A.—s.

The pre-occupation of the Second Committee with the desirability of reducing currency fluctuations and trade-barriers meant that little attention was given to other and more positive means of solving economic problems. Some time was, however, devoted, at the instance of the United Kingdom delegation, to the problem of access to raw materials. The following resolution was suggested bv the Committee and adopted by the Assembly :— " The Assembly— Considering that the time has now arrived when discussion of and inquiry into the question of equal commercial access for all nations to certain raw materials might usefullv be undertaken with the collaboration of the principal States, whether Members or nonMembers of the League, having a special interest in the matter ; Decides to request the Council, when it thinks fit, to appoint a Committee composed in suitable proportions of members of the Economic and Financial Committees of the League of Nations, together with other qualified persons, irrespective of nationality, to undertake the study of this question and report thereupon ; " Recognizes that the choice of the raw materials to be considered should be at the discretion of the body thus appointed ; " Believes that the participation in the work of the Committee of nationals of the nonMember as well as Member States specially interested would be desirable ; Suggests that the Council should give attention to this consideration in reaching its decision : And instructs the Secretary-General to communicate the present resolution to the Governments of non-Member States." . Tlle Polish delegation, initiated discussion on migration, with reference particularly to the emigration of agricultural settlers and to the difficulties experienced by emigration countries in exporting capital for their settlement; and this subject was placed on the agenda for the League's ordinary session in 1937. In this part of my report 1 have not disguised a certain sense of disappointment with the limited achievement, or even efforts, to be recorded of the 1936 Assembly. The challenging fact which Governments can ignore only at the cost of rightly forfeiting the confidence of the people they serve is that faulty, man-made organization is frustrating the abundant progress and material security that are withm the grasp of our generation. The continued destruction of foodstuffs is noted even in the reports on nutrition, above mentioned. Needless privation, under-nourishment, and ill-health are the other side of the picture. And do not these, with their call to constructive, collective action, justify some impatience at the mainly negative aspirations displayed at Geneva in 1936 ? Even if Governments succeed in removing their recently constructed trade-barriers and in restoring the former stability m currencies, they will have poor warrant for hoping that the grave economic difficulties that resulted from the former conditions will not recur. To contend otherwise is surely to hold that like conditions will not produce like results. Hence the emphasis I have put on the urgent need of more positive economic action, both within and between countries, than seemed to be envisaged in the League of Nations proceedings in 1936. COMMITTEE No. 3 : REDUCTION AND LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS. Delegate : Mr. W. J. Jordan. Substitute : Mr. C. A. Berendsen. The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, which was convened by the Council of the League of Nations, first met in February, 1932, and since that date the Third Committee 0 the Assembly, to which had in the past been allotted the task of considering this subject had not been constituted. After a period of great activity the progress of the Disarmament Conference gradually slackened, especially from 1935 onwards, and the last work carried out by any of its organs dates back to the spring of 1935. From that time the Conference has suspended its work, though various organs of the Conference—the General Commission, the Bureau, the Committees, and Sub-(-ommittees are available to resume their duties as soon as the situation warrants it. The armaments race which followed this unproductive work of the Disarmament Conference and which weighed heavily on the economic life of many countries, Members of the League and nonMembers alike, has again made the reduction and limitation of armaments a problem of great urgency and there was a general feeling that efforts must be stimulated to put an end to this race towards grave and unknown dangers. The matter was first raised by the French delegation, which both in July and in September made known to the Assembly the desire of the French Government to see the resumption of the work of disarmament, and at an early stage of the Assembly the delegations of Denmark, h inland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden suggested the reconstitution of the Third Committee a course which was unanimously approved by the Assembly. The Third Committee was supplied with a voluminous and most informative resume of the work 01 the Disarmament Conference prepared by the late Mr. Arthur Henderson, who was, of course the 1 resident of that Conference, and the Committee with some emotion signified their appreciation of the value of Mr. Arthur Henderson's work and their sense of loss at his demise.

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