A.—s

The German Delegation arrived in Geneva on the evening of the 9th. September, and its members, headed by Dr. Stresemann, Minister for Foreign Affairs, took their seats in the Assembly on the morning of the following day, when they were warmly welcomed by the President of the Assembly. Both Dr. Stresemann and M. Briand (chief delegate of France) delivered important speeches, which will be found reported in the Journal of the 11th September. It is of interest to note that Germany's reception into the League coincided with Spain's resignation, for in a letter addressed to the SecretaryGeneral by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated the 11th September, Spain gave the two years' notice required by the Covenant. Discussion on Secretary-General's Report. On the Bth September the Assembly began the discussion on the report on the work of the Council, the work of the Secretariat, and on the measures taken to execute the decisions of the Assembly. (See Documents A. 6, A. 6a, and A. 6b.) As is usual in these discussions, a number of motions were proposed— (1) Referring to the Third Committee all portions of the report and of the supplementary report on the past year's work, which deal with the reduction of armaments. (2) Inviting the Council to examine the possibility of appointing a committee to consider whether any general understanding could be promoted that would secure rapid and, if possible, simultaneous action by the signatories of conventions and agreements, with a view to their coming into force without undue delay. (3) Asking the Council to appoint a committee to consider and report what questions are and are not within the sphere of action of the League, within the meaning of the preamble and Articles 3 and 4 of the Covenant. (4) Asking the First Committee to consider and report to the Assembly on the desirability of numbering the paragraphs of the articles of the covenant published by the League. (5) Referring to the First Committee the section of the Secretary-General's report (Document A. 6) dealing with the work of the committee of experts for the progressive codification of international law. (6) Proposing to include in the programme of the work of the League of Nations the question of alcoholism, and asking the Council to take measures to this effect. Certain aspects of this question (6) were considered by the Traffic in Women and Children Committee and the Child Welfare Committee at their session in March last, and the matter was referred to in the discussions of the Fifth Committee. On the 15th September the debate on the Secretary-General's report was interrupted in order to permit of the Assembly considering the First Committee's detailed report on the decision to increase the number of non-permanent members of the Council to nine. This question will be referred to in that part of this report which deals with the work of the First Committee ; but it is of interest to note here that the question of the utilization of the single transferable vote, and the principle of proportional representation, in general in the election of non-permanent members of the Council, was raised by one of the Norwegian delegates immediately the debate on the Secretary-General's report was resumed. He explained that he had deferred the introduction of his motion until after the rules for electing the non-permanent members of the Council had been adopted by the Assembly, because he did not wish to complicate the position. The debate on the Secretary-General's report was concluded on the afternoon of the 15th September. No formal resolution was passed. The debate was of interest, and a provisional report of it will be found in the numbers of the Journal issued between the 9th and the 16th September. There is no need to deal with it here at length, but it may be mentioned that Sir George Foster, in a speech delivered on the last day of the debate, referred to the constitutional position of the overseas Dominions in relation to the Empire as a whole, and stressed the point that each of the Dominions belonging to the League had the right of free exercise of its vote. He also put in an indirect plea for representation on the Council of the views of the English-speaking peoples in America, India, and the Pacific. Election op Non-permanent Members op the Council. On the morning of the 16th September the Assembly met to elect the non-permanent members of the Council, which by previous decision had been increased to nine. As already noted, the rules recommended by the First Committee for the election had received the Assembly's assent the day before. Under these rules, three countries were to be elected for three years, three for two years, and the remaining three for one year. The procedure to be followed was indicated by the President: the Assembly would be asked, in the first instance, to vote for the nine seats, and, the election having been held, further ballots would be necessary in order to determine which countries elected should have a three-years mandate, and which a two-years mandate, the remaining three countries necessarily having a mandate for one year only. The result of the first ballot was as follows : Colombia, 46 votes ; Poland, 45 votes ; Chile, 43 votes ; Salvador, 42 votes ; Belgium, 41 votes ; Roumania, 41 votes ; The Netherlands, 37 votes ; China, 29 votes. Twenty-three votes had been cast for Czecho-Slovakia, and there had been votes for other countries : but, as forty-nine States had voted, and a majority of twenty-five was necessary for election, the Assembly had to proceed to a second ballot to elect the ninth non-permanent member of the Council. Its choice fell on Czecho-Slovakia, which received twenty-seven votes. Finland received eleven votes ; Portugal, seven ; and the Irish Free State, four.

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