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1924. NEW ZEALAND.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. REPORTS OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH ASSEMBLIES OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, HELD AT GENEVA IN THE YEARS 1921, 1922, AND 1923.

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

SECOND ASSEMBLY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. New Zealand Government: Offices, Strand, London W.C. 2, 12th October, 1921. Sir, — Second Assembly of the League of Nations. I have the honour to report that on Saturday, the 3rd September, I loft London for Geneva, in order to represent New Zealand on the Second Assembly of the League of Nations. Opening of Proceedings and Election of President. —The proceedings were opened on Monday, the sth September, by Dr. Wellington Koo, Chinese Minister in London and the Republic's representative on the Council of the League, in his capacity as Acting Chairman of the Council. The Assembly, having appointed a committee to report on the credentials of the delegates, proceeded to elect its President. A vote by secret ballot was taken, and the result showed that foui; delegates were favoured. As not one, however, had received a majority of votes, another ballot was necessary, the voting being confined to the two who had obtained the highest number of votes in the first ballot. As a consequence, Monsieur van Karnebeek was elected President. Tho Assembly, as events have shown, has had reason to congratulate itself on its choice of President, for Monsieur van Karnebeek, who is Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, is a man of considerable experience, and enjoys an excellent reputation not only in his own country but in Europe generally. Method of Work. —On the following day the President announced his proposals as to the method by which the Assembly should accomplish the tasks before it. He suggested that last year's precedent should be followed, and that most of the items on the Agenda should, be distributed amongst six committees, the work being apportioned as follows : — To Committee No. I, constitutional and legal questions ; To Committee No. 2, questions regarding tho technical organizations of the League.; To Committee No. 3, armaments and blockade ; To Committee No. 4, finance and the internal organization of the League ; To Committee No. 5, humanitarian questions ; and To Committee No. 6, political questions. A print of the Agenda (Document A. 2 (g) ) is enclosed. Representation of New Zealand. —New Zealand, having only one delegate, it was impossible for her to be represented on all committees, which wore divided into two groups, each group sitting on alternate days ; so I decided to serve on those committees whose duty it was to deal with matters which I considered of most importance to New Zealand— i.e., Committee No. 2 and Committee No. 4, to which had been referred, amongst other matters, the question of the allocation of the expenses of the League. I arranged to be represented on other committees when this could conveniently be done.

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