A.—s

The result of the voting for the length of the mandate was : For three years —Poland, 44 votes Chile, 41 votes; Roumania, SO votes. For two years —Colombia, 47 votes ; The Netherlands, 47 votes; China, 34 votes. There was, of course, no need to proceed to a fourth ballot, and Belgium, Czecho-Slovakia, and Salvador were declared to have received a mandate for one year. Under Article 4 of the new rules for election, of the nine members elected, a maximum of three can be immediately declared re-eligible by the Assembly if it receives a majority of two-thirds of the number of votes cast. Only one country elected (Poland) applied to be considered as re-eligible. A vote was taken, and Poland was declared re-eligible for election, having received thirty-six votes. It will be seen that during this session of the Assembly the Council has been increased by four members, three of whom hold non-permanent seats. Time will show whether a body of fourteen people will be able to deal as expeditiously with important international questions as was the smaller body originally provided by the Covenant. On this point doubt may be expressed. The composition of the new Council shows that Asia is represented by two members, South America by three, and Europe by nine. The English-speaking peoples of the North American Continent and of the Pacific have at present no direct voice in the decisions of the Council, although, should the United States come into the League, it is assured of a permanent seat on the Council. Attention may be drawn to the fact that three adjoining European countries, two of which were created by the Treaty of Versailles, whilst the territory of the third was greatly augmented under that treaty, have seats on the Council: we refer to Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, and Roumania. On the 21st September it was announced that the Agenda Committee had suggested that the motion introduced by the delegates of Finland, Poland, and Sweden regarding alcoholism (page 13 of this report) should be deferred till the Eighth Assembly. This was agreed to. It was also on the 21st September that one of the Belgian delegates proposed a motion in the following terms : — " The Assembly invites the Council to request the High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Labour Organization to consider how far the measures taken to give protection to, to provide employment for, and to afford relief to Russian and Armenian refugees can be extended to other categories of refugees." This was ultimately referred to the Fifth Committee. The Seventh Assembly concluded its work on the evening of the 25th September, after a session of three weeks. On that day several of the delegates made reference to the hurried way in which several matters had been dealt with by the committees, and expressed the hope that, in future, time would be given for a more careful consideration of important questions. There is no doubt that hurry characterized the proceedings of the Assembly this year, and that the time allowed was not sufficient to givte to some points the consideration they merited. This year's Assembly lacked the interest which some other Assemblies, especially that of 1924, excited, and towards the end, in spite of two or three brilliant, speeches, the sittings were without animation. It should, however, be stated that no decision of moment was expected this year. The Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference is in the midst of its labours, and consequently no definite step in the direction of disarmament in any form was taken by the Assembly. COMMITTEE No. 1. Numbering of Paragraphs or the Articles of the Covenant. This question, which was referred by the Assembly to the First Committee, was reported upon favourably, and the Assembly at its meeting on the 21st September gave directions that the SecretaryGeneral s iould cause the paragraphs of the articles of the Covenant to be numbered in all future editions published by the Secretariat. The effect of this direction will make for easy reference. Method of Election of Non-permanent Members of the Council. This has reference to the motion proposed by the Norwegian delegate at one of the early meetings of the Assembly, requesting the Council to appoint a committee to study the question of the single transferable vote and the principle of proportional representation in general, as regards the problem of the election of the non-permanent members of the Council. It was referred to the First Committee, and during discussion the committee proposed a resolution which was passed by the Assembly at its meeting on the 25th September. It is as follows (see Document A. 100) :— " The Assembly requests the Council to instruct the Secretariat to study the system of the single transferable vote, and of the principle of proportional representation in general, in connection with the problem of the election of the non-permanent members of the Council', in order that this question may be laid before the next ordinary session of the Assembly." Interpretation of the Preamble and Articles 3 and 4 of the Covenant. A motion by the British delegate, brought forward in the Assembly on the 14th September, asking the Council to appoint a committee to consider and report what questions are and what are not within the sphere of the action of the League within the meaning of the preamble and Articles 3 and 4 of the Covenant was referred to the First Committee. During the_ discussion the British delegate modified his motion to the extent of withdrawing the proposal that the Council should appoint a committee and he submitted a memorandum in support of the other part of the proposal. This memorandum together with a resolution (see Document A. 102), was brought up in the Assembly on the 25th September, and the Rapporteur—a member of the French delegation—made a long speech containing some criticism

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