League of Nations – Seat of the League of Nations in Geneva.
Some members live in their own families, some in communities with a special rule, each striving for perfection according to their state. Only those who freely request it go on missions. The sisters number over 5,000 in 50 houses, divided into religious provinces. It has also attracted groups of indigenous women in the missions, whose statutes were temporarily approved in 1950.
Society of African Missions. – It was founded on 8 December 1856 in Lyon by Monsignor Melchior de Marion-Brésillac, who from 1846 to 1855 had been Apostolic Vicar of Coimbatore in India.
The purpose of the Society is to preach the Gospel among the black peoples of Africa. When Monsignor de Marion-Brésillac died in Africa on 25 June 1859, he was succeeded by Planque, who continued to develop the Society by opening new houses of formation in France, Ireland, and Holland. The first missionaries were sent to Sierra Leone and Dahomey.
It is a Society without vows whose Constitutions were approved in 1900 and then modified on 14 May 1912 and approved for ten years on 15 February 1928. A complete revision of them took place in 1952. At the end of 1952 the Society numbered 1,111 priests, 96 lay brothers, and 272 seminarians. It is entrusted with 20 missionary territories in Africa and also serves the black population of the United States.
League of Nations. – An association of States for the maintenance of peace and the improvement of relations among peoples. The aspiration to create such an association had, at the beginning of the current century, assumed greater vitality and concreteness, a favourable atmosphere for its realization appearing necessary at the close of the First World War, which was to be, in the minds of those who espoused this ideology, the last war.
It was the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, who decisively advanced the issue toward concrete realization, with the authority deriving from his role as arbiter of war and then of peace. The proposal to establish a League of Nations, launched among the points of the future peace programme during the conflict, became a reality during the Paris Peace Conference, which entrusted the drafting of the social Statute to a special Commission, of which Wilson insisted on assuming the presidency (Italy was represented by V. E. Orlando and V. Scialoja). Taking into account the American draft and those of other States (including an Italian draft), it produced what was later commonly called “the Covenant” (Covenant) in 26 articles.
I. SOURCES
Considering the Covenant as the keystone of the peace system, Wilson wished, and the Conference accepted, that it should become the preamble to the great peace treaties. The Covenant indeed opens the five major peace treaties of 1919–20 and closes with the charter of the International Labour Office, which is the original organization of the League of Nations and was born contemporaneously with the League itself. This was not intended to condemn the Covenant to follow the fate of the treaties and thus live and die with them. If, in the end, this is what happened, it was merely a coincidence. Another argument might seem stronger: the entry into force of the Covenant coincided with the entry into force of the peace treaty with Germany (Treaty of Versailles), but this served only to set the Covenant in motion. It has also been said that peace was an appendix to the Covenant, but this is inaccurate and contradicted by the fact that the Peace Treaty with Turkey (1923) is independent of the Covenant. The Covenant proceeded on its own and was amended according to the prescribed procedure (art. 26) on 13 August 1924 (art. 6), 26 September 1924 (arts. 12, 13, 15), and 29 July 1926 (art. 4), without having succeeded in harmonizing it fully with the Briand-Kellogg Pact, commonly known as the “outlawry of war.”II. CONSTITUTION OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
The League of Nations was a permanent association of States with free governments, governed by a written Statute (the Covenant).
The member States of the League of Nations were all in a situation of legal equality, but historically the original members were distinguished—namely, the Allied and Associated Powers, signatories of the peace treaties, which invited 13 States that had remained neutral during the war to participate on an equal footing. Other States were subsequently admitted after the entry into force of the Covenant. The former enemy States, although signatories of the peace treaties, did not initially belong to the League of Nations, despite its character as a peace-building institution, but were admitted later (Germany after the Locarno Pact). The Covenant (art. 1), while requiring that adhesion to the League be made without reservations through a declaration deposited with the Secretary of the League of Nations, permitted withdrawal from the League with two years’ notice, provided that at the time of withdrawal the withdrawing State had fulfilled all its international duties and all obligations arising from the Covenant.
III. ORGANS OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
There were two organs: 1) the Assembly, composed of representatives of member States (no more than three, but with a single vote), which met at least once a year at the fixed headquarters (Geneva) or elsewhere. It had the power to deal with any matter relating to the action of the League or to the interests of world peace (arts. 2 and 3), conducting its activities in accordance with an internal regulation, operating through six commissions that examined the reports and relations of the permanent and temporary bodies, proposing recommendations and resolutions on which the Assembly decided on the basis of a report by a general rapporteur; 2) the Council, composed of permanent members (representatives of States specifically designated, practically the Great Powers) and non-permanent members designated by the Assembly. The number of members in the two categories varied over the course of the League’s development, though the dual category was maintained, the possession of a permanent seat being justified by the greater responsibilities and burdens borne by the Great Powers in achieving the League’s aims. Each member State was represented on the Council by a single representative with a single vote. Member States could participate in Council meetings when matters of particular concern to them were being discussed, but without a vote. In general terms (art. 4, no. 4), the competence of the Council was specifically determined as being the same as that of the Assembly (arts. 2 and 4).According to the provisions of arts. 3 and 4, the functions of the two organs were equal and parallel. In reality, however, they were interpreted differently. When an express provision reserved certain measures to the competence of the Council or the Assembly, the competences were clearly distinguished. When no express norms were lacking, a primacy was reserved for the decisions of the Assembly.
The Holy See, although in some cases asked for collaboration, was neither part of nor sought to become part of the League of Nations, given also the League’s distinctly secularist character from its inception and throughout its existence.
According to the literal wording of the Covenant (art. 2), the Secretary-General is not an organ of the League of Nations. He assists the two organs and participates in their meetings. However, in practice (later expressly incorporated into the U.N. Charter) he was recognized as a social organ. Moreover, he was head of the Secretariat, established at the League’s headquarters in Geneva, which could, however, be relocated by the Council and which was subdivided into numerous and unwieldy offices.
The organs of the League of Nations also included:
a) the Permanent Court of International Justice (art. 14), established at The Hague, governed by its own statute and regulations (v. ORGANIZZAZIONE DELLE NAZIONI UNITE, II).
b) the International Labour Office (ILO), whose constitution, as mentioned, was incorporated into the final part of the peace treaties (v. LAVORO).
IV. PURPOSES OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS — These are outlined in the preamble to the Covenant and consist in promoting international cooperation and achieving peace and security among States by committing members not to resort to arms in certain cases (thus war was not absolutely excluded and its legitimacy was admitted in certain circumstances), establishing open, just, and honorable relations among nations (thereby condemning secret diplomacy and affirming just relations between peoples), firmly recognizing the rules of international law as effective norms of conduct among governments (thus necessitating the codification of international law to make it certain), and observing justice and scrupulously respecting every treaty in the reciprocal relations of civilized peoples. To achieve these purposes, certain principles were already set forth in the Covenant, either as absolute requirements or as programmatic goals, such as the reduction of armaments (art. 8), protection against aggression (art. 10), condemnation of war (art. 11), the peaceful settlement of disputes (arts. 12, 13, and 15), consequences of violations of these principles (art. 16) and disputes with non-member States (art. 17), the registration and supervision of international treaties (arts. 18 and 20), respect for regional agreements (art. 21), the establishment of assistance to other peoples through the mandate system (art. 22), a program of social and humanitarian action (art. 23), and the coordination of international institutions (arts. 24 and 25).
These responsibilities, aimed at preserving peace, were entrusted to the League of Nations by the peace treaties themselves (e.g., the Saar, Danzig, minority protections, etc.).
V. ORGANIZATION OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS — To fulfill its broad institutional tasks and those rapidly added to or developed from those envisaged in the Covenant, the League created a series of technical organizations and permanent advisory commissions (auxiliary organs). A brief overview of their structure and functions includes: a) among the technical organizations, those dealing with economics and finance, communications and transit, and health; b) among the advisory commissions, those on military, naval, and air questions, mandates, intellectual cooperation, the protection of children and youth, and opium (in addition to a central committee, also permanent), etc. Special temporary advisory commissions were established as needed and were numerous. Also noteworthy were certain administrative or executive bodies (the High Commissioner for Danzig, for refugees, the Governing Commission for the Saar, etc.) and certain specialized institutions (intellectual cooperation in Paris, for the unification of private law and educational cinematography in Rome, etc.).
This complex of organizations entailed substantial and growing expenses, which were regulated annually through a budget approved by the Assembly, with the corresponding costs apportioned among member states.
VI. ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND END OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS — The League was founded on 10 January 1920 with the entry into force of the Treaty of Versailles, amid widespread disappointment over the absence of the United States, as the U.S. Congress had not ratified the Treaty, thereby undermining Woodrow Wilson, who had been its chief architect. Other major States were also missing, such as Germany, defeated in the war, and the USSR, which was excluded due to the policy of the cordon sanitaire and had no interest in joining. The League’s first five years were thus uncertain and difficult, with France and Britain taking the lead in its direction. Germany’s admission in 1926 marked a new impetus, and the subsequent admission of the USSR appeared to be a major success. From 1926 to 1934, the League reached the peak of its authority; however, after the sanctions imposed on Italy over the Ethiopian affair, a rapid period of decline and weakening began, culminating in the outbreak of the Second World War, which the League proved powerless to prevent. Italy and Germany withdrew, followed by Costa Rica, Spain, and Brazil. The USSR was expelled following its aggression against Finland. By 1940, the League was practically paralyzed. When its dissolution was decreed in 1947 and it was placed in liquidation, it had already been reduced to a mere memory. Nevertheless, its activity cannot be dismissed with a cursory condemnation. It worked in every field, often tending to do too much, even if only on paper. Its greatest initiatives—those in which its strength and influence could be tested and which represented the truly vital part of its constitutional functions—met with a succession of failures. The economic conference, the financial conference, the conference on the codification of international law, the disarmament conference, and the general arbitration conference all failed. Nor was its political action fortunate, for while it managed, more or less successfully, to resolve issues involving smaller States, such as the Åland Islands, Vilna, Upper Silesia, Albania’s borders, and Memel, when it confronted larger States or sought to resolve problems only when all parties wished to escape difficult situations (as in the Corfu incident), it failed miserably in cases such as Eastern Calabria, Finland, Ethiopia, and the Sino-Japanese War.
These failures, which undoubtedly weakened the League, also caused much of its good work to be forgotten.
VII. THE LEGACY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS — As the Second World War drew to a close with the victory of the United Nations, there was no thought of reviving the League of Nations. Instead, a new organization was created at the San Francisco Conference (1945). The second League of Nations is called the United Nations Organization (U.N. [v.]). Despite substantial changes in its rules and name, the new organization essentially revives the old structures.