LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 5

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

PALACE BUILDING

THE WORK GOES ON

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, November 9. The League correspondent of "The Times" reports that the completion of the main construction of the new headquarters of the League of Nations —a building of approximately the same eiibie content as the Palace of Arersailles —was celebrated by the traditional Continental ceremony of the pose de bouquet, the fixing at the highest point on the roof of a fir tree covered with coloured streamers. Fluttering in the air behind the bouquet on this occasion were the flags of most of the nations of the world. The framework of tl»e new Palais dcs Nations, which includes a secretariat building with 400 offices, has been completed within two and a half years. Those who attended the ceremony had their first opportunity of inspecting the concrete framework of the central assembly hall, approximately 220 ft by 215 ft and 120 ft high. Nearly two years are likely to elapse before the building is completed. In a special article contributed to the "Daily Express" by one of its correspondents, the writer,, after describing teh atinospheer and the activities of the League in the recess of the Disarmament Conference, mentions the Palace of the Nations. ■ The new'building, she says, was the result of tlie brains of six or seven architects who have argued about the design of its straight walls ever since the League decided it was worthy of a worthy building. Millions of tons of concrete and steel have been sunk into the swamp and soft ground, a mile from the famous Pont de Mont B^anc. The design of the building is modern and commonplace. It is the same building that has cost millions of francs in gold, thousands of hours in bickerings, and what may yet be an age in recrimination. AVhon will it be occupied, if ever? Some say 193-4, others 1036. There is so much to be clone and so much money to be spent. And there is a general shortage of money in the League coffers. Besides this it is questionable whether the League could ever afford to inhabit the vast Palace of the Nations. The cost of light and heat alone will run into hundreds of thousands of francs. But the work goes on.