Year: 1922
Type: article
Abstract: Convened on September 5, and adjourned on October 5, the Second Assembly of the League of Nations was in session exactly one calendar month.Thirty-nine nations were represented when the session opened; three were added during the first few days; and three others, Esthonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, were admitted during the session.Thus, forty-five representatives of the fifty-one members of the League, were present.Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, and Salvador were not represented.Dr. Wellington Koo, as Acting President of the Council, delivered the opening address, summarizing the achievements of the League since the last session, and was warmly applauded by the Assembly, the two hundred journalists, and the invited spectators in the galleries.At the afternoon session Jonkheer van Karnebeek, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nether lands, was elected President, and made an address in which he emphasized the substitution of law for armed force in international affairs.On the following day, six committees were appointed, dealing with (1) Constitutional and Legal Questions; (2) Transit, Health, and Eco nomic Matters; (3) Reduction of Armaments and Blockade; (4) Finances and Internal Organization of the League; (5) Humanitarian and Social Questions; (6) Political Questions.Thus organized, the Assembly was able at the end of the second day to take up the work of its agenda.The first few days of the session were devoted to the discussion of the Report of the Council in a general debate, in which seventeen different nations were represented.The discussion developed very wide differences of opinion, but was characterized by much frankness of expression and in general by a spirit of toleration.The broad interval between the Council, ruled by the will and interests of the Great Powers, and the Assembly, composed largely of small
DOI: 10.2307/2187811
Author: David Jayne Hill
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2314295996