced Left views, including his chief assistant, who had openly disapproved of the Munich Agreement.