ELECTION FOR SEATS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 67, 16 September 1927, Page 7

ELECTION FOR SEATS

BELGIUM ELIMINATED

QUESTION OP PKINCIPLE

(British Official Wireless.)

BUGBY, 15th September.

In the Assembly of the League of Nations elections for non-permanent seats in the Council took place. The retiring members were Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and San Salvador. Belgium sought re-election, and to become eligible her request had to be supported by two-thirds of the effective votes recorded in the Assembly. The other candidates for the three vacancies were Finland, Greece, Portngal, Canada, and Cuba.

At the preliminary voting in the Assembly, Belgium failed to secure the two-thirds majority required to render her eligible for ■ re-election to a nonpermanent seat on the Council. Only 29 votes were cast in her favour and 32 were needed.

After the result was announced, M. Vandervelde, the Belgian Foreign Minister, mounted the tribune and said that he was convinced that Belgium had been defeated only on a question of principle. There was, he was snre, no animosity shown by anyone, and he could assure them that Belgium would continue to collaborate with undiminished ardour in the work for world peace,'for which the League stood. It is understood that the Council in a, private session has decided to invite Belgium to remain a member of the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference, despite the fact that Belgium automatically ceased to be a member owing to her not being reelected to the Council.