Aftenposten
- Pan-Europe
- The League of Nations in foreign cartoons
Ibsen moves from the League’s apparently cleared foundations to renewed European insecurity. Foreign cartoons alongside the essay satirise membership and great-power interests.
Selected, image-checked first-page passages; partial reading, not complete articles or the whole page.
Translation
Pan-Europe
Before a new building can be erected, the ground must be cleared. When work began on the new structure called the League of Nations, the clearing seemed to have taken care of itself. After the war’s devastation, the fact was that every former antagonism in European great-power politics had been put out of action. Events had removed the conditions that gave rise to them.
[…]
First, we must mention the change in Europe’s political structure. The number of its states, which stood at 26 in 1914, has risen to 33 since the war. It goes without saying that the more states there are, the more opportunities there are for international conflicts.
[…]
All in all, a complex of national, territorial and maritime disputes has accumulated that looks at least as threatening as the sum of the antagonisms that troubled people before the outbreak of the World War.
The League of Nations in foreign cartoons
Top: Admission for permanent members only. (London Opinion.)
Bottom left: The German nationalist: “Well, yes, we declare ourselves entirely willing to join.” (Vorwärts.)
Bottom right: “The four augurs have admitted a fifth to their circle. And afterwards, of course, we talk about peace, but it is pointless to discuss Morocco, China or Syria…” (L’Humanité.)
Context
Why more states could make peace harder to organize
The essay questions the assumption that defeating the old empires had cleared away Europe’s conflicts. Its figures for the number of states support an argument about a more complicated political map: each additional government brings borders, claims and relations that must be negotiated. The building metaphor gives the League a difficult task from the outset. It must manage new disputes as well as overcome the antagonisms inherited from the war.
An international body with an exclusive inner circle
The cartoon’s restricted entrance refers to the Council’s permanent seats. The League combined an Assembly in which member states had equal votes with a smaller Council that reserved permanent places for major powers. Thus the joke targets a real hierarchy within an organization presented as international cooperation. Germany’s arrival could widen the inner circle without removing the distinction between its privileged members and everyone outside.
Peace in Europe and conflict beyond it
L’Humanité’s caption puts Morocco, China and Syria beside the leaders’ talk of peace. Its point is the selectivity of the agenda: a settlement among powerful European states can coexist with conflicts involving their interests elsewhere. Calling the statesmen augurs—figures who pronounce on signs and destinies—also mocks their authority. The cartoon asks whose wars disappear from view when the great powers congratulate themselves on reconciliation.
Original
PAN-EUROPA.
Naar en nybygning skal opføres, maa grunden være ryddet. Og da man gik igang med den nybygning, som kaldes Nationernes Forbund, saa det ut, som om rydningsarbeidet havde besørget sig selv. Efter krigens ødelæggelser stod man nemlig overfor den kjendsgjerning, at de tidligere motsætningsforhold i europæisk storpolitik alle uten undtagelse var sat ut av virksomhet. Begivenhetenes utvikling hadde ophævet de vilkaar, som voldte deres tilværelse.
[…]
Til at begynde med skal her nævnes forandringen i Europas politiske struktur. Antallet av dets stater, som i 1914 beløp sig til 26, er efter krigen vokset til 33, og det sier sig selv, at jo flere stater der er, desto flere anledninger blir der til mellemfolkelige konflikter.
[…]
Alt i alt har der sammenhobet sig et kompleks av nationale, territoriale og maritime stridsemner, som tar sig vel saa truende ut som summen av de motsætninger, som ængstet sindene før verdenskrigens utbrud.
Nationenes Forbund i utenlandske karrikaturer
Øverst: Adgang kun for permanente medlemmer. («London Opinion»).
Nederst til venstre: Den tysknationale: Hm, ja, vi erklærer os helt beredt til at være med. («Vorwärts»).
Nederst til høire: «De fire augurer har tat en femte ind i sin kreds. Og senere selvfølgelig taler vi om fred, men det er unyttig at diskutere Marokko, Kina eller Syrien ...» («L’Humanité»).