VOLUNTARY SOCIETIES AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
[To the Editor of the SrEorszoa.]
S1R,—The interaction of international societies and the League was mentioned in your December 18th issue by your correspondent, Sir Thomas Barclay, and the International Law Association given as an instance. Here are two instances, in the field of human welfare and in the matter of prison reform, which show respectively the League's appreciation of such societies and their close and continuous association with it.
The International Council of Women, with a membership of 20 million women in 37 National Councils all over the world, in August last at its quinquennial Conference in Vienna passed certain resolutions dealing with human welfare and took them in September to the League Assembly. The official statement of the President of the Assembly on receiving them was : "The League cannot 'do its work without you women, and you women cannot do without the League."
The International Prison Commission, our Howard League, and kindred associations communicated to the League in 1929 their desire for the latter to take action to ensure "an inter- national minimum standard for the treatment of prisoners." Thereupon the League Council last January passed a resolu- tion requesting the Assembly to consider "the best way in which the League of Nations can co-operate with the International Prison Commission and other interested associa- tions in their efforts to assist in the development of prisons in accord with modern economic, social and health standards," and also invited the Howard League to supply the League of Nations with a memorandum on the International Aspects of Prison Administration. In May the Howard League sent the required memorandum to Sir Eric Drummond, who circulated it to the members of the I.L.O., the Health Committee, the Economic Committee and the Committee for the Protection and Welfare of Children and Young People. Throughout the summer the Howard League supplied information to many interested bodies, e.g., the International Council of Women, and sent copies of the memorandum and other information to each of the delegates to the Assembly and to 400 representatives of the world newspaper press.
At the Assembly the Sixth Committee passed a resolution
calling (a) on the Council to communicate the "Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners" drafted by the International Prison Commission to the Governments of Member States and Non-Member States and to request a report from each of them ; (b) on Sir Eric Drummond to submit the rules to various League organizations and to confer with. the International Prison Commission on the best means for co-operation between it and the League ; (c) on Sir Eric to report further to the 1981 Assembly. On September 15th this resolution of the Sixth Committee was brought before the full Assembly and unanimously approved.
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