THE LEAGUE: Eez an Illusion

• Share

The League of Nations last week arrived in a unique situation. In quick succession Hungary and Albania resigned. The two countries acted not because of their own desires, but to suit the Axis powers. Last week Peru also resigned following the lead in recent years of Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, El Salvador, Venezuela.

Also missing from the League are of course, the U. S. which never joined, Japan which withdrew in 1933 over the China "incident"; Germany, which dropped out the same year over the question of rearmament; Italy, which resigned in 1937 over Ethiopia and sanctions; Austria, which was anschlussed; Czecho-Slovakia which was Muniched.

Actually left in the League are none but France and Britain (and some of their proteges), Russia and small fry nations: the Scandinavian countries, 13 minor European countries, ten Latin American countries, Liberia, Turkey, the unconquered tag-end of China, the defunct Republic of Spain, and the late Kingdom of Ethiopia (as represented by Haile Selassie). This League of leftovers represents only one of Europe's two clattering armed camps, and no altercation was ever settled by having only one side sit down and talk things over.

Last week Switzerland told the League it would no longer be a welcome guest in case of war. So the League sat down and talked over how to evacuate Geneva and where to go—probably to France.

Last week the Middle Atlantic "Model Assembly of the League of Nations," an annual assembly of U. S. college students, met at Bucknell University and was embarrassed. Delegate Jerome I. Aron of France (i.e.,Haverford College) summed the situation up in impeccable French, translated by an interpreter with a strong French accent: "Ze League eez an illusion."