Journal de Genève
- Is the Assembly over?
- Administrative reform
- Italian–Romanian friendship
The paper argues that the League Assembly still has substantial work despite statesmen leaving Geneva. It also introduces public impatience with administrative reform and reports the Italian–Romanian pact as part of Italy’s agreements with the Little Entente.
Selected, image-checked first-page passages; partial reading, not complete articles or the whole page.
Translation
Is the Assembly over?
Our guests are beginning to leave. Statesmen are returning to their capitals, like Mr Briand, or going on holiday, like Mr Chamberlain. The journalists who follow their every step and live by politics go with them. Already, in the League’s corridors, people speak of the Assembly in the past tense, as if it had only unimportant business left to dispose of.
Yet what do we see if we consult the agenda? This: apart from the question of the Council’s composition, the Assembly, far from finishing its work, has not begun it. No committee has yet presented its report. Most have not even reached the main points of their programmes.
The first committee has not yet dealt with the peaceful settlement of international disputes and its corollary, arbitration; Lord Cecil’s very important proposal on defining the League’s tasks; or the codification of international law.
Administrative reform
“Anne, sister Anne, do you see anyone coming?”—The public, unaware of the immense work undertaken by the Grand Council subcommittee examining the administrative reform bill, is growing impatient.
Italian–Romanian friendship
Mr Mussolini and General Averescu signed the Italian–Romanian friendship pact in the Victory Room of Palazzo Chigi.
This new treaty completes Italy’s system of agreements with the Little Entente. In some respects, it is the most important. The questions Italy had to settle with Yugoslavia concerned only those two countries; no foreign intervention could influence them. With Czechoslovakia it was simpler still: all that was needed was to establish the two governments’ agreement on the problems of Central Europe and the Balkans.
Context
The League’s work continued after the famous visitors left
A League Assembly depended on committees preparing reports before the full body could act. Attention to prominent ministers and Council elections could obscure that less visible work. The Geneva editorial speaks from the host city, where the remaining agenda is still present after international correspondents depart. Its complaint is that diplomatic spectacle has been mistaken for institutional completion, leaving arbitration and the development of international law outside the spotlight.
Why administrative reform is introduced with a fairy-tale line
The appeal to sister Anne comes from Perrault’s Bluebeard, where a woman anxiously awaits help. In the newspaper it lends comic urgency to waiting for a reform bill. The comparison also sets up a contrast: the public sees delay, while the subcommittee sees extensive work. A familiar literary phrase gives readers an immediate way into the problem of making slow parliamentary preparation visible to impatient citizens.
Italy’s relationship with the Little Entente was built in parts
The Little Entente brought together Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia, but Italy dealt with those countries through separate agreements. The editorial compares the bilateral relationships to explain why the Romanian pact has its own weight. That distinction matters: a network of treaties is not necessarily a single alliance with identical obligations. Each agreement can answer different territorial or political concerns even when a newspaper presents the completed network as one diplomatic achievement.
Original
L’Assemblée est-elle finie?
Nos hôtes commencent à nous quitter. Les hommes d’Etat regagnent leur capitale, comme M. Briand, ou partent en vacances, comme M. Chamberlain. Les journalistes qui s’attachent à leurs pas et vivent de la politique, les suivent. Déjà, dans les couloirs de la Société des nations, on parle de l’Assemblée au passé, comme s’il ne lui restait plus à liquider que des objets sans importance.
Or, si l’on consulte l’ordre du jour, que voit-on? Ceci: si l’on fait abstraction du problème de la composition du Conseil, l’Assemblée, loin d’être au bout de ses travaux, ne les a pas commencés. Aucune commission ne lui a encore présenté son rapport. La plupart n’ont pas même abordé les points principaux de leur programme.
La première commission ne s’est encore occupée ni du règlement pacifique des différends internationaux, avec son corollaire, l’arbitrage; ni de la proposition très importante de lord Cecil relative à la délimitation des tâches de la Société ni de la codification du droit international.
Réforme administrative
« Anne, ma sœur Anne, ne vois-tu rien venir? » — Le public, qui ignore l’énorme travail auquel s’est livrée la sous-commission du Grand Conseil chargée d’examiner le projet de réforme administrative, s’impatiente.
L’amitié italo-roumaine
M. Mussolini et le général Averesco ont signé, dans le salon de la Victoire du palais Chigi, le pacte d’amitié italo-roumain.
Ce nouveau traité complète le système des accords conclus par l’Italie avec la Petite Entente. Il est, à certains égards, le plus important. Les questions que l’Italie avait à régler avec la Yougoslavie n’intéressaient que ces deux pays; aucune ingérence étrangère ne pouvait les influencer. Avec la Tchécoslovaquie, c’était encore plus simple: il suffisait de constater l’identité des vues des deux gouvernements au sujet des problèmes inhérents à l’Europe centrale et aux Balkans.