A.—s

A protocol embodying the above amendment has been drawn up (Document A. 123) and is open for signature. If the Government agrees to the amendment it will be necessary for instructions to be issued for the protocol to be signed on behalf of New Zealand. Consideration of an amendment to the second paragraph of the original Covenant was postponed. The consideration which the First Committee gave to certain articles of the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice will be dealt with in that part of the report relating to the Third Committee. COMMITTEE No. 2. Hungary. The task of the committee was simple. All it had to do was to listen to an exposition by Mr. Jeremiah Smith, Commissioner-General of the League of Nations in Hungary, of the League's plan for the financial reconstruction of Hungary, and a description by him of what had been accomplished since the plan had been put into operation. Seeing that a few months ago the value of the Hungarian crown was but a fraction of a Swiss centime, and that the bank of issue provided for in the scheme was established so recently as June, the League has reason to congratulate itself on the good progress which has been made. The plan, which resembles that adopted for the financial reconstruction of Austria, but with modifications adapted to the different conditions of Hungary, will be found briefly described on page 58 of Document A. 8. Other documents bearing on the question are A. 8 (a) (page 16), A. 11/2/1924, and A. 58. It is technical work of this character that is amongst the principal justifications for the existence of the League. There is indeed little doubt but that for the existence of an international body such as the. League the work of reconstruction of Austria and Hungary could not have been undertaken, with results which might have been disastrous for Europe and perhaps for the world. The League offers a common meeting-ground for the reconciliation of conflicting interests. The committee's resolutions were approved by the Assembly on the llth September. Permanent Health Committee. The Health Committee of the League, the establishment of which on a permanent basis had, for unexpected reasons, been delayed for so long, is at last functioning in accordance with the plan which received the approval of the Fourth Assembly. An account of the work of this organization will be found on pages 67 and the following of Document A. 8, and on page 29 of Document A. 8 (a) appears a resolution of the Council (a) regarding the establishment at Singapore of the Far East Bureau of Epidemiological Intelligence, and (b) thanking the Rockefeller Foundation for a contribution for financing the exchange of Public Health officials. In addition to these documents there is available the First Annual Report (1923-24) of the Health Committee (Document A. 22), which is addressed to the Permanent Committee of the Office International d'Hygiene Publique in its capacity as Advisory Health Council. All these documents were before the committee for consideration, and discussion turned mainly on two points — (1.) Whether in future years it would be advisable to have attached to the Health Committee's Report the observations thereon of the Advisory Health Council; and (2.) Whether (a) the Budget of 678,300 francs proposed by the Supervisory Commission should be increased to 861,300 francs to enable the Director of the Health Department to undertake further work, and (b) a supplementary vote of 175,000 francs should be proposed to enable the interchange of Public Health personnel to continue after the current grant from the Rockefeller Foundation had expired in September, 1925. The question whether the Assembly should or should not have before it in future years the comments of the Advisory Health Council on the Report of the Health Committee of the League has more behind it than would appear to the uninitiated. Great Britain is represented on the committee of the League, but India is not, nor are the overseas dominions, and India is a country which has suffered terribly from disease, her geographical situation being peculiarly favourable to the entry of epidemics. Such being the case, she has more than ordinary interest in the work of the Health Section, and is particularly anxious to have a voice in its direction. There is very little hope of her being represented on the Health Committee of the League, at all events for two or three years, but she, like many other countries not directly represented on the Health Committee of the League, is represented on the Advisory Council (Office International d'Hygiene Publique). A resolution which would in effect enable the expert representatives of such countries sitting on the Advisory Council to have a voice, even if only consultative, in the work of the Health Section of the League was introduced by the Indian delegate and debated at great length. To send the report of the Health Committee of the League to the Advisory Council for comment before such report was discussed by the Assembly appeared to be distasteful to the Health Director, and a strenuous effort was made by the representatives of a few countries to delay decision. The motion was put to the vote, and twenty-four votes were recorded in its favour and five against it. With regard to the reduction in the Budget, in making it the Supervisory Commission took the unusual course of attaching to its report on the Budget of the Secretariat the original Budget proposed by the Health Organization. A proposal made in the Second Committee to address a letter to the President of the Assembly, to be laid before the Chairman of the Fourth Committee (which deals with financial matters), representing the urgency of credits for special investigations and technical conferences (including standardization of sera and biological products), and for exchange of personnel, was quite properly abandoned as creating an unnecessary precedent, but it showed that the representatives of several States were determined to influence a decision which properly lay with the Fourth Committee.

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