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Refugees. The question of refugees has been dealt with in reports on previous Assemblies, and occasionally at some length. You are familiar with the arrangement which was made by the Eleventh Assembly when the office known as the Nansen International Office for Refugees was created and entrusted with the political and legal protection of refugees, work which it is hoped will be completed by 1939. The paper before the Sixth Committee is numbered A. 24, and the Director of the Office, M. Huber, gave an account of the work to the committee. Undoubtedly the world economic.and financial crisis has seriously retarded the work of settlement, but a good deal has been accomplished and,the office seems to have justified its existence. The League made itself responsible for refugees in its early years, and at a time when, perhaps, it could be dealt with only internationally. Lord Cecil acted as Rapporteur on the question, and his report (Document A. 51) was approved by the Assembly at its meeting on 10th October. Slavery. This item was sent to a sub-committee without prior discussion in the full committee. The sub - committee's report (Document A. VI/9) endorses a proposal contained in the report of the Committee of Experts (Document A. 34) to constitute a permanent Slavery Commission, which would be an advisory body for the purpose of studying information and reporting to the Council. The proposal met with the full support of the Sixth Committee, which drafted a resolution for submission to the Assembly. But the constitution of a permanent Commission involved expense, and the opinion of the Fourth Committee had to be sought. On the Fourth Committee the necessary two-thirds majority for inscribing the credit in the Budget was not forthcoming, and the request was refused. Of course, the decision of the Fourth Committee had to be accepted by the Fifth Committee, and the latter decided to recommend the Assembly to set up a committee of experts and to request the SecretaryGeneral to include the necessary credits in his estimates for 1934 (see Document A. 57, which was approved by the Assembly on the 12th October, and Document A. 13). Co-operation of Women in the Work of the League. This question was remitted to the Sixth Committee. It was raised last year by means of a motion moved by the Spanish delegation, and the Twelfth Assembly passed a resolution requesting the Council to examine the possibility of women co-operating more fully in the work of the League. By decision of the Council study of the question was divided into two parts —co-operation with the Disarmament Conference, and general collaboration in the work of the League —and it is the second of these two parts that was first considered by the Sixth Committee, with the aid of the report of the Secretary-General (Document A. 10), which contains a number of proposals made by women's organizations. Many speakers in committee supported a proposal that women should be afforded greater opportunities to collaborate in the work of the League, and various points made during the debate are reflected in the Rapporteur's report (Document A. 49), which received the approval of the Assembly on the 10th October. Minorities. The debate this year on " Minorities," a question in which New Zealand has no direct interest, was in no respect inferior to its predecessors. It was initiated by the representative of Germany, who made suggestions for improvement of procedure in the examination of petitions and in the protection of minorities, and he was followed by other delegates, who, if they did not support him in every respect, were at least critical of the arrangements now in force. Journal No. 11, pages 204-207 and 222-225, gives an account of the debate in committee, whilst the Rapporteur's report (Document A. 60) embodies the various suggestions made in the course of the debate. This report received the approval of the Assembly on the 11th October. Intellectual Co-operation. For an account of the work on intellectual co-operation reviewed by the Sixth Committee I refer you to the Rapporteur's report (Document A. 54). In the course of the debate the French representative introduced a motion inviting the international organization for intellectual co-operation to secure the opinion of representatives of the press on the methods which could be applied to develop, through the press, a better understanding among peoples. Eventually this motion was accepted in the following terms : — " Requests a study, taking the advice of the National Committees on Intellectual Co-operation, and of representative journalists, as to the methods by which the press might contribute to the better understanding between peoples by perfecting their knowledge. " The conclusions of this study will be submitted to the Fourteenth Assembly." The report mentioned above received the approval of the Assembly on 10th October. (See also Documents A. 11, A. 19, A. VI/1, and A. VI/2.) The Work of the Commission of Inquiry for a European Union. Very little need be written about this item. Some particulars will be found on page 14 of Document A. 6 and in Document A. 16. The work has been taken over by the League, and although the Budget is increased thereby it is certainly better that the inquiry should be conducted within the League than that it should have been entrusted to an independent body.

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