NEXT YEAR'S PROGRAMME.
On all those points the Assembly has now taken its decision; and its programme for the year immediately ahead deserves to be studied in its fullness. Omitting certain details of lesser importance, such as the directions given for the study of means for developing civil aviation to the exclusion of military interests, the programme may be summarized as follows :- (1) The Council to adopt a report presented to it earlier in the year regarding the measures it might take in an emergency to deal with an imminent threat of war.
(2) The Finnish proposal for the mobilization of financial aid for a State victim of aggression to be further studied and completed, with a view to its final adoption. (Sir Austen Chamberlain has warmly approved of this scheme.) (3) The Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference to accelerate its technical work, with a view to convening an international Disarmament Conference the moment this work is completed.
(4) A new commission to be created, parallel with the Preparatory Commission, to study particularly the guarantees of security and arbitration that would enable the States members of the League to reduce their arma- ments to the lowest possible level. This commission would concern itself in particular with the question of :-
(a) "Promoting, generalizing, and co-ordinating special or collective agreements on . arbitration and security." (The Nansen proposal will he studied under this head.)
(b) Preparing machinery for the more effective dis- charge of the obligations resting on League members under the Covenant (not the Protocol).
(c) Declarations by individual States to the. League Council as to the forces they would be prepared to put in the field to support the Council's decisions in the event of a conflict breaking out in a given region. (This was proposed by Great Britain; and refers to a limited engagement like that of Locarno.)
That is the programme immediately before the League. It is, of course, so far only a paper programme, and everything manifestly depends on the spirit in which it is carried out. But if that spirit resembles the spirit that pervaded the Assembly itself, there is ground for a good deal of reasoned optimism. YOUR GENEVA CORRESPONDENT.
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