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1925. NEW ZEALAND.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE FIFTH ASSEMBLY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, HELD AT GENEVA IN THE YEAR 1924.

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

FIFTH ASSEMBLY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. New" Zealand Government Offices, Sir, — Strand, London W.C. 2, 15th October, 1924. I have the honour to state that I left London on Saturday, 30th August, in order to attend the Fifth Assembly of the League of Nations, and arrived in Geneva on the following day. Opening of Proceedings and Election op President. The first meeting of the Assembly, which took place on Monday, Ist September, was opened by Monsieur Hymans, the representative of Belgium and President of the Council, which was then in session. Monsieur Hymans made a long speech, which you will find reported in the Record of Proceedings, but beyond this the only business of the first meeting was the formal one of appointing a committee to examine the credentials of the representatives. At the second meeting, in the afternoon, the chairman of that committee made a report, and the Assembly then proceeded to elect its chairman. It was expected that Monsieur Motta, the chief representative of Switzerland at the Assembly, would be elected President, and forty-five out of forty-seven votes were recorded in his favour. Having taken the chair, he proposed a committee of seven to examine further items submitted for, but not yet included in, the agenda. The Assembly agreed to the President's proposal, and proceeded to examine the agenda (Document A. 3 (1) ) and to allocate the items amongst the six committees which are usually appointed to deal with —(1) Juridical questions ; (2) technical questions ; (3) disarmament; (4) financial questions; (5) social questions ; (6) political questions. The Assembly then adjourned, on the understanding that on the morning of the following day the delegates appointed to sit on the various committees would assemble in order to elect their chairman. Representation of New Zealand. As I was the only delegate for New Zealand, and there had accompanied me to Geneva only two members of my staff, Mr. C. Knowles and Miss E. Hannam, it was impossible to arrange for New Zealand to be represented at every meeting of each committee. I therefore decided to become a member of each committee and thus be in a position to attend any meetings ; but resolved to confine myself, as far as possible, to the meetings of Committees Nos. 1 and 3, and those of No. 6 when they dealt with mandates. I arranged for Mr. Knowles to act as substitute on Committees Nos. 2, 4, and 5 on the understanding that he confined himself as much as possible to the meetings of Nos. 2 and 4. I felt this arrangement Would be in the best interests of New Zealand, owing to the importance which the questions of disarmament and security had assumed. As the previous arrangement whereby committees met in groups on alternate days (Nos. 1, 2, and 3 forming one group, and 3, 4, and 5 another) Was this year changed, in order to allow Committees Nos. 1 and 3, which dealt with questions closely allied, to meet on different days, I was reluctantly obliged to abandon my intention of attending personally the meetings of Committee No. 4, in the proceedings of which I took an active part during the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Assemblies,

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