The United Nations Dumbarton Oaks Proposals for a General International Organization
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UN Secretariat Item Scan - Barcode - Record Title Page 3 Date 06/07/2006 Time 11:09:11 AM S-0981 -0002-03-0000 1 Expanded Number S-0981 -0002-03-00001 Title Items-i n-General files - miscellaneous background info on unofficial publications Date Created 01/10/1943 Record Type Archival Item Container S-0981 -0002: United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) subject files Print Name of Person Submit Image Signature of Person Submit I I I ESSENTIAL FACTS In regard to THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, THE WORLD COURT and the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION Education Committee THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS October, $1943 ASSOCIATION, Inc. Price, Ten Cents 45 E. 65th St., Now York 21, N. Y. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ASSOCIATION, Inc. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ....... ........ ...... 3 National Headquarters: ............. M em bership . ' ' ...................... 4 ............. 45 East 65th Street New York 21, N. Y. M achinery of the League .. _.............. .. 5 ........... Political Work of the League................ ........ .. .. .. .. 9 Settlem ent of Disputes ......- ...-.. I....... Reduction of Armaments ............ - JOHN H. CLARKE FRANK G. BOUDREAU, M.D. JAMES T. SHOTWELL President The Saar Plebiscite ........... Honorary Presidents M andates .,._........ ........ ...... ...... ........ 20 MRhs. EMMONS BLAINE JOHN W. DAVIS MRS. JAMES LEES LAIDLAW M inorities ..... .. 1 -............ ....... .. .. - 2 1 MICHAEL FRANCIS DOYLE Vice-Presidents The Leagýue's Technical Work .... .... .... .. 22 MANLEY 0. HUDSON HUGH MOORE Economic and Financial Problems.. ........ .. 23 ......... THEODORE MARBURG Chairman, Executive Committee Communications and Transit ......... 1 .....I.. .. .. 2 5 MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CArT FREDERICK C. MCKEE H e a lth ..- I......I. " '. ....-. ... ....... .. .. - 2 6 Honorary Vice-Presidents Treasurer Traffic in Opium......... ..... 28 ...... CLARK M. EicHELBERGER Refugees 29 Director Intellectual Cooperation.... 30 The United States and the League of Nations 30 Analysis of the Record..... 32 The League and the Future ...... ....... EDUCATION COMMITTEE .. 33 THE W ORLD COURT ... __ ................... - ...... ..... 39 MRS. DANA CONVERSE BACKUS, Chairman H isto ry ....... .. ... _... ........ .... ........ ........139 HARRY J. CARMAN WILLIAM A. HAMM Jurisdiction .... 39 MRS. HARVET DAVIS ERRING HUNT N. Optional Clause ............ 40 STEPHEN P. DUGGAN WALTER KOTICHNIG The United States and the Court .... .40 CLYDE EAGLETON QUINCY WRIGHT The Future of the Court...._--I.. ...I....... ............. .. 2 TH-E INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION........ 42 Its Purpose...... MRS. HARRISON THOMAS 43 .................... Secretary, Education Committee Organization and W ork ......44 The International Labor Office .. _ . 45 The I.L.O. in War-time ..... ........... 46 ....... LOOKING AHEAD 46 AIDS TO STUDY.. .. 47 181ia ESSENTIAL FACTS In regard to THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, THE WORLD COURT and the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION A N AMERICAN LEGION parade is marching down Fifth Avenue be- Z~k neath our windows as these words are written. These are the men who twenty-five years ago won (so we thought) the first World E SSENTIALunder the titleFACTS, Manual which for Teachersr, appeared wasfirst prepared in November to meet I92Z5the War. They had been promised it was a "war to end war". To carry need for factual information on the new international institutions, felt out that purpose a League of Nations was set up. Yet the parade is led by teachers of the social sciences in the New York City high schools. by a detachment of young men about to fight in a second World War, The pamphlet has from time to time been brought up to date and re- which has already cost millions of lives and billions of dollars, and will published. In igz6 it was given the title Essential Facts in regard to cost far more before it ends. the League of Nations, the World Court and the International Labor How could it happen? Where were the mistakes? What did the Organization, under which title it appeared in ten subsequent editions. League of Nations accomplish? Where was it right? What does the In 1940 the subject matter was broadened to deal briefly with other League still offer with which we can build anew? These questions must plans for international organization and to discuss the principles which be answered for we cannot afford to fail again. With the modern de- should underlie it. The editions of 1940 and 1941 therefore appeared velopments in the science of war, we cannot even imagine the horrors under the title Essential Facts underlying World Organization. This of a third world conflict. To prevent that final disaster let us take stock current edition confines itself again to the League of Nations, the of our experience of the last twenty-five years so that we may be sure World Court and the International Labor Organization and seeks to this time to build a world order that will endure. make clear the contribution which those organizations can make to the problems growing out of this war. We therefore go back to the THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS title which indicates that fact. Even before 1918 statesmen in different countries began to lay plans While written particularly to supplement the history textbook in the for an organization by which war might be prevented and through schools, Essential Factsr has also found a wide usefulness among other which nations might work together to settle their common problems. groups which need the concise sort of information it supplies. When President Wilson's Fourteen Points were accepted as the basis of an armistice with Germany, the last point suggested the formation The Education Committee is indebted to a Workshop composed of of "a general association of nations . .. under specific covenants three New York City high school teachers of the social sciences, in- for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and cluding Isabel Boyle of Erasmus Hall High School, Paul Balser of territorial integrity to great and small states alike." At the Paris Peace Christopher Columbus High School and Charles Smukier of Forest Conference Wilson became chairman of a commission which drafted Hills High School, for the assistance they gave in the summer of 1943 the League Covenant' and it was because of his firm insistence that the in the revision of the pamphlet. The final preparation of the manuscript Covenant was incorporated as Part I of the peace treaties. As the peace was done by the committee's secretary, Mrs. Harrison Thomas. conference dragged on and the delegates became daily more weary and disillusioned, Wilson was forced back point by point from some of the positions he had taken, but this one objective of a society of nations he would not give up. Doubtless he hoped that if the League could only be established, any mistakes made at the Peace Conference could later be set right through its machinery. x. The full text of the League Covenant may be secured from the League of Nations Association. The purposes for which the League was created are stated in the Canada Iran (Persia) Switzerland preamble to the Covenant: China Iraq *Thailand (Siam) Colombia Ireland Turkey "The High Contracting Parties, Cuba *Latvia United Kingdom In order to promote international cooperation and to achieve inter- *Czechoslovakia Liberia (Great Britain) national peace and security *Deinmark *Lithuania Uruguay by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, Dominican Republic *Luxemnburg *Yugoslavia Ecuador Mexico by the prescription of open, just and honorable relations between Egypt *Netherlands nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law The situation as to the membership of France is interesting. After as the actual rule of conduct among governments, and her collapse the Vichy government in April 1941 notified the League that France would withdraw. Two years are required for withdrawal by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty to take effect. Just before the end of that period in the spring of 1943, obligations in the dealings of organized peoples with one another, both General de Gaulle and General Giraud sent telegrams to Geneva Agree to this Covenant of the League of Nations." notifying the League authorities that the notice of withdrawal made Let us see what this Covenant created and what was accomplished under German pressure could not be legal and that "France continues between World Wars I and 11. to be a member of the League." The puppet government of Albania also sent in notice of withdrawal under Axis pressure, but the notice 1. MEMBERSHIP was not considered valid by League authorities. The 29 Allied and Associated Powers who signed the peace treaties In our study of the League we shall first consider how it was orig- were to be "original members" of the League of Nations. The 13 neu- inally organized and some of the principal events in its history. We tral states were also invited to join. Other self-governing states might shall examine this record in order to see what mistakes helped to con- be admitted later by a two-thirds vote of the Assembly. There have tribute to the tragic situation of the world today. Lastly we shall sum been at one time or another 63 member states, the United States and up just where the League stands today and what contributions it can Saudi Arabia being the only independent nations which have never make to a future world order. joined. From the 30's on, when the trend toward the current war began to set in and the League was losing prestige, 16 states withdrew at vari- 2. MACHINERY OF THE LEAGUE ous times and for various reasons. Some of these withdrawals will be The machinery of the League of Nations consists of three main noted later. The Soviet Union was expelled from the League at a special parts-the Assembly, the Council and the Secretariat. It is important session in December x93 because of her attack upon Finland. Austria to know just what each one of these bodies did, when the League was was of course lost to the League when taken over by Germany.