COVENANT AND TREATY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22833, 14 September 1937, Page 8

COVENANT AND TREATY

Once more the idea of taking the Covenant of the League out of the Versailles Treaty has been given an airing. This time a New Zealand delegate, the High Commissioner, has moved in the matter. At his suggestion, the League committee considering possibilities of reform has established a sub-committee of experts to submit proposals for the documentary separation. If the separation is generally desired, which has not yet been made clear, the only hopeful possibility is to enlist the guidance of experts. As a rule, other suggestions of the kind have seemed to assume that the idea was one presenting no difficulty : the fact that the League Covenant is* the first part of the treaty has apparently misled the inexpert into thinking that to lop the rest off, in order to placate Germany by throwing it to the void, requires, only a pair of scissors. That is not so. The League's service to the world is closely written into clause after clause of the body of the treaty. Without the League as an integral administrative unit, the "arrangements" made for liquidating various national and international needs arising from the war could not have been conveniently made. It has been found, indeed, that some of these needs, expected to be met in terms of the treaty without any further reference, have required attention from the League. Both ways the vital relationship lias been established —from the League Covenant to the rest of the treaty, and vice versa. And this relationship is not solely concerned with territorial aspects of nationality, as has sometimes been said or implied. Affairs of wider scope, such as the creation of the International Labour Office and the functions of the Permanent Court of International Justice, are embedded in the main fabric of the treaty. Mr. Jordan, in his justifiable wish to see a resolution of the Imperial Conference given effect, has necessarily proceeded by moving for expert advice.