At Geneva

In last week's sessions of the Eighth Assembly and the forty, sixth meeting of the Council of the League of Nations, the note in his neighbor's eye disturbed each of the assembled statesmen. Much talk, some of it evasive, and little action proved that suspicion inbred for centuries cannot be bred out in less than a decade. But able critics agreed that discussions, however abortive, were better than the insidious silences, punctuated by subtle urbanity, of the old diplomacy.

Disarmament. The feature of the week was French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand's bid for a new peace compact. In his opinion, everybody is trying to go further in the matter of disarmament than the present stags and temper of European politics will permit. He drew attention to the fact that the Third Commission of the Assembly, which had been studying the problem, has been snowed under by con- flicting compacts, resolutions and covenants. He suggested, there- fore, that the Commission should remain at work doing nothing more than preparing a program for the Preparatory Disarmament commission, due to meet in November.

Opium. Colonel Daniel W. MacCormack of Boston, technical adviser to the Persian government, urged the U. S., France, Germany, Japan, other drug manufacturing countries, to follow Persia in stemming the flow of poppy juice. He said that Persia, following the lead of India, had agreed to reduce the manufacture of opium 10% annually, which, he said, represented a real economic sacrifice since the export of the drug constituted 20% of the export trade and 10% of the government's revenue. No action was taken.

Minorities. In the Council a heated argument took place between tall, gaunt Count Albert Apponyi of Hungary and nervous, excitable Nicolas Titulescu of Rumania. The treatment of Hungarian minorities in Rumania has long been a subject of severe dispute. Sir Austen Chamberlain, British Foreign Secretary, attempted to lay down three guiding principles for the treatment of former Hungarians now in Ru- mania by virtue of the peace treaty:

1) Hungarians must abide by the general scheme of the Rumanian Agrarian Reform Law.

2) There must be no inequalities between the treatment of Hungarians and Rumanians.

3) Rumania, in conformity with the peace treaty, may "retain and liquidate" the property of a Hungarian who has voted for Hungarian citizenship, provided that his property is situated in territory formerly owned by Hungary.

M. Titulescu agreed to accept the ruling.

Not Count Apponyi, undaunted hero of 64 sabre duels. As the problem at issue really involves the practice of the Rumanians of virtually confiscating without payment the property of Hungarians, in accordance with the Rumanian Agrarian Reform but contrary to the peace treaty and to the minorities treaty, the venerable Magyar aristocrat pressed for an advisory opinion from the World Court.

Council Elections. Much ado was made of the elections to the council and that much had little to do with anything of practical importance. Czechoslovakia, Salvador, Belgium, were due to retire. President Alberto Guani (from Chile) called on Dr. Stresemann and Sir Austen Chamberlain to act as tellers. Much applause and considerable amusement was caused by the President's choice of the two leading ex-enemy representatives. Confused and embarrassed, the two statesmen ambled from their seats to the Tribune, there to undertake clerical labor at opposite ends of a long table.

Briand was the first to mount the Tribune to record his vote. With a sly look and a grin hs remarked that he hoped that the tellers would be up to the job.

The result of the voting was that Canada, Cuba, Finland were elected to the vacant three nonpermanent seats.

Thereupon sounded, in the press, loud cries of "blow at the great powers." Briand was held to have championed Belgium, and Belgium's failure to get re-elected was interpreted to be full of ominous consequences. And, worst of all, the election of Canada, giving the British Commonwealth two votes in the Council, was the subject of equal misgiving, although two days later Canadian Senator Raoul Dandurand caused Sir Austen's famed monocle to fall from his eye in bleak astonishment because he dared to oppose his London colleague on a matter of procedure.