THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE FIRST ASSEMBLY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, HELD AT GENEVA, IN THE YEAR 1920.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1925 Session I, A-05a

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1925. NEW ZEALAND.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE FIRST ASSEMBLY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, HELD AT GENEVA, IN THE YEAR 1920.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

New Zealand Government Offices, Sir, — Strand, London W.C. 2, 4th January, 1921. I have the honour to state that, in company with my Private Secretary and one of the departmental officers, I left London on Friday, 12th November, for the purpose of attending, as the representative of New Zealand, the first Assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva. The Assembly opened at 11 a.m. on Monday, 15th November, and the chair was provisionally occupied by Monsieur Paul Hymans, the principal delegate for Belgium. The first business of the Assembly was to elect its President, and this was immediately proceeded with after introductory speeches made by Monsieur Motta, the President of the Swiss Confederation and principal delegate for Switzerland, and Monsieur Hymans in reply. The voting showed an absolute majority in favour of Monsieur Hymans, he having received thirty votes, and he was therefore installed President. Provisional Rules of Procedure, drawn up by the Secretariat (Assembly Document No. 1), having been adopted, the Assembly proceeded with the examination and adoption of the agenda. It was proposed that items Nos. 7 to 29 should be distributed for examination and report amongst six committees, and, after discussion, this proposal was adopted, the work being distributed as follows:— Committee No. 1. —General Organization. N umber of Question on the Agenda. 7 Rules of procedure. 8 Amendments to the Covenant. Proposals by the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Governments. A. Additional chapter to the Covenant proposed by the Norwegian Government. Amendments to the Norwegian proposal put forward by the Swedish Government. 9 The relations between and respective competence of the Council and the Assembly of the League. 10 Method of selection and appointment of the four non-permanent members of the Council. B. This item includes the actual appointment of the four non-permanent members of the Council. Committee No. 2. —Technical Organization. 11 Relations between technical organizations and the Council and Assembly of the League. 12 The establishment of a permanent health organization. 13 Typhus. 14 Supervision over the execution of agreements with regard to the traffic in women and children. 15 General supervision over the execution of agreements with regard to the traffic in opium, in accordance with Article XXIII of the Covenant (at the request of the Government of the Netherlands),

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Number of Question on the Agenda. 16 The establishment of a permanent organization to deal with communications and transit questions falling within the sphere of the League under the Treaty of Versailles. 17 Tribunal for the settlement of differences referred to in Articles 336, 337, 376, and 386 of the Treaty of Versailles, and in corresponding articles of other treaties. 18 Passports for members of the Secretariat. 19 Economic and financial organization. 20 Claim of India to be. represented on the governing body of the International Labour Office. Committee No. 3. —Permanent Court of International Justice. 21 Plans for the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice. Committee No. 4. — Administrative and Financial Questions. 22 Report by the Secretary-General on the organization of the Secretariat. 23 The first and second Budgets of the League, covering the period to 31st December, 1920. 24 Provisional estimates for the 1921 Budget. 25 The future method of apportionment of the expenses of the League. Committee No. 5. —Admission of States. 26 Admission of States not named in the annex to the Covenant. Committee No. 6.—Armaments, Economic Weapon of the League, and Mandates. 27 Reduction of armaments. 28 Preparations required to enable the economic weapon of the League to be used in case of necessity. 29 Mandates ; responsibilities of the League arising from Article XXII of the Covenant. The applications for admission to the League received from Albania, Bulgaria, Austria, and Azerbaidjan after the provisional agenda had been printed wore referred to Committee No. 5, and three further subjects brought under the notice of the Assembly—i.e., the use of Spanish as an official language in the Assembly, the need of an international language, and the organization of intellectual labour—were referred to appropriate committees. On Tuesday, 16th November, the Assembly proceeded to discuss the organization of the committees. The proposal was made, and adopted after discussion, that each delegation should be represented on each committee by one of its delegates, and that each committee should elect its chairman, who would be one of the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly. In addition to these six VicePresidents it was resolved that there should be a further six elected by the Assembly itself. A matter which occupied the Assembly for some considerable time was the question to what extent the deliberations of the committees should be made public. Eventually a compromise was reached and the following resolution passed : " The committees shall keep a register of their deliberations, the minutes of which shall be published as soon as possible, and any member of the Assembly will be at liberty to consult such documents should he wish to do so." On the morning of Wednesday, 17th November, the Assembly proceeded to discuss the report submitted by the Secretary-General upon the work of the Council (Assembly Document No. 37), and this occupied part of its time at several subsequent meetings. Ido not propose to comment on the discussion, which will be found fully reported in the provisional verbatim records. On the afternoon of the 17th November the committees met in order to select their chairmen, and the result of the balloting showed the election of— The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour (Great Britain), Chairman of Committee No. 1. Monsieur T. Tittoni (Italy), Chairman of Committee No. 2. Monsieur L. Bourgeois (France), Chairman of Committee No. 3. Monsieur Quinones de Leon (Spain), Chairman of Committee No. 4. Monsieur Don Antonio Huneeus (Chile), Chairman of Committee No. 5. Monsieur Branting (Sweden), Chairman of Committee No. 6. On the following morning the Assembly proceeded to elect the six Vice-Presidents, who, with the Chairman of the committees, were to form the officers of the Assembly, aud the result of the voting was as follows Viscount Ishii (Japan). Monsieur Van Karnebeek (Holland). Monsieur Pueyrredon (Argentine Republic). Dr. Benes (Czecho-Slovakia). Sir George Foster (Canada). Monsieur Ottavio (Brazil). I being the sole delegate for New Zealand, there was naturally some difficulty in arranging for the Dominion being adequately represented on all the committees. I therefore endeavoured to meet the case by sitting myself on those committees appointed to deal with items which I thought would be of the greatest interest to New Zealand, and I therefore became a member of the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Committees, and subsequently of Committee No. 2. It was, of course, impossible for me to attend the meetings of all committees, for the reason that each committee met three times a week —the First, Second, and Third on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I, however, attended all the meetings of Committee No. 4, and nearly all those of Committee No. 2, and I arranged to be represented, when necessary, on the other committees for which I had submitted by name,

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With those matters which appear not to have very great interest for New Zealand I do not purpose dealing at length, and I merely refer to the discussions on the Armenian question, on the need for the publicity of discussions and decisions of the Council, on the scope of Article 18 of the Covenant, on the motion of Mr. Barnes asking for full information as to the reasons which induced the Council to refrain from interfering to prevent hostilities between Poland and Soviet Russia, and on the difference between Poland and Lithuania —all raised during the discussion on the work of the Council, and treated at length in the provisional verbatim record. The document from the German Government concerning mandates, which was referred to at the tenth meeting of the Assembly, can be more properly dealt with when I come to consider the mandates. The Assembly, having disposed of the questions which it was not necessary to refer to committees, was now ready to consider the reports of its committees. Whilst lam able to send you the various reports as presented to the Assembly, I regret I am not yet able to furnish prints as amended, but I have, wherever possible, inserted the amendments. Committee No. 1. On the 30th November the report of Committee No. 1 on the rules of procedure was discussed by the Assembly, and the committee's report (Assembly Document No. 143) adopted as amended. On the 2nd December the Assembly considered the committee's report on the draft amendments and addition to the Covenant of the League, transmitted by the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Governments, which will be found in Assembly Documents Nos. 10, 42, and 150. As Mr. Balfour pointed out in the speech introducing the report, there has been little or no experience of the working of the Covenant, and the committee had come to the conclusion that the amendments should not be taken into consideration by the Assembly, but that the Council should be invited to appoint a committee to study the proposals already submitted, together with any which might be submitted by a member of the League within a period to be fixed by the Council, and the Assembly passed resolutions to this effect, which will be found in Assembly Document No. 158. Probably the Scandinavian delegations were a little disappointed at their suggestions not having met with more favourable treatment, but the spirit of conciliation again made itself felt, and they heartily agreed to the suggestions made. These resolutions doubtless had considerable effect in inducing the Argentine delegation to withdraw from the Assembly. The motion of the Argentine delegation and of Mr. Doherty, of the Canadian delegation (Assembly Documents Nos. 163 and 164), were, on the 6th December, by resolution of the Assembly (Document No. 181), referred to the committee above mentioned to be appointed by the Council. At the meetings on the 6th and 7th December the Assembly discussed the valuable report presented by the committee on the relations between the respective competence of the Council and the Assembly. The discussion was lengthy, but the net result, amounting to three amendments, which have been indicated in Assembly Document No. 159, did not alter the report in any material sense. On the 11th December the Assembly considered the report (Document No. 172b) on the question of the designation of the non-permanent members of the Council, the mandates of Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and Greece, as members of the Council, being due to expire on the 31st of that Month. I may here parenthetically say that the matter presented considerable difficulty. The Council of the League had been in existence for a very short time, and to have rejected all the above-mentioned countries might have implied a degree of censure ; but with regard to Greece, the recent political changes and the uncertainty of the future of that country rendered such a consideration unjustifiable, and, whilst the delegations might, on the whole, have been willing to vote for the retention on the Council of Belgium, Brazil, and Spain, it was thought that Greece might be replaced by another Power. There was a feeling, and it was often voiced, that one of the smaller European Powers might be selected, and Czecho-Slovakia, probably the most progressive and stable of the nations which have recently risen in Europe, was suggested. On the other hand, there was also the feeling that the non-European representation was not particularly strong, and this feeling probably induced the committee to suggest the Assembly's passing a resolution that of the four non-permanent members to be selected by the Assembly in 1920, three should be selected from among the members of the League from Europe and the two American continents, and one selected from among those from Asia and the remaining parts of the world. In the Assembly it was seen, however, that such a resolution would meet with opposition, and it was accordingly turned into a recommendation. The resolutions of the Assembly on this important question will be found embodied in Document No. 218. On the 15th December the Assembly proceeded to elect the four non-permanent members of the Council. From the beginning there was little doubt as to the ultimate result, for Spain, Brazil, and Belgium were re-elected, and China was elected to the position to be vacated by Greece. I think the League is to be congratulated, for the reason that the vast American Continent is, in the absence of the United States, in a manner represented by Brazil; the representative on the Council of Spain, Monsieur Quinones de Leon, an able man, is a friend of the Allies ; and the election of China gives representation to a vast country with an enormous population, and if that country's representative is to be Mr. Wellington Koo, her Minister in London, the Council will have the assistance of a man of considerable ability and sound judgment. Committee No. 2. On the 7th December the Assembly considered the report of this committee on Typhus in Poland (Assembly Document No. 152, which should be read in conjunction with Assembly Document No. 124 and the note by the Chief Medical Commissioner of the Typhus Commission of the League of Nations).

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There is no need for me to elaborate on the discussion which ensued, which will be found in the Provisional Verbatim Record of the Fifteenth Plenary Meeting. Sir George Foster, in introducing the report, not merely spoke eloquently on behalf of the sufferers, but pleaded the urgency of the need for relief, and the Assembly passed, without amendment, the motions which were before it (Assembly Document No. 186). The Assembly subsequently considered the report (Assembly Document No. 171) of this committee on the technical organizations —-i.e., the economic and financial organization, the organization on communications and transit, and the health organization- -and adopted the resolutions as amended in the text and in Assembly Document No. 171 a. In conjunction with this report it is desirable to read Assembly Documents Nos. 14, 59, 60, 76, 120, and 125. Of these organizations, the most important to New Zealand, in my opinion, is that relating to Health. There are in existence a number of bodies dealing with questions of health who have done, and are doing, excellent work, but there has been a lack of co-ordination. It is hoped that the organization to be set up by resolution of the Assembly will put an end to this state of affairs, and that that body will be the one to which the members of the League will be able to look for help and guidance. The organization on communications and transit will deal with a subject in which, from an internal point of view, New Zealand is interested in only a slight degree. The economic and financial organization will, it is hoped, serve a useful purpose, especially in the sphere of finance. You will already be acquainted with the proposals which emanated as a result of the Brussels Conference. In addition to what was done at Brussels, proposals have been brought forward by the London Chamber of Commerce relative to the creation of credits for external trade, and in addition there is a scheme, called the Ter Meulen scheme, dealing with the same matter. There was already a provisional committee appointed by the Council, and to this committee the Council, before the Assembly met, remitted the question of the control of raw materials. It wa3 quite evident that there was a very strong movement amongst certain nations, expecially Italy and Switzerland, to bring forward proposals for the control of raw materials. Italy, as you know, has very little coal, and looks with a jealous eye on countries like Great Britain who have supplies. The interpretation of the term " raw materials " includes wool, as far as I can gather. The British delegates naturally discussed this question amongst themselves, and were of opinion that they should resist any attempt on the part of the League of Nations to secure control of raw materials. lam glad to say that Committee No. 2 did not in any way commit the League to such a policy. The provisional committee set up by the Council is to be continued under the proposals submitted by Committee No. 2. With the reports on the control of opium traffic, traffic, in women and children, India's claim to be represented on the governing body of the International Labour Office, passports for members of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, and the organization of intellectual labour there is no need for me to deal. Full particulars will be found in Assembly Documents Nos. 225, 4.1 a, 225b, 225 a, 39, 226, 95, 188, and 254, and the resolutions adopted will be found in Assembly Documents Nos. 239, 240, and 245. The report on an international language (Assembly Document No. 253) was submitted to the Assembly, but the motion was lost. The only other matter with which this committee dealt was the statement and motion submitted by the Swiss delegation suggesting the appointment of a High Commissioner, who should be instructed to consider the best means of furthering and assisting in collaboration with existing internal organizations all charitable work undertaken on behalf of these children. This will be found in Assembly Document No. 160. The following resolution was submitted to the Assembly and passed:— " The Assembly, being desirous of giving its support to the urgent work of rescuing children in the countries affected by the war, invites the Council to consider as soon as possible the means by which the moral authority of the League of Nations might best assist this work which is being done in the cause of humanity." The nomination of a High Commissioner was not pressed. During the debate on the report I took the opportunity of making a statement on New Zealand's contributions to the Save the Children Fund, which will be found on page 7 of the Provisional Verbatim Eecord of the Thirty-first Plenary Meeting. Committee No. 3. The only matter referred to this committee was the preparation of a. scheme for the constitution of the Permanent Court of International Justice. The scheme submitted to the Assembly will be found on pages 11-19 of Assembly Document No. J 99, and pages 4 and 5 of Document No. 216, the latter document amending the former. The Assembly made only one amendment to the scheme (Article 27), which is indicated, and the resolution setting up the Court is embodied in Assembly Document No. 228. With this document will be found those numbered C. 39, 44, C. 16, 217, 221, and 222. The point about which most discussion took place, and particularly in committee, was the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court. Many of (he smaller nations pressed for this, but the Great Powers were naturally against it. The spirit of conciliation, both in the Assembly and in the committees, to which I have before alluded, was present during the debate, and, as a result, the scheme emerged in the form presented in Document No. 199. At the final meeting of the Assembly the reports numbered 248 and 249 came up for discussion. The resolution relative to the salaries and allowances of the members of the Court, embodied on page 3 of the former, was passed, although considerable debate took place in committee, the British representative being of opinion that the salaries proposed were too high, and in this opinion I supported him ; whilst the Assembly agreed to the general conclusions contained in the report numbered 249, the draft resolution at the top of page 3 was lost.

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I attach a copy of the protocol mentioned in the second paragraph of the resolution setting up the Court. This document I signed, but not the optional clause recognizing as compulsory, ipso facto, and without special convention, the jurisdiction of the Court in conformity with Article 36, paragraph 2, of the statute. (The article as adopted by the Assembly will be found on page sof Assembly Document No. 216.) Committee No. 4. This committee had to deal with the staff and organization of the Secretariat, the Budget, and the allocation of expenses. I was appointed rapporteur to draw up the report on the staff and organization of the Secretariat, and you will find attached the draft of my original proposals. The clause dealing with pensions was not approved by the committee, which did not feel itself in a position to decide the question of pensions just then, although it will doubtless crop up again later on. In the draft of my report to the Assembly I had drawn attention to the rapid growth of the Secretariat and its cost, but finally found it unnecessary to include this, as Committee No. 4 had subsequently made provision for setting up a committee of experts to consider all factors connected with organization, &c., which is embodied in Recommendation 111, at the foot of page 8 of Assembly Document No. 213. My report (Document No. 229) was amended in the Assembly itself, and the amendments have been noted thereon. It was unnecessary to include paragraph 4 in regard to the five-yearly period, as this was considered to be provided for in the general recommendations made by Committee No. 4 ; but you will note that a condition was added making the recommendations applicable to the International Labour Office. The report of the Fourth Committee is embodied in Assembly Document No. 213, and the amendments have been noted thereon. I need not comment on the report, but Ido deem it to be my duty to call attention to the high salaries being paid to some of the senior officers. For instance, the Secretary-General (Sir Eric Drummond) is receiving £4,000 per annum and £6,000 for allowances, and the latter sum is paid to him month by month, as part of his salary, and he is not required to render a report on expenditure. It therefore means that he is receiving £10,000 a year, out of which he has to pay the cost of entertaining. Similarly, the Director of the International Labour Office (Monsieur Albert Thomas) is receiving £7,000 a year. I drew attention to this when the report was under the consideration of the Assembly, and Mr. Balfour felt it incumbent upon him to defend the salary of Sir Eric Drummond. You will note that the Labour organization has estimated its expenditure for 1921 at 7,000,000 gold francs, but no details whatever were given, the explanation being that an alteration in the date of the termination of the financial year did not allow sufficient time for a budget to be submitted to the governing body. I was not at all satisfied with this explanation, but it had to be accepted, and provision has been made for furnishing full details next year. lam sure you will be glad to learn that the claim the International Labour Office set up —namely, that all it had to do was to ask for a lump sum to spend as it wished —was successfully combated, and that in future it will have to produce a detailed budget for the approval or otherwise of the Assembly. I must also draw your attention to what seems to me to be unnecessary expenditure on the part of this organization, which, for instance, is issuing a daily and a weekly bulletin, and is about to issue a monthly one. The daily bulletin consists mostly of extracts from newspapers published in several languages, and must take a great deal of time to prepare and a large amount of money to print. It is of no use to us in the outlying parts of the world, and I criticized it on every available occasion. With regard to the allocation of expenses, as you know, the Covenant provides for this being done on the Postal Union basis. The French were very determined that no alteration should be made in the Covenant or Peace Treaty, so that all that could be done this year was to make provision to do away with the very unfair allocation which exists by arranging for the Postal Union to alter its rates. You will find the proposals embodied in Article 13 of Recommendation II (page 8 of Document No. 213). The Secretariat of the League had submitted a proposed allocation based on the recommendations of the Brussels Conference —that the allocation should be based on population and net revenue —and this will be found in Document D. 18, page 6, in which it will be seen that New Zealand's proportion has been raised from the existing three units to five units, and that our contribution, instead of being 157,000 gold francs, on the existing basis, would amount to 286,000 gold francs on the proposed basis. It is extremely difficult to devise a fair basis for allocating the contributions, and in my opinion the grouping as shown on page 6 of Document D. 18 is unfair ; it ought to be more widely extended. You will note in Article 13 that if the scheme of allocation recommended by the Committee to be appointed is not adopted prior to the Ist July next, or if any members express disagreement with it, then the question of allocation is to be placed on the agenda of the Assembly of 1921. Committee No. 5. To this committee was remitted the consideration of the applications for membership of the League, and the committee's reports will be found in Assembly Documents Nos. 174, 205, 176, 177, 179, 173, 210, 207, 211, 208, 175, 180, 178, and 209. Before these documents were considered the Assembly discussed and passed the following resolution, submitted by the Committee for the Protection of Minorities in certain States seeking admission to the League " In the event of the Baltic and Caucasian States being admitted to the League, the Assembly requests that they should take the necessary measures to enforce the principles of the Minorities Treaties, and that they should arrange with the Council the details required to carry this object into effect."

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The committee recommended the admission of Austria, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Finland, and Luxemberg, and after discussion in the Assembly, which was lengthy in respect to Austria and Bulgaria, these nations were admitted. With regard to Albania, the committee recommended the adjournment of the question, but there had been a very strong minority in the committee itself favourable to the admission of Albania, and their point of view was pressed in the Assembly, with the result that after listening to a speech by Mr. Fisher, representative for Great Britain, who withdrew his opposition, the Assembly voted Albania a member of the League. With regard to the Baltic States, Esthonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the committee recommended the adjournment of admission, the present state of Russia doubtless having influenced them in this decision, and the Assembly rejected the applications. The Assembly also refused to admit Georgia, although a very strong appeal had been made on her behalf. The Assembly, however, accepted the recommendation of the Fifth Committee to admit these countries into the technical organizations working with the League, and, inter alia, that of the Labour Bureau. Nor did the Assembly agree to the applications for admission of Azerbaidjan and the Ukraine, as their applications were not recommended by the committee. The same remark applies to Lichtenstein, although, in this connection, a recommendation made by the committee, expressing a wish that the special committee appointed by the Council of the League of Nations to consider proposals with reference to amendments to the Covenant should also consider whether and in what manner it would be possible to attach to the League of Nations Sovereign States which, by reason of their small size, could not be admitted as ordinary members, received the unanimous assent of the Assembly. As to Armenia, the committee recommended the Assembly to inform the Government of Armenia that, although its request for admission had been examined with sympathy, circumstances were such as to preclude the Assembly from arriving at a definite decision, but that pending subsequent decisions of the Assembly the State might participate in such technical organizations of the League as were of general interest. In the Assembly itself a very strong appeal was made for the admission of Armenia, but met with equally strong opposition, and the latter gained the day. In these circumstances it was felt that the suggestion that Armenia might participate in the technical organizations should not be made, and it was withdrawn. Whilst on the subject of Armenia, I would draw your attention to the motion proposed by Mr. Rowell (Assembly Document No. 247) which was passed by the Assembly at its meeting on the 16th December. On the 18th December the Assembly considered the report (Assembly Document No. 256) of the Special Committee on Armenia, and adopted the following motion :— " The Assembly, reaffirming its resolution of the 22nd November, 1920, continues its co-operation with the Council, and entrusts the latter with the task, while referring the question if necessary to the Members of the League, of looking after the fate of Armenia, in whose favour the intervention of the League has already secured, besides marks of universal sympathy, the valuable intervention of President Wilson, and the Governments of Spain and Brazil." A suggestion made by Monsieur Jonnesco on behalf of the Roumanian Government, and contained n Assembly Document No. 259, was referred to the Council. Committee No. 6. The report to the Assembly by Committee No. 6 on the economic weapon will be found in Assembly Document No. 193/1, and is as amended by the Assembly. The second matter which this committee considered was the question of the reduction of armaments, and the committee's report will be found in Assembly Document No. 22.3. The report is, unfortunately, of little value, and the only definite proposal tending to limit the reduction of armaments, which will be found in the conclusion of resolution No. 3, led to considerable discussion in the Assembly, and at length, owing to opposition, the President found it advisable to suggest that it be passed as a recommendation. In its weakened form as a recommendation it was moved, with the other resolutions, but was not passed unanimously, Brazil, Chile, France, Greece, Poland, Roumania, and Uruguay voting against it. The motions as passed will be found in Assembly Document No. 238, and I draw your special attention to the concluding recommendation to the Council of the League. The last matter before this committee was the question of mandates. Although it had been referred to the Assembly, there was in fact nothing for the committee to consider except a report by the Council to the Assembly (Document No. 161), and a memorandum from the German Government concerning the fate of the former German colonies (Assembly Document No. 106). As time drew on and the mandates were not forthcoming from the Allied Powers, the Council addressed to them a strongly worded note. In the meantime the committee became impatient and appointed a. small sub-committee to consider the question. The result was a report (Assembly Document No. 246), which was submitted to the Assembly at its penultimate meeting, and the following recommendations proposed by the committee were put to the vote and carried :— (1.) The members of the committee should not be dismissed") Refers to the committee to be without the assent of the majority of the Assembly appointed to consider the re(2.) The committee should contain at least one woman J ports of the mandatories. (3.) The mandatories should be asked to present to the committee a report on the recent administration of the territories now confided to their care. Recommendations as to Mandates "A " : — (4.) The Mandatory should not be allowed to make use of its position to increase its military strength.

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(5.) The Mandatory should not be allowed to use its power under the mandate to exploit for itself or its friends the natural resources of the mandated territory. (6.) An organic law should be passed in the mandated territories as soon as possible, and before coming into force should be submitted to the League for consideration. General recommendations — (7.) Future drafts of mandates should be published before they are decided upon by the Council. I draw your particular attention to No. 3, but it will be noted that all are recommendations to the Council, and it will, of course, be for them to accept or reject the recommendations, and if they accept them to notify the Governments concerned. In the meantime the Council had received from the British and French Governments a number of mandates, which they proceeded to discuss, and on the 18th December I sent you the following telegram " All ' C ' mandates passed by Council League Nations in form already in your possession without material alteration. It is expected that they will be issued to Mandatories immediately.—Allen." So far as I know the mandates have not yet been received from the Council, but I attach for your information copy of the draft of that for German Samoa, which I am given to understand received two slight verbal amendments at the hands of the Council. The representatives of Great Britain, India, and the Dominions were in constant touch during the whole period the Assembly was sitting in Geneva, and our relations were most harmonious. On the whole I believe the meetings of the British Empire Delegation in Geneva did much to strengthen the bonds of Empire. We felt that we were in touch with other possible organizations, and that it was essential to stand together on questions of importance. Although there has been criticism on the number of votes possessed by the British Empire, you will realize that there is little to support this, in view of the fact that the South American States have fifteen or sixteen votes, and that they often voted together. Indeed, one of the dangers of the League is the organization of cliques for purposes of self-interest. Speaking very generally, you may rest assured that good work has been done, and I feel that there is every prospect of the League continuing to exist as the most powerful factor ever conceived for the peaceful development of the world. I have, &c., J. Allen. The Bight Hon. the Prime Minister, Wellington, New Zealand.

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