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The League of Nations was established in April 1919 to deal with the difficult international problems. The League, as well as the framework and structure is bounded by the covenant, which is a set of rules that member states have to follow. It aimed to discourage aggression, encourage trade and disarmament and improve living and working conditions of people worldwide. It also worked by the principle of collective security, in which all disputes threatening war would be submitted to the League and any member resorting to war would have broken the Covenant, and would face collective action by other members.
The Council consisted of 4 permanent members, 5 after 1926 (Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Japan) and 4 non-permanent members (11 by 1936). It dealt with problems when Assembly was not in session and could organize sanctions against an offending state. All decisions must be unanimous. However, permanent members had veto powers to reject decisions to safeguard their own national interests. Thus, unanimity was never achieved. The Council also met infrequently.
The Assembly consisted of all member states and aimed to be a debating chamber for them. Each member state had a vote and all decisions had to be unanimous….. The Assembly admitted new nations, controlled the budget and elected non-permanent members of the Council. Its strength was that each member state could have a say in issues. However, unanimity could never be achieved and member states met only annually.
The Secretariat, based at the League’s headquarters in Geneva, consisted of permanent officials paid by the League. The First secretary-general, Sir Eric Drummond, aimed to develop a body of international civil servants loyal to the League rather than to individual states. The Secretariat carried out all administrative functions for the League and prepared reports for the Council and Assembly.
The Permanent Court of Justice was based in The Hague, Holland, and aimed to solve major issues submitted to it fairly. It consisted of 15 judges, elected by the Assembly, representing the world’s different legal systems. It gave decisions on cases referred to it by countries in dispute and advised the Assembly and Council if asked. One success of the Permanent Court of Justice was that in the quarrel between Finland and Sweden over the Aaland Islands, the verdict went in favour of Finland and the decision was accepted by both parties. Also, when the Greeks invaded Bulgaria, after some shooting incidents on the frontier, the League intervened. Eventually, Greek troops were withdrawn and damages were paid to Bulgaria. One of the League’s failures lied in being unable to resolve the Vilna dispute between Lithuania and Poland peacefully. It was overshadowed by the Conference of Ambassadors and also allowed Poland to seize Vilna by force.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) consisted of all League members and aimed to improve working conditions worldwide. Its ruling body consisted of representatives of governments, employers and workers. The ILO also aimed to fix a maximum working day and week, recommend appropriate wages for workers and lay down minimum entitlements for sickness, injury and old age benefits.
Commissions and Special Committees (or if preferred: specialized agencies) were set up to carry out much of the League’s work. Each committee/agency specialized in a certain objective.
The disarmament agency aimed to reduce armament in a great scale. It made little progress as members could not agree on the issue. However, it did manage to reduce the arms ratio of USA, Britain and Japan to 10:10:7 respectively.
The Commission for Refugees, supervised by High Commissioner, aimed to repatriate and secure the welfare of people displaced by the war. They managed to restore 400,000 prisoners of thirty nationalities to their homeland.
The Commission for Slavery was aimed to reduce slavery worldwide. It asked members to cooperate to stamp out slave dealing. However, there were still reports of slave dealings in 1937. The commission inquired all members about slavery in states.
References:
As with the Treaty of Versailles essay, I cannot remember all sources but I know that the greatest influences were from my textbook: Modern World History Book by Norman Lowe as well as the Wikipedia Entry.
Further References:
- World War 1 Document Archive: The Covenant of the League of Nations (Article 1-30)
Other than that, there was lots of research papers and notes my teachers gave. I’ll look for those references when possible.
This is a very sensible and informative article but if more on the specialized agencies of the league of nations could be introduced then it would be a lot more informative. I request the historians of this field of interest to please provide us with more information on the specialized agencies of the league of nations.
Its a good article as it gives knowledge and actually I needed information about the role but I could’nt find it.
Good article.
Could of been slightly more informative by adding things like why the League of Nations failed but that wasn’t your aim, so yeah very good article.
excuse me, you made some mistake
The disarmament agency aimed to reduce armament in a great scale. It <> little progress as members could not agree on the issue. However, it did manage to reduce the arms ratio of USA, Britain and Japan to 10:10:7 respectively.
see the mad.
usefull essay
Hi Bob,
Thanks for pointing it out!
Cheers!
Hi Winny,
Thanks for the complement.
The roles are stated only in brief. For example, the council’s role is to deal ” with problems when Assembly was not in session and could organize sanctions against an offending state” etc.
The role of the Assemblyis to admit “new nations, control the budget and elect non-permanent members of the Council.” etc.
I acknowledge that this article doesn’t really go in depth into the entire role and structure, but only gives a general idea of what they do.
Thanks Andrew.
Regarding the failure of the LN, maybe you want to check out the League of Nations strength and weakness” essay and taking some of the weaknesses and extrapolate your points from there?
If you have any new intepretation or points, I’ll be really glad to add in or feature in the post as well.