NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE two debates on the League of Nations in the House of Lords this week had their value, though neither of them carried matters much further. Lord Phillimore's demand on Tuesday for a new peace move in the Italo-Abyssinian dispute was obviously premature, as Lord Stanhope had no difficulty in demonstrating. Lord Rennell raised a much more interesting question on Wednesday, when he pressed for consideration of the revision of the Covenant, with special reference to the creation within the League of three regional councils— for Europe, America and Asia. The idea of one such council—for the two Americas—has been considerably advanced by President Roosevelt's • proposal for closer relations between the American republics in the interests of peace. and provided it did not involve the withdrawal of the Latin-American States from Geneva—which Mr. Roosevelt definitely does not contemplate—it might have considerable advantages. A European Council was the central feature of M. Briand's United States of Europe plan, and the obstacles that brought that proposal to nothing have certainly not diminished in the interval. Russia, as much an Asiatic as a European Power, has entered the League since then, thereby increasing further the already almost insuperable difficulties of separating European problems from Asiatic. But the debate had its value none the less, and Lord Stanhope, replying for the Government, dismissed the idea of any revision or modifi- cation of the Covenant- rather too summarily. . * *
