Journal de Genève
- The Third British Empire
- Administrative Reform
- Mr. Schulthess Does Not Reply
The Journal de Genève's front page of 29 October 1926 opened with an editorial signed "W. M." arguing that the British Empire, whose statesmen were then meeting in an imperial conference in London, formed a second league of nations, and that Lloyd George had not measured what he did by seating the dominions and India in the League as equals. A local editorial by "Ed. Ch." took up the cantonal government's bill to merge several communes with the city of Geneva, noting that a Grand Council committee had unanimously refused to back it. A third piece by "R. P." pressed Federal Councillor Schulthess to release in full the expert reports behind his claim that the federal grain board had always bought well.
Translation
The Third British Empire
Among the great problems that the League of Nations will face in the future, none is more difficult or more important than its relations with that other league of nations whose seat is in London and whose principal statesmen are at this moment sitting in imperial conference. By bringing into the League the dominions, which are almost sovereign states, and even India, which is not one, on a footing of equality with the other members, Mr. Lloyd George took an initiative whose full significance he doubtless did not measure.
Administrative Reform
In his last speech to the Grand Council on the state of our finances, the President of the Council of State stressed the fact that the government had not failed, as it had promised, to table a bill on administrative reform, a bill entailing the union of several communes with the city of Geneva. The fact is correct, but if the said bill, referred to a committee of the Grand Council, has not yet been able to be submitted to the deliberations of that body, it is because the committee, unanimously, could not support it.
Mr. Schulthess Does Not Reply
Mr. Schulthess, relying on a few extracts from the reports drawn up by the two experts of the Department of Finance, had declared at Solothurn that the grain board had always been fortunate in its purchases. We had expressed the extreme satisfaction that this unexpected news gave us. And we asked Mr. Schulthess to be so kind as to communicate to us all the reports of the two experts, so that we might, with our own eyes, convince ourselves of this [?]
Context
Why the imperial conference was meeting in London that autumn
When W. M. wrote that the Empire's principal statesmen were "at this moment" sitting in imperial conference, he meant the Imperial Conference of 1926, held in London from 19 October to 23 November 1926. That conference had been arranged to follow directly after the 1926 Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva, to reduce the travelling required of the dominions' representatives. The sequence tied the London meeting to the League's own calendar, so the link the editorial draws between the Empire and the League was one of timing as well as of constitutional principle. The Journal de Genève printed the piece ten days after the conference opened, before any of its conclusions were known, which is why the editorial treats the relationship between the two "leagues" as an open problem for the future.
How the dominions came to hold their own seats in the League
The editorial credits Lloyd George with admitting the dominions, and even India, to the League on an equal footing with the other members. At the peace settlement of 1919 the dominions signed the Treaty of Versailles under the designation of a single British Empire delegation, yet they were admitted as separate members of the League of Nations. That double position, part of one imperial delegation abroad but individual members in Geneva, left the dominions' international status unclear, and the confusion prompted calls for a formal statement of their relationship with the United Kingdom. W. M.'s image of a second league of nations seated in London rests on this ambiguity: the same governments belonged to the Geneva League as individual members and to an imperial association whose rules were still unsettled. Attributing the decision personally to Lloyd George, and the remark that India was not a state, are the editorial's own judgments.
What the conference eventually decided about dominion status
About two and a half weeks after this editorial appeared, the conference answered part of the question W. M. raised. On 15 November 1926 the imperial prime ministers unanimously approved a text drawn up by the Inter-Imperial Relations Committee chaired by Arthur Balfour. This Balfour Declaration described Great Britain and the dominions as autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status and in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs. The formula confirmed the near-sovereignty that the editorial already attributed to the dominions, and its reference to external affairs bore directly on how they could act in the League. The conference's conclusions were restated by the 1930 conference and incorporated in the Statute of Westminster of December 1931.
What became of the plan to merge communes with the city of Geneva
Ed. Ch. reports that the cantonal government had tabled an administrative-reform bill joining several communes to the city of Geneva, and that a Grand Council committee had unanimously declined to support it. The article does not name the communes. The merger eventually carried out combined the communes of Genève, Eaux-Vives, Plainpalais and Petit-Saconnex into a "Grande Genève", which Genevan voters approved on 18 May 1930, four years after a first refusal; that points to an earlier rejection around 1926, the period of this article. In a much later Grand Council debate on a law about communal mergers, the rapporteur described the enlargement of the City of Geneva in 1930–1931 as the only major merger that can be traced in the canton. The committee's unanimous reluctance reported here was thus an early stage of a contested project that needed several more years to succeed.
Original
Le troisième Empire britannique
Parmi les grands problèmes qui se poseront dans l'avenir à la Société des nations, il n'y en a pas de plus difficiles et de plus importants que ses relations avec cette autre Société des nations dont le siège est à Londres et dont les principaux hommes d'Etat siègent en ce moment en conférence impériale. En faisant entrer dans la Société les dominions, qui sont des Etats presque souverains, et même l'Inde, qui n'en est pas un, sur le pied d'égalité avec les autres membres, M. Lloyd George a pris une initiative dont il n'a sans doute pas mesuré toute la portée.
La réforme administrative
Lors de son dernier discours au Grand Conseil sur l'état de nos finances, M. le président du Conseil d'Etat souligna le fait que le gouvernement n'avait pas manqué, comme il l'avait promis, de déposer un projet de loi relatif à la réforme administrative, projet entraînant la réunion de plusieurs communes à la ville de Genève. Le fait est exact, mais si ledit projet, renvoyé à une commission du Grand Conseil, n'a pas encore pu être soumis aux délibérations de ce corps, c'est parce que la commission, unanime, ne put s'y rallier.
M. Schuithess ne répond pas
M. Schulthess se fondant sur quelques extraits des rapports élaborés par les deux experts du Département des finances, avait déclaré à Soleure que la régie des blés avait toujours été heureuse dans ses achats. Nous avions marqué l'extrême satisfaction que nous causait cette nouvelle inattendue. Et nous avons demandé à M. Schulthess de vouloir bien nous communiquer tous les rapports des deux experts, afin de pouvoir, par nos propres yeux, nous convaincre de ce [?]