Story of International Relations

3 CONFERENCES AT PRAGUE AND BERGEN AND THE LOOMING WAR 307

The conviction that through showing leadership in regard to economic
and social questions the LON would restore its prestige, caused Bruce
and others to consider a constitutional change in the relationship between
the LON Council and the League’s economic and social agencies. Walters
explained why such constitutional change came under consideration:

Hitherto, the general rules laid down by the First Assembly had contin-

ued in force, with only minor variations. The main committees—whether

composed of States or individuals—were designated by the Council. They

were debarred from taking up new questions until invited to do so by the

Council. Their recommendations had no validity until approved by the

Council. Their reports were made to the Council, and could not even be

formally communicated to the Members of the League until the Council had

so decided. Yet the body which thus controlled them at every turn was rarely

capable of giving them help or guidance. Its members were almost always

Foreign Ministers or professional diplomatists, who had no special knowl-

edge of economic and social problems. The natural consequence was that

while hours might be spent on the discussion of some minor political or

constitutional question on the Council’s agenda, business connected with

finance or economics, with health or transport, with child-welfare or intellec-

tual co-operation, was dispatched with little sign of interest or attention.^236

One of the main concerns in regard to the relationship between the
council and the LON’s social and economic agencies was that precisely
because the council appeared little interested in the social and economic
aspects of its functions and dealt with these aspects in a more or less rou-
tine manner, the public profile of these agencies suffered and the work
they undertook was starved of much-needed publicity. Another impor-
tant concern in regard to council’s oversight of these agencies was the
following anomalous situation: the United States had come to be rep-
resented on nearly all of the LON’s technical committees or subcom-
mittees relating to social and economic affairs either in the form of
government officials or individuals with the appropriate expertise yet
the government of the United States had no say in such matters as the
make-up of these committees, what their agenda should be and whether
their recommendations should be implemented.^237 Walters observes in
relation to these considerations the following:

(^236) Walters, A History of the League of Nations, 758.
(^237) Ibid., 758–59.