TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21157, 5 July 1940, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Thousands of Treaties “At the beginning of last November the annual Report on the Work of the League of Nations, 1938-39, was rather grimly published. In some respects it may become one of the curiosities of history. In one respect it threw an astonishing light on the subject of international laws. On page 162 was given the record of the ■Registration and Publication of Treaties and International Engagements’ effected under Article 18 of the Covenant. The opportunity was taken, in what appears now to be a rather ironic spirit to give the grand total up to date of all such registrations. Between May 19, 1939, no fewer than 4568 ‘treaties and international engagements’ were submitted for registration, 211 of them during the period from May 19, 1938, to May 19. 1939. It follows that throughout the postwar period an average of nearly one treaty a day was concluded. And for what purpose? Not for the'first time in history it is proved that treaties between armed sovereign States, not subject to any higher common sanction, are of as much moral value as the compacts between rival gangsters in Chicago.”—Dr. George Glasgow in the Contemporary Review.