A.—s

into force ; and now that the Pension Fund has taken over the assets of the old Provident Fund in respect of those officials who have transferred to the Pensions Fund, the League has shouldered the responsibility of making good, in a period of thirty years or longer, the depreciation on the purchase price of these assets. The contribution paid by the League in respect of each official is 9 per cent, of his salary. Higher Officials. If you will refer to my reports on the eleventh and twelfth Assemblies, you will find I dealt with the burning question of the higher officials of the Secretariat. The present holder of the office of Secretary-General, Sir Eric Drummond, will retire shortly, and the Council had given expression to the hope that the question of the higher officials would be finally disposed of by this year's Assembly. There was an extremely long debate, during which a number of motions were tabled. Few new reasons were advanced for the retention, augmentation, or the suppression of the posts of Under SecretariesGeneral, but the debate provided M. Hambro, the Norwegian delegate, with the opportunity of making what was perhaps the most forceful speech ever delivered by him at Geneva. "Whilst one cannot agree with all he said, much of his criticism is sound, and it certainly represents, to a great extent, the opinions of many thinking men and women. It is reported in No. 11 of the Journal. At the conclusion of the debate a sub-committee of fifteen was constituted, and to this the motions were referred, with instructions to examine them in the light of the debate, and to report. The subcommittee had several meetings and produced a report which, as was foreseen, was in the nature of a compromise. There had been little hope that the posts of Under-Secretaries would be abolished ; on the other hand, there had been reason to fear that they might be increased. The solution suggested by the sub-committee was the creation of an additional post of Deputy Secretary-General " in order to give the members which are not permanently represented on the Council a larger share in the responsibilities devolving on the principal officers of the Secretariat." The post carries with it a salary of 60,000 francs plus an allowance of 25,000 francs. The sub-committee also proposed certain economies in salaries and allowances, and modifications in organization which will make for economy. Its report, Document A. 68, was accepted by the Assembly on the 17th October (see also Documents A. 20 and A. 21). COMMITTEE No. 5. Prison-administration . Certain penal and penitentiary questions were mentioned in my report on the Twelfth Assembly. Their introduction into that Assembly was the subject of vigorous protest by the British delegate, based on the fact that they had not been inscribed on the agenda. The documents before the Fifth Committee were A. 6 (pages 85-87) and A. 6 (a) (page 48). As a result of the resolution of last year's Assembly, the International Penal and Prison Commission is examining the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The Secretary-General has, under the instructions of that Assembly, co-operated with organizations dealing with the international aspect of penal and penitentiary problems. On the unification of penal law and the establishment of co-operation of States in the prevention and suppression of crime, subjects which were before the Fifth Committee in 193], there was a divergence of opinion in the committee this year as to whether they should be thoroughly discussed. Ultimately a compromise was agreed upon in the shape of a direction to the SecretaryGeneral to communicate the relevant documents to States' members of the League, and generally to keep those States informed of the position. The committee's report to the Assembly (Document A. 58) was approved on 11th October. (See also Document A. V/ 4 and D. 16/1932.) Opium-control. There are a large number of documents bearing on this subject, including A. 6 (pages 87-96), A. 6 (a), (pages 46 and 47), A. 35 (report on the work of the Central Opium Board), A. V/l, A. V/2 (which concern the 1931 Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs), and C. 70, M. 36 and C. 577, M. 284, which have reference to the suppression of opium-smoking. The Rapporteur stated that there had been a marked decrease in the manufacture and export of narcotic drugs, although the illicit traffic is still considerable. But the Italian representative did not quite agree with the picture which was presented, and he questioned the completeness of the statistics. The Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs has not yet entered into operation as it lacks the necessary number of ratifications. The Commission of Control proposed to suppress the credits for the supervisory body provided for in this convention believing, no doubt, that it could not enter into force before 1934. The Italian representative of the Fifth Committee tabled a motion for the reinsertion of the credit in the Budget for 1933. After hearing from delegates particulars of the attitude of their countries towards ratification, the committee decided to endorse the Italian proposal. The matter eventually came before the Fourth Committee, which restored the credit on information received to the effect that ratifications expected shortly would be sufficient in number to bring the convention into operation in 1933. Amongst papers bearing on the subject will be found the text of the agreement drawn up by the Conference for the Suppression of Opium Smoking, which was held in Bangkok late in 1931 (Document C. 70, M. 36). There has been some criticism on the attitude of certain Governments having

7