1,000 Pacts

At Geneva officials of the Permanent Secretariat of the League of Nations penned with one swift stroke and three twiddles a figure which stonecutters quaintly render "M." The figure represented the number of international agreements deposited and registered, up to last week, with the League of Nations. Far and wide, diplomats remarked that for the League to have already accumulated 1,000 such documents, constituted no insignificant tribute to its prestige.

The 1,000th "document," deposited quite unceremoniously last week, consisted of a packet of notes exchanged between Norway and Sweden respecting the continuance of the Swedish-Norwegian Arbitration Convention of 1905. Statisticians observed that 940 treaties have already been published by the League Secretariat, in 35 volumes of 400 pages each. Further they noted that all these documents have been published in French and English, and additionally in the language of origin when that happens to be neither French nor English. To date, Germany though not a member of the League has made heavy contributions to the documents on register.

Admirers of the late President Wilson recalled that it was he who was chiefly instrumental in securing the insertion into the League Covenant of Article XVIII, whereby League-Member-States are obliged to deposit all their international treaties and agreements with the League Secretariat, which is likewise obliged to make them public as soon as possible. Mr. Wilson considered the establishment of this practice a virtual death blow at "secret diplomacy."

The annual, printing bill incurred by the League runs at about 200,000 Swiss francs ($38,600).