THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT OF 1918-21

3      The League of Nations

  A   Aims

          The basic purpose of the League of Nations was to prevent war and the aggression of one nation against another which had always been the prelude to war.  Under Article 10 of the Covenant or Agreement of the League of Nations, 'The Members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and exist¬ing political independence of all Members of the League.' This pledge was further developed under Articles 16 and 17, by which members undertook to enforce joint action against any member resorting to war in disregard of its obligations under the Covenant.  Such joint action came to mean the use of `sanctions', either economic pressure or military action against the aggressor nation.   

  B   The Machinery of the League

      i   The organization of the League was based on an Assembly, a Council, a Secretary-General and a permanent administrative body called the Secretariat.  All member states belonged to the Assembly and each state had equal representation and the same voting power.  For any important decision complete unanimity was required. 

     ii   The Council consisted of four permanent members, Britain, France, Italy and Japan and of four temporary members, in-creased to six in 1922 and to nine in 1926.  The temporary mem-bers were chosen by the Assembly.  Each member had one vote.  The Council heard and considered disputes and had to report and give advice to the Assembly as to what action should be taken.  The overall machinery though suitable for debate and discussion was unsuited to prompt and effective action since even the smallest state had the power of simple veto over the collective voice of the League. 

    iii   Membership of the League was world-wide.  It included Latin-American states, representatives from the Far East, Japan and China, the former neutral states, Spain, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, as well as the major European nations, though it never included at one time all the chief nations of Europe.  Germany joined in 1926, but withdrew before Russia joined in 1934.  The U.S.A.  was never a member.  Forty-one nations signed the Covenant in 1920 and this number increased to fifty in 1924 and to sixty by 1934. 

  C   The Work of the League

      i   The League was successful in settling disputes either of a minor nature or between the smaller nations.  In 1921, it forced Serbian troops to withdraw from Albania on the threat of im¬posing economic sanctions.  In 1923, it dealt with a quarrel between Italy and Greece after the Italians had bombarded Corfu (see Chapter 20, Section 5A), an act which would nor¬mally have led to war.  In the same year it helped to restore financial solvency to Austria and Hungary and supervised the settlement in Greece of over a million Greek refugees from Asia-Minor and Eastern Thrace.  It dealt with frontier disputes between Greece and Bulgaria, between Albania and Jugo¬Slavia, between Germany and Poland and between Hungary and Czecho-Slovakia. 

    ii   The League provided a useful body of expert people, inter- nationally minded, who ran the High Commissariat of the City of Danzig, kept an eye on the Mandated territories and administered the territories of the Saar.  It set up a number of international committees and organizations which dealt with world problems connected with health, drugs, communications and transport, finance, refugees and conditions of work. 

   iii   The International Labour Organization held its own annual conference and had its permanent secretariat in Geneva.  It represented governments, employers and employees.  It col¬lected and distributed information on working conditions in many countries and endeavoured to persuade individual govern¬ments to pass legislation to bring their conditions of labour up to the best common standard. 

   iv   The Court of International Justice at The Hague, set up in 1921, dealt with legal disputes between nations arising from breach of treaties or from disagreements over points of inter¬national law.  It could, however, neither compel a nation to attend its court nor enforce its verdict

  D   The Strength and Weakness of the League

      i   The League depended on the goodwill and good faith of its members.  It contained all the necessary machinery to keep the peace providing its members would use it.  It even promised flexibility since it had the right to review the treaties included in the settlement of 1918-21, though this power was not called into action.  The statesmen who set up the League based their faith in it on the belief that democratic nations would want peace and would respect and use the League.  Apart from the social and economic services it offered and except in the case of minor disputes between nations, this did not happen. 

      ii   One basic weakness of the League was that it was tied in people's minds to the Versailles settlement and criticism thrown at Versailles fell on the League, which appeared to protect that settlement.  The refusal of the U.S.A.  to join the League and the fact that Britain and France were the only major nations of Europe who remained full members of the League throughout its existence, severely handicapped its efforts. 

    iii   The League of Nations did its best work and increased its prestige during the first ten years which followed the peace.  In the second decade, from 1929 to 1939, it declined rapidly until it became quite ineffective as the guardian of European peace.  The world trade depression which began in 1929 and the rise of the dictators altered the whole atmosphere of Europe and of the world.  National economic policies, national aggression and disregard for international co-operation and international agreements became common features of government policy in Italy, Germany and Japan.  The very existence of the League came to depend on taking effective action against 'aggressor' nations who disregarded its principles and broke its regulations.  The two major democratic nations, Britain and France, were unable to agree on a common and effective policy to uphold the League.  Japan in China, Italy in Abyssinia, Germany in the Rhineland, Austria, Czecho-Slovakia and Poland shattered any respect that the League had won and in the end destroyed the League itself. 

  Questions

 1.      Describe aims and organization of the League of Nations.

 2.      What did the League of Nations achieve, and why did it ultimately fail?