A.—sd.

foreign exchange with which to pay interest on her foreign debts, but she had undertaken to pay the interest accruing to bond-holders in pengoes into a blocked account. Whilst I believe it has not been possible to remit abroad anything on account of arrears, nevertheless arrangements have been made in regard to most of the foreign debts whereby during the next three years interest at a greatly reduced figure shall be regularly remitted abroad. In view of this arrangement, and of the improved situation in Hungary's financial and economic position, the Financial Committee of the League suggested a modification in the system of League control which was set up in 1931, such modification to include the withdrawal from Budapest of the League's representatives. The representative of the Hungarian Government was called to the Council's table. After taking into consideration the Rapporteur's report, Document C. 10, 1938, lla, and listening to a statement from the Hungarian representative and to short speeches by some members of the Council, the Council passed the following resolution : — " The Council — " Taking note of the Supplementary Report of the Financial Committee on Hungary, and of the declarations made by the representative of the Hungarian Government, " Warmly congratulates the Hungarian Government on the courageous efforts by which it has been able successfully to meet the financial and economic difficulties of recent years, and " Decides, in agreement with the Hungarian Government, to terminate as from March 31st next the office of Mr. Tyler at Budapest, and pays tribute to the exceptional merits of Mr. Tyler's services in the office held by him since October, 1931." (Document C.lO (a), 1938, IIa.) It is in work of this kind that the League has been so successful. Mention of it is rarely made in the press, and consequently when the League is periodically subjected to criticism its solid successes in social and other fields are forgotten. (2) Appointment of a Judge and a Deputy Judge to the Administrative Tribunal.—Appointment to the Tribunal is made by the Council under a system of rotation. A vacancy had recently occurred owing to the resignation of a Judge who had not served for the full term of office, and the Rapporteur, the representative of China, proposed that the seat be filled by the appointment of Jonkheer van Ryckevorsel, of the Netherlands, who had been a Deputy Judge of the Administrative Tribunal since 1927. This was agreed to by the Council, which also approved the Rapporteur's suggestion (see Document C. 27, 1938) that the seat of Deputy Judge vacated by Jonkheer van Ryckevorsel should be filled by the appointment of M. Georges Scelle, of Paris. It should be noted that both appointments are not for the full term of three years, but for the unexpired period of office of the former occupants. The Tribunal has also lost a member by death, but no action was taken by the Council at this session to fill the vacant seat. I should remark that the Administrative Tribunal was established under Resolution of the Assembly of 1927, and it deals with staff matters. (3) Traffic in Women and Children : Eastern Bureau; Study Mission.—Reference to my report on the last Assembly will disclose that the Fifth Committee, whilst of opinion that a Bureau should be set up in the East in connection with control of the traffic in women and children, was not prepared to make a definite recommendation without further information. On its recommendation the Assembly requested the Council to appoint an expert officer to discuss the matter as soon as possible on the spot with the competent authorities of the Governments interested. A thorough investigation would require considerable travel on the part of the investigator and places so far apart as Batavia and Tokio would have to be visited, amongst others. Events in the Far East have led to abnormal conditions, and it would be impossible for an investigator at this time to undertake his work with satisfaction to himself or to the League. The Council therefore agreed to the Rapporteur's suggestion (Document C. 46, 1938, IV) that consideration of the appointment should be postponed. The Council met for the first time in public on the evening of the 27th January. In his opening remarks the President, the representative of Iran, referred to the fact that he was inaugurating the one-hundredth session. Concluding his brief speech, he said : "In this modern world where the acts of one State may react upon the well-being of other members of the world community with a rapidity undreamt of by even the immediately preceding generation, a League is a vital necessity." Much had.happened since the last session of the Council held in October, 1937. The Brussels Conference on the, Sino-Japanese conflict had met and adjourned without reaching any decision of importance. Italy, which had taken no active part in the work of the League since the imposition of sanctions, had given notice of her withdrawal. There had been reports in the press of the efforts made by States no longer members, or at any rate active members of the League, to induce neighbours to quit the organization. The Jewish question, already troublesome and intricate in relation to Palestine, was growing more acute, and Jewish organizations had become active in consequence of the threat to the Jews living in Roumania. Now the Jews living in parts of Roumania which were formerly within the AustroHungarian Empire have the status of a minority in the eyes of the League, and a petition had already been presented to the League on their behalf by the Executive Committee of the World Jewish Congress. As this petition was not inscribed on the agenda of the session, I will do no more than give it passing reference, but its intrusion in Geneva was sufficient to occupy the time of many of the statesmen assembled there, particularly the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Roumania. r The speeches which followed that of the President occupy no less than sixty typed foolscap pages,' Their tendency perhaps can best be indicated by a brief summary of the speech delivered by the representative of the United Kingdom, but they are worth studying as a whole, for many of them were delivered by men who are outstanding in League circles and at a time when the League was passing through the greatest crisis it has ever had to face, and when pessimism was rife.

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