A. —sb.

Secretariat Appointments, Promotions, and Resignations since the Last Session op the Council. Several appointments were agreed to (Document C. 215 (1), 1937), and later at the public session the following members made their declaration of loyalty : — M. Y. Sokoline, Under-Secretary-General. Mr. S. Lester, Under-Secretary-General. Mr. P. H. Watier, Director of the Communications and Transit Section. The declaration is required in the case of officials' of the rank of Director and over before the Council in public session. Appointments. The only appointments dealt with were those to the Fiscal Committee, for which the representative of Sweden was the Rapporteur (Document C. 244, 1937, IIa). The Council at its ninety-sixth session had provided that the composition of this Committee for the years-1937 to 1939 be on the basis of the Rapporteur's recommendations. The composition of the committee was therefore completed by the appointment of the corresponding members mentioned in the document referred to above. Question of Alexandretta and Antioch. The Report of the Committee of Experts, which met at Geneva from 22nd April to 15th May, was presented by the representative of Sweden (Documents C. 233, 1937, and C. 264, 1937). The committee had submitted to the Council a draft Statute and a draft Bundamental Law for the Sanjak, together with certain comments and several recommendations. A copy of the verbal statement made by the Rapporteur will be found in the minutes of the second meeting. The representative of Turkey said that as the Rapporteur had not asked for an expression of views at the private meeting he would not make any comment. The whole subject came before the public meeting and comment will be found on pages 25-27 of this report. The Council later went into public session, the Honourable IT. T. Armstrong representing JNew Before entering on the work of the day's proceedings the President, M. Quevedo, paid tribute to the memory of Sir Austen Chamberlain, who died on 16th March., 1937. The President referred to the part played by Sir Austen during his term as Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom and as representative of his country on the Council from 1924 to 1929. His name would always be associated, first and foremost, with the Locarno Pact of October, 1925, for the conclusion of which Sir Austen was largely responsible, and with the political appeasement —the fruit of an intimate collaboration at Geneva between M. Briand, M. Stresemann, and himself—that followed. The historic example of the personal collaboration of these three great statesmen had ever since been an inspiration to the members of the Council, and never more so than at the present time. M. Delbos, on behalf of the French Government, associated himself with the remarks made by the President. He referred to the part played by Sir Austen at Geneva from the beginning, and said that it was the duty of every one to-day to maintain the spirit that Sir Austen had left behind. Mr. Eden, on behalf of the Government and people of the United Kingdom, expressed his thanks to the President and the representative of France and the members of the Council for the tribute that had been paid to the memory of Sir Austen Chamberlain, and said that he would transmit to Sir Austen's family the message of condolence. Mr. Eden said that Sir Austen had always been a firm believer in the League and that his conviction arose not from a fervent idealistic faith in the conception of a League of Nations, but from practical experience of the working of that organization. Mr. Eden, in conclusion, said that at this time, " when we are each of us conscious of the acute difficulties of the present international situation, we can, I am convinced, pay no sincerer tribute to Sir Austen's memory than to determine to strive, as he did, for the promotion of international collaboration through the machinery of the League and in the spirit of its Covenant." Advisory Committee op Experts on Slavery. Report on the work of its fourth session, sth to 10th April, 1937 (Document C. 188, 1937, VI). The representative of the United Kingdom, as Rapporteur for this subject, presented his report (Document C. 238, 1937, VI), in which reference was made to the fact that the question of the scope of the committee's powers had been left open last year and that the committee had now unanimously decided not to pursue the study of this matter. ' The suggestion was made by the committee that the Council should authorize the holding of an extraordinary session in 1938. It was thus recommended that the Council accede to this request and that the Secretary-General be asked to propose to the Assembly that financial provision should be made accordingly. It is satisfactory to note that China has recently ratified the Slavery Convention of 1926, and that the Government of India has withdrawn the reservations to the Convention in respect of all areas in Burma and almost entirely in respect of the areas in Assam. Mr. Wellington Koo (China) endorsed the terms of the report and, referring to Chapter 4 (see page 15), said that the Mui Tsai system had been the subject of a comprehensive investigation by a United Kingdom Committee of Inquiry, the conclusions of which had been summarized by the United Kingdom representative at the last session of the Advisory Committee on Social Questions. As thenreport was to come before the Council during the session he felt that when a study of the document referred to had been made by the Advisory Committee on Slavery it would find in it a valuable contribution to the full understanding of the real character of the Mui Tsai system. No further observations were made on the report, which was then adopted by the Council.

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