It was at Geneva, during the discussions of the Pact of Mutual Guaranty and the Protocol, that France was able to show that the obligation to arbitrate before entering on a war would not suffice to permit reduction of armaments unless the security of the more exposed states was guaranteed. The League was comprised of 42 nations, the most powerful of which were Great Britain and France. She finds, moreover, her opinion sought and followed in most of the important votes and notices a desire that in affairs of major importance France shall say what she wishes and even assume the task of expressing the wishes of others--in recognition of the fact that often in the course of her history her rules of action have been adopted as almost universal rules of conduct. The Assembly, where it had been feared France would be swallowed up, proved to be solid ground on which she might base her policies. These assertions have their value. Or, on the other hand, why are you glad that you do not belong? This bitter experience induced France to seek in the League of Nations a remedy for her unsupported status. These, then, are the reasons why French distrust of the League has been transformed into confidence. The fight for the League of Nations was therefore largely on the shoulders of President Wilson. The Soviet Union was expelled from the League in 1939, following its invasion of Finland, and were the only country to face this measure. This is trade, not mutual aid, and the countries most threatened will come to believe that the money which they will eventually have to pay to allies or associates as a debt will be much better spent if preventively devoted to armaments which they will get at lower prices and which will keep their national industry alive. At the same time she drew closer to the Baltic countries. Then it was learned that there had been adjustments of the plan by General Smuts and Lord Robert Cecil, and that suggestions and amendments from other quarters were being launched against the united and obstinate Anglo-Saxon front. A land with a low birth-rate, busy repairing by immigration the gaps which war created among her producing population; a land which has not yet effaced from her soil the traces of invasion; which though formerly the world's creditor is today, as a result of the war, heavily burdened with internal and external debt; which is confronted with the enormous task of meeting continental, maritime, and colonial obligations; which is temptingly exposed to the covetousness of her neighbors, though herself desiring no new territory; which knows by experience that disturbances anywhere in the world will have repercussions on the Rhine (for the World War, though it did not come after Mukden and Liaoyang or after the Agadir crisis, did finally begin in the Balkans); which is aware that she saved the world from the surprise German attack, but is quite aware, too, that, having held out long enough for the public opinion and the armies of Great Britain and the United States to mobilize, she was herself saved in turn by her allies and associates,--what is it that such a country needs? ", Now It Must Stand With Those Struggling Against Tyranny, A Strategy for Restoring Balance and Legitimacy, How Thousands of Americans Were Convinced to Storm the Capitol—and What Comes Next, Popular Chinese Mobile Payment Apps Are Just the Tip of the Spear, Get in-depth analysis delivered right to your inbox, From the A patriotic sentiment which is quite new and which is based on the hope of an independent life has been born in Austria as a result of the financial restoration undertaken there within the last two years by the League. Jump to navigation Jump to search. The League argued over the decision about whether to ban oil being exported to Italy. Watch their goals in qualifying now. Other Treaties Washington, 1921/ Dawes Plan, 1924/ Locarno Pact, 1925/ The Geneva Protocol, 1924 (to support the League of Nations) failed because Britain refused to sign it. Why did Japan need to leave the league of nations? The result was that, having once entered the League, where she had feared to find herself isolated, she discovered that she was far less isolated than she had anticipated. Should it come into being, the Assembly would breathe more freely; were the idea given up, the Assembly would be paralyzed. In case of conflict, she runs the gravest risk of being dragged into it whether she wishes to or not. Japan did not observe the naval limitations after its withdrawal from the League of Nations in 1933. c. The Geneva Conference, 1932-34. This was the first experiment in government by an international commission. One of the stumbling blocks was support for the decision from other countries to support the measures. International lawyers, historians, and political scientists across the globe scrutinized and debated every aspect of its working; leading American scholars of the period—among them James Shotwell, Quincy Wright, and Raymond Leslie Buell—devoted much of their lives How much better adapted to European conditions and how much more disinterested does the Wilsonian principle of the rights of peoples to dispose of themselves now appear than the cleverness of Mr. Lloyd George in hindering the unduly rapid recovery of France and the growth of the newly emancipated nations, in order to get back as soon as possible to that European equilibrium which is so nicely calculated to favor England's desire to recover her old rôle of the isolated arbiter! The principal economic and financial regulations that have been introduced since the Treaty of Versailles have not aimed at correcting the political solutions of the peace treaties. Britain and France did not want a … Of the 42 founding members, 23 (or 24, counting Free France) were members when the League of Nations was dissolved in 1946. (1939–41) Headquarters of League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland. Article XXIII of the Covenant, which calls for "equitable treatment for the commerce of all members of the League," opens the way for pacific discussion in order to permit more fairness in the exchange of populations and raw materials. Between 1920 and 1939, a total of 63 countries became member states of the League of Nations. If as the outcome of these heart-searchings it should be shown that the League of Nations has stirred deep feeling, satisfying some while disappointing others, would not this be the best proof that it is a reality, not a utopia, and that much may be expected from it? In the early days of the League, France was less inclined than today to place confidence in the general promises of the pact, believing rather in special alliances and in one special alliance above all the rest. Determined to rearm, Germany rejected all proposals that did not accord it immediate military parity with the Western powers. Yet the League of Nations did work surprisingly well, at least for a decade after the war. Despite formulating the concept and signing the Covenant, the United States never joined the League of Nations, and some relatively isolated sovereign states in Asia also did not join, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Mongolia, Nepal, and Bhutan. This attitude, which would have required the victors to apologize for having troubled the philosophic development of the League with their victory, would, if translated into action, have had no result save to detach the League from the realities on which it depends for prestige and for securing immediate action. Between 1920 and 1939, a total of 63 countries became member states of the League of Nations. Why insist upon clauses in the treaties which keep ex-enemies out of the League when the League's essential purpose is to become universal at the earliest possible moment? Finally, the British Empire has never set up a single complete bloc at Geneva. At the first meeting of the Assembly, Switzerland and Holland asserted that they would adhere to the Covenant, but that, not having been parties to the treaties, they would ignore them. Even Turkey is not hostile to the League, since she has entrusted to it the task of tracing the frontier of the vilayet of Mosul. Fourth, the mandates. The United Nations was not the first global organisation to be formed with the intention of maintaining peace. Major powers like France and Britain were reluctant to enforce sanctions. In spite of Germany's incessant propaganda designed to increase the difficulties inevitable in a highly industrialized and thickly populated region which had been placed provisionally mid-way between two great countries, two tariff systems and two currencies, in a time of great financial and economic crisis, the life of the Saar basin has been calmer than the life of neighboring Germany; and this territory, which threatened to be one of the most critical spots on the map of Europe, will pass through a period of fifteen years and decide its own fate in such conditions of light, publicity and fairness that no matter what solution is chosen by the inhabitants it will impose itself, without appeal, on all interested parties. It was at Geneva that Austria and Hungary, remnants from the territorial readjustments wrought by the Treaties of Saint-Germain and The Trianon, whose early demise so many English voices had predicted, received the financial aid which has enabled them to maintain their independence, thanks to a balanced budget and a stabilized currency. Withdrew from active participation in the League after its defeat by the Soviet Union in 1944. When France took her seat in the first Assembly at Geneva she disposed of one vote in forty-one, whereas the British Empire could rely on six, and there were sixteen members whose native language was Spanish or Portuguese. Subscribe for articles, app access, audio, our subscriber-only newsletter, and more. So far as France is concerned, I shall now try to reply to the question. Every year for five years the support lent by British diplomacy and British public opinion to a Germany which, they say, asks nothing better than to take her place in line if France will only grant her the right to live, has gained England nothing but disappointment, for Germany has always evaded the issue when it has been proposed to apply the ordinary rules to her candidacy. By June 1919, the final version of the treaty was signed and President Wilson was able to return home. At Geneva, too, England comes to realize France's true position in Europe and the support given her by the nations born or reborn in the war in her determined opposition to German ambitions for a restoration by violence. The white light of Geneva, which shows up so clearly every gap between special and general interests, is swiftly rendering untenable certain theses to which the secrecy of diplomatic notes and conversations have formerly been only too favorable. Such was the revelation at Geneva, which has been renewed at each Assembly for five years. Politically, she is too exposed by reason of the diffusion of her capital and her populations as well as by her colonial interests to undergo or endure the backwash of a war which might break out in some far corner of the world. It is the problem of security. But France cannot afford such a luxury. Two points have been gained, however. But they have found warm exponents in most European countries. In view of the League’s desire to end war, the only criteria that can be used to classify a success, was whether war was avoided and a peaceful settlement formulated after a crisis between two nations. Nor is it an American custom to destroy useful institutions and put nothing in their place. Unable to enter with her Empire as a whole, she would stay outside. The conference was organised by the League of Nations and attended by representatives of 61 countries. At this time, only Costa Rica (22 January 1925), Brazil (14 June 1926), Japan (27 March 1933) and Germany (19 October 1933) had withdrawn, and only Egypt was left to join (on 26 May 1937). A permanent entente between France and England, under the Covenant, is what Geneva needs. Since then it has almost entirely disappeared, together with the legend that President Wilson--said to be an incorrigible dreamer --had during the course of the negotiations often hampered bipartisan agreements which France and England were ready to put through on a basis of solid reality. The Outcome: Japan refused to leave Manchuria. France's reputation of being a nation which, smarting from a series of violent blows, was hardly disposed to wish the League well, preceded her into the Assembly. France, then, has been taking a beneficial solidarity cure at Geneva for the last five years. But these negative reasons why France has been neither disappointed nor disturbed do not explain why French confidence in the League has actually grown during the last five years. The spirit of the Assembly in periods of political crisis--as in the Silesian affair, the question of Austria, the Corfu affair, or the problem of Mosul--or where great general problems are under discussion, such as the Protocol, the repatriation of Russian refugees, the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations, or the fight against pestilence and sickness--is a source of great encouragement to a country like France which has been saved as if by a miracle so often during past centuries that she has come quite naturally to believe in moral force, in spiritual values. Is it not clear that the way in which the interallied debts are handled will either destroy or intensify the confidence in this engagement? Foreign Affairs, Published by the Council on Foreign Relations. Germany and Russia were not allowed membership, based on their aggressions during World War I, and the United States chose to not be included in the League due to its change to an isolationist state. Germany had been a League member since 1926. 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All negotiation in regard to the treaties concerns the Allied and Associated Powers; all negotiation as to the Covenant must be carried on within the League of Nations. Is France therefore to be considered henceforward a country hostile to all change? Her security depends on the execution of treaties. It has made others uneasy because when the Protocol was under discussion certain members predicted that the advance of international law would encroach little by little upon the rights that had been reserved--thus revealing the suspicion that the Council might come to act as a superstate. The ink of the signatures to the treaties of peace was scarcely dry before the economists were predicting the worst sort of catastrophes if the political clauses were not readjusted. On familiar terms with part of Europe, the Kamerun, and more reasons most. 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