A.—5A

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),