Date: 27 September 1932
Location: Geneva
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Turkey – Iraq’s application.
Among the outstanding work of the League during the last year has been the Disarmament Conference, in which I myself have been privileged to take part. We all know the great difficulties which that Conference has had to encounter in undertaking its formidable task, yet we are all confident that, with patience, goodwill and co-operation, these difficulties can be overcome.
The Conference has now laid the foundations upon which its constructive works can be raised. It is approaching the most critical part of its labours, the problem of shaping a Convention that shall embody, in the form of definite obligations, the prin ciples laid down in the resolution adopted by the General Commission on July 23rd. On its success may depend nothing less than the peace of the world. That alone should inspire us to go forward whole-heartedly in the supreme endeavour to consolidate peace and disarmament and banish that fear which is the enemy of peace.
But upon the success of the Disarmament Conference depends also, in increasing measure, the prosperity of the world.
The Assembly meets again under the shadow of the economic depression which in the past year has become more intense and presents its problems to-day in a form more urgent and no less baffling than on the occasion of the last Assembly. India, at once a great industrial nation and a great producer of primary products, has not escaped the blast. The crisis is widespread and, with every day that passes, it becomes more evident that no solution will be fruitful which does not embrace the needs of all countries, and that in the co-operation of nations lies the only sure hope of the world’s salvation.
The world therefore looks to the League, and it is essential alike for the credit of the League as for the welfare of the world that these hopes should not be disappointed. A propitious beginning has indeed been made at Lausanne, but it is a begin ning only, and here again we cannot fail to observe the intimate relation that the problem of peace and goodwill may be found to bear to our economic and financial difficulties.
I need not disguise a certain measure of disappointment, on reviewing the activities of the League in this field during the past year, that the energies of the League, and in particular of its technical organisations, have been concentrated, as it seems to me, perhaps in an undue degree upon the solution of purely European problems. I do not, however, wish to dwell upon this at the moment. The World Economic and Monetary Conference will, I hope, be subject to no such limitation. In that Confer ence, India hopes to participate, and will make to it, for the general good, such contribution as her position in the sphere of finance, commerce and industry dictates or allows.
The unhappy dispute between China and Japan, which is a matter of such deep concern to us all, must, since the report of the Commission appointed by the Council is not yet before the Assembly, be regarded at this stage as sub judice. I will say no more than that the Government and the people of India deeply deplore the relations at present subsisting between these two great Eastern and Asiatic nations, which, whether in their religious, cultural, geographical or commercial aspects, present so many points of contact with India, and they earnestly hope that a solution satisfactory to all parties to the dispute and con sistent with the principles to which we are pledged will be found.
We are also unfortunately confronted with a dispute between two other members of our society. I refer to Paraguay and Bolivia.
It is the earnest hope of us all that the good offices of the League will lead to a speedy settlement which may redound at once to the credit of the League and to the goodwill and restraint of everybody concerned.
I cannot let this opportunity pass without saying once again how gladly India welcomes the presence of representatives of the Republic of Turkey.
We have also before us the application of the Government of Iraq for admission to the League. The League is a worldwide organisation and it is of first importance that the universality of its obligations, extending to all countries and to both hemispheres, should never be obscured. The admission of each new State to our membership is another milestone on the road to the attain ment of. that co-operation between all the nations of the world for which we cannot cease to strive, and to which indeed the admission of these two Asiatic States will bring us sensibly nearer.
Source: Leap;ue of Nations Offtcial]oumal, Special Supplement No. 104: R.ecords of the Thirteenth Ordinary Session of the Assembly, Plenary Meeting, Text of the Debates, Geneva, 1932, p. 36.
The Assembly met at 4 p.m., under M. Politis, for the general discussion of the report on the Work of the League of Nations since the twelfth session of the Assembly. The Aga Khan was the second speaker after the Right Honourable W. M. Hughes of Australia.
The text of the Aga Khan’s speech is also available in Verbatim Records of the Thirteenth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the League of Nations, Third Plenary Meeting, Tuesday, September 27th, 1932, at 4 p.m., Geneva, 1932, p. 5.
On the League of Nations see C. Howard Ellis, The Origi,n, Structure and Working of the League of Nations, Boston, Mass., 1928; Robert A. Cecil, A Great Experiment, London and New York, 1941; Gilbert Murray, From the League to the United Nations, London, 1948; John I. Knudson, A History of the League of Nations, Atlanta, 1938; E. P. Walters, A History of the League of Nations, London, 1960; C.
K. Webster and S. Herbert, The Leap;ue of Nations in Theory and Practice, London, 1933; and V. S. Ram and B. Sharma, India and the Leap;ue of Nations, Lucknow, 1932.