The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 6,1936. THE LEAGUE AND ABYSSINIA.

Evening Star, Issue 22383, 6 July 1936, Page 8

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 6,1936. THE LEAGUE AND ABYSSINIA.

The Assembly of the League of Nations lias concluded the unbappiest session in its sixteen years of history. It has been left to the Co-ordination Committee to advise the individual Governments of the course that should he adopted in regard to sanctions, and the expectation is that these will all he lifted before many days have elapsed. Between now and September individual Governments will consider how the League can be strengthened. These decisions were reached, only Abyssinia dissenting and four States abstaining from voting. The request by Abyssinia for a loan was declined with less agreement. It has been a unique Assembly in every possible respect. A crowned head attended for the first time —to shame it; Italian pressmen, acting like “ rowdies,” affronted it; an obstreperous German from Danzig, not wishing to be outdone by Italians, insulted the Council; and a photographer shot himself fatally, at the full conclave, in his distress for either “ the death of the League ” or the treatment of Jews in Germany—it is not clear which. The League is not dead, but it is in deep waters. It is to bo hoped that its future will be better than that outlined in a sketch in ‘ Punch.’ The time is 1940, the scene Addis Ababa. The Italian conquest ijas been consolidated, and at a congratulatory banquet, the first act in great celebrations, statesmen of all the Powers are paying tributes to Mussolini, who by this time has been elected as the League’s President. The British Foreign Minister takes back any harsh words he may have uttered in the past about his illustrious host’s civilising mission. “It was for the benefit of the Abyssiniqns themselves ■ftiat my friend Benny created this new land. And it wasn’t his fault that he killed the entire Abyssinian population in doing it.” The French Premier states, with less need, perhaps, that Franco had always trusted and believed in Mussolini, who, responding to the toast of his health, declares magnanimously that he “bears no malice.” “The unveiling ceremony next day was marred by only one trifling incident. When the flag was removed from the great statue of Liberty a man in filthy rags was found to be clinging to its feet. A soldier saw that it was a wretched Abyssinian, and stuck his bayonet through him. ‘I believe in the League of Nations,’ he said as he died, and even Mussolini’s stern'face relaxed in a smile.” Sixteen years has not been time enough for the League to change the age-old habits of nations. Because the task is long, and the need has never been so desperately exemplified, there is the more cause for its friends to rally to lit.