A.—s.

I now turn to the Fifth Committee's report on Child Welfare (Document A. 54). In my report on last year's Assembly I made some remarks under the heading "Protection of Children" on the tendency of League organs to venture into fields which might be considered national rather than international. The position needs watching. In various directions economies have been effected this year, but efforts must be maintained and not relaxed. The Child Welfare Committee of the League has continued its examination of various questions affecting blind children, illegitimacy, and the effects of the economic crisis and of unemployment on the young. Particulars are contained in Document C. 247, M. 129, and in the Fifth Committee's report to the Assembly, which passed the three resolutions with which it concludes on the 11th October. Opium. Your attention is invited to the following documents : Report to the Council on the Work of the Sixteenth Session of the Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and Dangerous Drugs (C. 385, M. 193), the Minutes of the Session (C. 480, M. 244), the Report of the Permanent Central Opium Board (C. 495, M. 250), and the Fifth Committee's report to the Assembly (A. 55) —an excellent piece of work. I think the League is to be congratulated on the results obtained. Progress has been steady, the responsible organs of the League have profited from the experience gained, Governments on the whole have been exceptionally helpful, and, finally, the Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs has at length come into force. Thus has been forged a weapon which will be of considerable use in the combat against the drug trafficker and the drug habitue. The Assembly considered the Fifth Committee's report on the 11th October, and passed the resolution with which it concludes. There is one aspect of this question of opium on which I will briefly touch-—its administration. As you are aware, there are two sections of the Secretariat dealing with the suppression of the opium traffic. One may be forgiven for expressing doubt whether it was of vital necessity to create the second. When the Permanent Central Opium Board was set up it was thought advisable to do so, and there I will leave the matter. But I fear there may be overlapping, with its corollary of wasteful expenditure, and although I have not felt it possible, in the absence of definite proof, to raise the question, I feel that the situation needs watching. Perhaps the process of rationalization which the Secretariat is undergoing will leave its mark on these two sections, but I fear influences are too strong at the present time to effect that amalgamation of sections which, with good will, I think could be arranged. COMMITTEE No. 6. Collaboration op the Press and the Organization op Peace. This question, involving the application of methods of preventing the spread of false information which may threaten the peace of the world, occupied the attention of the Assembly last year, and this year it was referred to the Sixth Committee. It need not detain us for more than a moment, as the Spanish Government has convened a Conference of Press Representatives which is to open in Madrid on the 7th November, when no doubt the subject will be discussed in all its bearings. The Sixth Committee's report is Document A. 36, and it came before the Assembly on the 9th October, when a resolution noting that the Conference was to be held, and expressing the hope that it would be successful, was passed. Mandates. The discussion this year on mandates was mostly concerned with points which have little or no interest to New Zealand, viewed from the angle of the administration of Western Samoa, although they are of general interest. Mr. Lange, the Norwegian delegate, opened the debate. He touched on the British proposal for the political and constitutional union of certain territories in Africa, a proposal which had been abandoned for one of administrative co-operation and co-ordination ; and he also referred to the principle of economic equality guaranteed under the A and B mandates, and to the administration of Palestine, amongst other matters. The representative of the United Kingdom, Mr. Ormsby Gore, who was once a member of the Permanent Mandates Commission, made an able reply, in which he justified the steps taken for closer administrative co-operation in Africa, but the latter part of his speech was of more importance, viewed in the light of the motion introduced by the Dutch delegation regarding Jewish refugees from Germany, a motion which had been referred to the Second Committee. Mr. Ormsby Gore stated that Jewish immigration into Palestine had increased substantially within recent years : indeed, during the first, half of the present year more than 15,000 Jewish immigrants had entered Palestine, almost three times as many as the number which had entered in the first half of 1932. He stated, in reference to Jewish refugees from Germany, that the quota having been fixed by the High Commissioner of Palestine it was for the Jewish Agency to deal with the numerical distribution of the immigrants from the various countries of origin, and that the Mandatory Power could not stop immigration from countries other than Germany. The rest of the discussion largely dealt with Palestine, but there is no need to summarize it. Western Samoa not having been mentioned, I decided to remain silent, especially as the last annual report on the administration of the territory was due to be examined by the Permanent Mandates Commission about the end of October. The Sixth Committee's report to the Assembly is Document A. 45, and the draft resolution with which it concludes was passed at the Assembly's meeting on the 7th October.

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