2

beginning, some having been present at the first meeting of the Assembly in 1920. Of these perhaps the outstanding figure was Lord Cecil, who had played a prominent part in the framing of the Covenant. 7. Early in the proceedings the Secretary-General received from the Austrian Government a letter requesting that Austria be admitted to participation in the work of the Assembly on the grounds that, in the opinion of that Government, Austria had not ceased to be a member of the League. On the recommendation of the General Committee, the Assembly agreed to admit the Austrian delegation as observers. 8. The early meetings of the Assembly were devoted to a debate on the report of the Acting Secretary-General in which most of the States represented took part, the speeches for the most part being valedictory. The failure of the League in its primary function of preventing war was freely admitted, and the hope was many times expressed that the United Nations, having been endowed with the " teeth" which the League had lacked, and having brought within its membership powers such as the United States, which had always been outside the League, would be better suited to the task. The speeches which commanded the greatest attention were, perhaps, those of Lord Cecil, on behalf of the United Kingdom, and M. Paul-Boncour, on behalf of France. 9. It was natural that the Assembly • should be specially interested in the future of the mandated territories. There was general satisfaction that, during the course of the debate, the representatives of all the mandatory powers (excepting Japan, no longer a member of the League) made statements on this question, stressing the intention of their respective Governments to continue to administer the territories in accordance with their obligations under the mandate for the well-being and development of the inhabitants during the period between the dissolution of the League and the coming into force of other arrangements to be agreed between the United Nations and the respective Governments. The text of a declaration made on behalf of New Zealand in respect of Western Samoa is attached as Appendix A. 10. The disposal of the many technical and administrative matters associated with the dissolution of the League was greatly facilitated by the consideration which had been given to them by the Preparatory Commission and the General Assembly of the United Nations earlier in the year. Extensive negotiations which had taken place between the Supervisory Commission of the League and a small Committee appointed by the United Nations had resulted in the formulation of a