Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

dates and securing the benefits of certain of their provisions for the United States and its nationals, "notwithstanding the fact that the United States is not a member of the League." Such a treaty was made with Japan with reference to the mandate for the former German Islands in the Pacific Ocean north of the equator, particularly the island of Yap, on February 11, 1922. This treaty requires Japan to send to the United States duplicates of its reports to the Council of the League of Nations. Two similar treaties were signed with France, on February 13, 1923, relating to the mandates for Togoland and the Cameroons. A similar treaty also was signed with Belgium on April 18, 1923, with an amendatory protocol signed January 21, 1924, relating to the mandate for Ruanda-Urundi. The Senate consented to the ratification of these French and Belgian treaties on March 3, 1924. A similar treaty was signed with France, on April 4, 1924, relating to the mandate for Syria and Lebanon. The United States thus becomes, in a sense, a party to the whole mandate system, in spite of not being a party to Article 22 of the Covenant, but without any share in its administration.

The Permanent Mandates Commission of the League was organized in 1921. Mr. W. Cameron Forbes, of Boston, formerly Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, was invited to become a member but declined.

36. Expenses of the League and the International Court. No part of the expense of the League of Nations or of the International Labor Organization or of the Permanent Court of International Justice has been paid by the United States. Although the United States took a leading rôle in the efforts to establish an international Court during the administrations of Presidents McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson, we have borne no share of the expense of establishing the new Permanent Court of International Justice. Judge John Bassett Moore's salary as a judge is paid by fifty-four other peoples of the world-no part of it comes from America. In only one instance has the United States paid any money to the League. On September 28, 1923, the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands transmitted to the Secretary-General 350 Swiss francs, paid by the United States as a part payment for the services of interpreters and stenographers lent by the Secretariat to the Commission of Jurists

for the Revision of the Laws of War which had met at The Hague in pursuance of the decision taken at the Washington Conference in 1922.

37. Publications of the League, the International Court and the International Labor Office, The World Peace Foundation, 40 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston, Mass., acts as American agent in handling all publications of the League of Nations, the Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Labor Office. In 1923 and 1924 the American Society of International Law spent $7,000 in purchasing 500 subscriptions to the League of Nations Treaty Series, for distribution among needy libraries.

This record leaves one wondering as to the extent to which America is really out of the League, whether indeed it is possible for any important country to live in the world and be wholly out of the efforts of fifty-four peoples to organize for peace. For like the United States, Germany and Russia and Turkey have all been coöperating in some degree. Only Mexico and Ecuador remain wholly aloof.

The American coöperation has not been the work of individuals, altogether. The Government has contributed, in increasing measure. For a time, in 1921, the Department of State did not reply to any communications from Geneva. Then it suddenly reversed this policy in August of that year and wrote fourteen letters to the League on a single day. For a period, however, it was unwilling to do more than be polite; during this period it took the position, described above, with reference to the Opium work and the Health work of the League. Gradually, however, it has relented to the pressure of the facts. In the last seven months, the United States Government has been officially represented at five international conferences held in Geneva by the League of Nations. These are: (1) Conference on Obscene Publications; (2) Consultation on Opium Traffic; (3) Conference on Customs Formalities; (4) Conference on Transit and Communications; and (5) Consultation on a new Arms Traffic Convention. The façade of representation in an "unofficial and consultative capacity" does not hide the reality of such action. The United States is not in the League, but it is necessarily of it. The Government has not become a member, but scores of Americans have joined.

But the inadequacy of such collaboration is apparent. In certain large crises, such as the Corfu crisis, the voice of America has not been heard at all. When our representatives do speak, their words do not carry full weight. They appear as onlookers rather than participants. They sit apart and they are usually men of inferior official rank.

It would be a simple thing for the United States to avow an open, frank, and firm policy of effective coöperation. President Coolidge's declaration concerning the League on December 6, 1923, "We hope it will be helpful," represents a big advance over the declarations, made at times by men in high places, that "the League is dead." If we can't at once seek membership for America on reservations consistent with our national fears and fads, we can at least come out from our hiding and avow what we are already doing. Attempts at isolation have failed. The President's statement about the League should be revised to read: "We shall do our best to make it helpful.”

[blocks in formation]

before a subcommittee of

The Committee on Foreign Relations,
Sixty-eighth Congress, first session.

Extracts from testimony of

BISHOP CHARLES H. BRENT
PRESIDENT A. LAWRENCE LOWELL
HON. GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM

and others

Published by

WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION

40 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston

Price, 5 cents per copy

[merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

The corporation is constituted for the purpose of educating the people of all nations to a full knowledge of the waste and destructiveness of war, its evil effects on present social conditions and on the well-being of future generations, and to promote international justice and the brotherhood of man; and, generally, by every practical means to promote peace and good will among all mankind.-By-laws of the Corporation.

It is to this patient and thorough work of education, through the school, the college, the church, the press, the pamphlet and the book, that the World Peace Foundation addresses itself.-Edwin Ginn.

The idea of force can not at once be eradicated. It is useless to believe that the nations can be persuaded to disband their present armies and dismantle their present navies, trusting in each other or in the Hague Tribunal to settle any possible differences between them, unless, first, some substitute for the existing forces is provided and demonstrated by experience to be adequate to protect the rights, dignity and territory of the respective nations. My own belief is that the idea which underlies the movement for the Hague Court can be developed so that the nations can be persuaded each to contribute a small percentage of their military forces at sea and on land to form an International Guard or Police Force.Edwin Ginn.

*Incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts, July 12, 1910, as the International School of Peace. Name changed to World Peace Foundation, December 22, 1910.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Published Bimonthly by

WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION

40 MT. VERNON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.

The subscription price is 25c. per year in advance.

Prices in quantities on application.

General Secretary, Edward Cummings.

Corresponding Secretary, and Librarian, Denys P. Myers.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »