LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Otago Witness, Issue 3571, 22 August 1922, Page 29

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

COUNCIL MEETING IN LONDON. A FORMIDABLE PROGRAMME. IFbom Oub Own Cobef.spondent.) LONDON. July 7. Considerable interest attaches to the announcement that the coming session of the League Council is to be held in London, and that the British representative on this occasion will bo the Acting Foreign Secretary, the Earl of Bajfour. llie agenda is a formidable one. Among the political subjects is that of mandates m general and of the Palestine mandate in particular. There are troublesome frontier questions connected with Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria and her neighbours. There is that of deported women and children ill Turkey. The finances of Albania are to be discussed; also a variety of international loans —that negotiated between Baring Brothers and Czechoslovakia. Also there wlli be the technical reports from the Genoa Conference and tlie Temporary Commission for the Reduction of Armaments now sitting in Paris. In the non-political sphere there are various points concerning the Permanent International Court of Justice to be cleared up; memoranda on epidemics, the Russian famine, Russian refugees in Turkey, and tlie white slave traffic. Tlie council has also to consider the league budget for 1923. Perhaps it will look into the thorny point) of such member-States. fairly numerous, it is thought, as have not hitherto paid up their statutory contributions. GERMANY’S ADMISSION. A “diplomatic correspondent” of tho Daily Telegraph discusses the question of the admission of Germany to tho League of Nations. ‘At tlie last session of the Assembly,” says the writer, "the British delegation made it quite plain that while in. deference to France they would not support. Germany's hypothetical candidature on this occasion, they would be prepared to consider it sympathetically if presented at the next sessiott. Doubtless this intention was and still is conditioned by Germany s strict observance of her obligations within the limits of her capacity to make reparation. Moreover, Germany has not so far submitted her candidature, and, unless and until she submitted, her case would not bo dealt with at all. It is possible that her candidature to membership of the League Assembly would meet with the requisite two-thirds majority. But were she to demand a seat on the council it could not be predicted with any certainty that the necessary amendment to the covenant would bo passed, or that she would be elected to ono of the four non-permanent seats. In tho naval, military, and aerial sense her admission to the league would be of interest, inasmuch as she would have to comply : with the standards laid down by the Special ' Armaments Sub-committee. These stan- ! dards, ft is true, would in all likelihood bo f those stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles, j But the league would ipso facto assume ,i i measure of responsibility for seeing that i they were properly carried out.’