College and Research Libraries


By N E L L E S I G N O R 

League of Nations Publications in 
the Present Emergency1 

Miss Signor is librarian in history and 

political science, University of Illinois Li-

brary, Urbana. 

IT is IMPORTANT, in the light of present-day affairs, for one to review the 
achievements of the League of Nations 

during the past twenty years in order to 

evaluate again the ideals and principles of 

international cooperation embodied in all 

its undertakings. T h e publications of the 

League of Nations are important sources 

of information for study and research be-

cause of their international aspect, the 

wide field of subjects included, and their 

high standards of accuracy and thorough-

ness. M a n y people think of the League 

of Nations only as a political unit, focus-

ing their attention on its several failures 

and disregarding its constructive and hu-

manitarian activities. 

In spite of the present war and the rapid 

change of governments, the technical or-

ganizations in the League of Nations have 

been able to carry on a fair amount of 

research and publication. T h e Publication 

Department of the League of Nations 

recently announced the regular continu-

ance of two periodicals, Monthly Bulletin 

of Statistics and Weekly Epidemiological 

Record. In addition, the T r e a t y Series 

will be continued and documents will be 

issued by the Economic and Financial 

1 T h e information in this article is as of June 1942. 

Section, Social Section, Disarmament Sec-

tion, and Opium Section. 

T h e chaotic conditions in Europe have 

made it necessary to distribute the work 

of the League of Nations among various 

centers. T h e Political Section was kept 

at Geneva; the Economic, Financial, and 

Transit sections were centered at Prince-

ton University; the Opium Section was 

transferred to Washington; and the Inter-

national Labour Office, whose work is 

closely allied with that of the league, 

was removed to M c G i l l University, Mon-

treal. Difficulties arose over the trans-

portation of French officials of the 

International Labour Office to a belliger-

ent country, making it necessary to transfer 

some of the work of this office to Washing-

ton. T h e publications of the Permanent 

Court of International Justice have been 

suspended indefinitely. T h e offices of the 

W o r l d Court were closed when the Peace 

Palace at the Hague was bombed. T h e 

International Institute of Intellectual Co-

operation at Paris is closed and no publi-

cations are being issued. 

Because of the uncertainty of publica-

tion and the limited number of copies being 

printed, libraries, particularly those bind-

ing sets by publication number, would be 

well advised to scrutinize very carefully 

global subscriptions to League of Nations' 

documents to insure receipt of all publica-

tions. T h e Monthly Bulletin of Statistics 

and weekly Epidemiological Record sub-

326 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



scriptions are invoiced separately from 

global orders and from other correspond-

ing orders; other publications have been 

placed on a continuation order basis, 

whereby documents are supplied as they 

are published and billed at the end of the 

year. League of Nations publications may 

be secured through the International Doc-

ument Service, Columbia University Press, 

N e w Y o r k City. 

American interest in the wartime activi-

ties of the League of Nations was first 

made evident by the organization of a 

national committee of eminent Americans 

to aid and preserve the League of Nations 

nonpolitical work. T h i s was followed 

by a joint invitation from Princeton Uni-

versity, the Institute for Advanced Study, 

and the Rockefeller Institute of Medical 

Research to the League of Nations to 

establish its technical services at Prince-

ton University for the duration of the 

emergency. T h i s invitation was accepted 

on behalf of the Economic, Financial, and 

Transit sections, and in August 1940 the 

director and part of their staff were sent 

to Princeton University. Certain mem-

bers of the sections were left in Geneva to 

follow the economic developments within 

Europe in order to supply data for con-

tinuing the statistical publications. Much 

of the present work of this department has 

been made possible by a grant of fifty 

thousand dollars from the Rockefeller 

Foundation, to be used during the years 

1941 and 1942. 

E C O N O M I C A N D F I N A N C I A L S E C T I O N 

Economic Intelligence Service—Statistical 

Documents 

T h e Economic and Financial Section of 

the League of Nations has doubtless made 

its greatest contribution to research in the 

field of comparative statistics. T h e Eco-

nomic Intelligence Service which is con-

nected with the Economic and Financial 

Section is responsible for some of the most 

important statistical data published by this 

section. T h i s service was founded as a 

result of the Brussels Conference of 1920. 

Its immediate object was to coordinate 

and centralize information made public by 

national administrators on subjects of eco-

nomic importance. It has published regu-

larly so much economic and financial 

information that it has now become one of 

the most valuable and highly appreciated 

sources of financial and economic docu-

mentation. Previously it published in the 

course of the year three strictly statistical 

documents and a series of studies dealing 

with different aspects of the world eco-

nomic situation. Although economic sta-

tistics and financial information have been 

greatly curtailed, the league is making 

every effort to continue the work of the 

Economic Intelligence Service owing to 

the fact that new economic trends which 

are becoming more evident during the 

war period are likely to become the bases 

for formulating postwar economic policies. 

W i t h this in mind the league has decided 

to continue two strictly statistical publica-

tions, the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics 

and the Statistical Yearbook; the World 

Economic Survey and a number of special 

studies are also being published. 

T h e Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, 

which has been issued at Geneva monthly 

since July 1919, is continuing without in-

terruption. T h i s gives the most recent 

figures on the economic and financial de-

velopment of the countries of the world 

based on official information specially sup-

plied each month. W i t h September 1940 

copies were also printed on thin paper to 

SEPTEMBER, 1942 2 77 



be sent by airmail for the league's mission 

in Princeton. 

W h i l e the Monthly Bulletin of Statis-

tics gives a current indication of the status 

of economic conditions throughout the 

world, the Statistical Yearbook of the 

League of Nations is restricted to an in-

tensive study of statistical data for a se-

lected number of subjects of current 

importance. T h e latest issue of the Sta-

tistical Yearbook gives statistics up to the 

end of 1939 and in some cases also for the 

first half of 1940. 

Economic Intelligence Service—Special 

Studies 

W h i l e the statistical documents de-

scribed above are made up largely of statis-

tical tables from which one may draw his 

own conclusions, the World Economic 

Studies are analyses of world conditions 

drawn from information collected from all 

parts of the world, which were formerly 

issued in separate memoranda. Available 

material on such subjects as world trade, 

production and prices, banking, and public 

finance, is no longer complete enough to 

justify the publication of the separate 

memoranda. Instead, the Economic In-

telligence Service has issued a World Eco-

nomic Survey covering the period from the 

autumn of 1939 to the summer of 1941. 

Previous issues of the World Economic 

Survey (1932-39) consisted of a general 

analysis of the organization of industry 

and commerce in the world as a whole, 

based mainly on the results of the various 

studies carried on by the Economic Intel-

ligence Service supplemented by the in-

formation drawn from other sources, such 

as the International Labour Office. T h e 

World Economic Survey 1939-41, which 

was published at Princeton by the uni-

versity press in 1941, is a survey of the 

world at war. It deals with the problems 

of war economy in the countries at war as 

well as the reverberations of the war 

throughout the world. T h e first chapters 

deal with the means by which the change 

from peace to war economy was effected in 

the different countries, while the later 

chapters deal with the effect of these 

changes on various forms of economic 

activity. 

Raw Materials and Foodstuffs was pub-

lished at Geneva in January 1940. It is 

a study of the sources of supply of all the 

more important raw materials and food-

stuffs arranged by country for the years 

1935 and 1938. T h e main tables are so 

arranged that by consulting a single table 

one may see the countries which produce 

each commodity and the amount of produc-

tion for each country. It is an excellent 

reference source for those desiring exact 

information on production and trade in 

raw materials and foodstuffs. 

Because of the reduction of national 

trade statistics it has been impossible to 

continue the publication, Review of World 

Trade, which appeared annually for the 

years 1933-38. It has been replaced by a 

special study, Europe's Trade, published 

in Geneva in the spring of 1941. T h i s is 

an analysis of the part played by Europe 

in the trade of the world before the out-

break of the present war and a considera-

tion of how far Europe is dependent upon 

external markets and to what extent ex-

ternal markets are dependent upon her. It 

is the plan of the Economic Intelligence 

Service to follow up this analysis with a 

companion volume covering the trade of 

the rest of the world. 

Since 1931 the Economic Intelligence 

Service has published an annual memoran-

328 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



dum on commercial banks, under varying 

titles. In 1937 under the title Money and 

Banking a two-volume series was pub-

lished: v. I. Monetary Review, v. 2. Com-

mercial Banks. It was decided with the 
I 939"4° issue of Money and Banking to 

discontinue the second volume but to con-

tinue the Monetary Review. T h e latest 

number was published in Geneva in 1940 

and covers the period September 1939-40. 

It is a study of the far-reaching measures 

adopted by various governments for the 

control and operation of the banking sys-

tem since the outbreak of the war. A brief 

introductory note precedes the review, 

which summarizes the monetary situation 

— f r o m the appearance of the preceding 

issue of the Monetary Review in the spring 

of 1939 to September 1939. 

The Fiscal Committee 

Since its organization in 1929 the Fiscal 

Committee has had as its main objective 

the formulation of treaties and conventions 

to prevent double taxation in the fields of 

income and property taxes. In spite of 

the present war situation the Fiscal Com-

mittee has held two meetings, one at the 

Hague in April 1940 and the second at 

Mexico City, June 1940. T h e second 

meeting was particularly significant since 

it was the outcome of a request made in 

1938 to the Fiscal Committee by the 

Mexican government that a study be made 

of certain principles of taxation which 

would be helpful to Latin American coun-

tries which were in the process of develop-

ing their tax systems. Because war had 

spread all over Europe at this time, the 

Mexican government extended an invita-

tion to the conference to convene at M e x -

ico City. Representatives from Argentina, 

Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, 

and the United States were present to com-

ment on the preliminary studies submitted. 

T h e important result of the meeting was 

the adoption of a draft for a model con-

vention for the prevention of double taxa-

tion in the field of income and property 

taxes, which brings up to date the model 

conventions framed by the Conference of 

Governmental Experts of 1928. It is 

highly important that the work of the 

Fiscal Committee be continued since the 

question of double taxation will undoubt-

edly be an important problem of the post-

war period, especially in its relation to 

inter-American trade. 

H E A L T H S E C T I O N 

Epidemics 

T h e successful work of the League of 

Nations in the control of infectious dis-

eases is due largely to the Epidemiological 

Intelligence Service. T h e work of this 

service is so important that at the present 

time it is receiving support both from 

neutral countries and from countries at 

war. Since January 1930 it has published 

the Weekly Epidemiological Record regu-

larly at Geneva. T h i s periodical supplies 

prompt information on the prevalence of 

contagious disease which at the time con-

stitute an international danger. Until the 

time of the Japanese occupation, the most 

important part of the service was centered 

at Singapore, to which place more than 

180 ports in the surrounding area sent in 

cable messages weekly or even more fre-

quently concerning the occurrence of epi-

demic disease. In normal times the 

information received at the Singapore 

bureau was analyzed and broadcast by ten 

wireless stations to every health officer, 

every captain of a ship, and every airplane 

pilot in the area from Panama on the East, 

SEPTEMBER, 1942 2 77 



Suez on the West, and Vladivostok on the 

North, so that they might know to what 

extent disease prevailed and what quaran-

tine measures to adopt. Before the fall 

of Singapore the officers in charge of this 

service were safely transferred to Sydney, 

but at the present time it is not known 

whether it will prove possible to reestab-

lish the bureau in another center. T h e 

information assembled at Singapore was 

published currently under the title: 

Weekly Fascicules: Epidemiological Intel-

ligence Received by the Eastern Bureau. 

No. 878 of January 8, 1942, is the latest 

that has been seen. A similar service 

exists at Geneva for information concern-

ing epidemics in Europe, but so far there 

has been less need, for rapid service than in 

the Far East. W i t h the migrations of 

peoples and movements of troops resulting 

from the war the Epidemiological Service 

has followed very closely all developments 

of epidemics of infectious diseases and has 

taken every precaution to prevent their 

spread. 

Biological Standardization 

In 1924 the Health Committee of the 

League of Nations set up a Permanent 

Commission on Biological Standardization 

to establish international standards for the 

use of sera, glandular preparations, vita-

mins, and other remedies, the activity of 

which can be measured only by biological 

methods. By 1935 the commission had 

made available international standards and 

units for most of the important drugs 

which are biologically tested. Since in 

wartime the standards of serum content 

are so important, the Copenhagen Serologi-

cal Institute together with the London 

Institute have made a great effort to con-

tinue the normal distribution of standards 

of sera, vitamins, hormones, and certain 

other medicaments to most countries. 

The Bulletin of the Health Organiza-

tion was issued quarterly from March 

1932 to December 1936 and bimonthly 

from February 1937 to December 1939 

at Geneva. It includes material brought 

together by the Health Organization of 

the league on such subjects as epidemics, 

malaria, biological standardization, hous-

ing, nutrition, cancer, tuberculosis, and 

rabies. For the information of those in-

terested in medical subjects it includes 

articles by leading authorities in the field 

of health and social medicine. 

S O C I A L S E C T I O N 

Child Welfare 

In 1934 the Assembly of the League of 

Nations established the Child W e l f a r e 

Information Center to centralize informa-

tion relating to child welfare. For the 

last three years it has collected and classi-

fied information concerning child welfare 

and has issued each year a Summary of the 

Legislative and Administrative Series of 

Documents of the Child Welfare Infor-

mation Center. T h e last issue was pub-

lished at Geneva in January 1940 and as 

in previous years it summarizes documents 

relating to maternal and child welfare 

and social service. T h e information center 

also published an Annual Report on Child 

Welfare which aims to show the progress 

made in child welfare in the various coun-

tries from the legislative and administra-

tive points of view. T h i s includes either 

a summary or the complete text of impor-

tant laws which have been put in force for 

the protection of families and children and 

to combat prostitution. T h e latest issue 

was published at Geneva in March 1940. 

T h e Advisory Committee on Social 

330 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Questions issues annually a Summary of 

Annual Reports on Traffic in Women and 

Children. T h i s consists of summaries of 

reports made by the governments of vari-

ous countries in reply to questionnaires on 

social questions issued by the advisory 

committee. T h e Summary for 1939-40 

was published at Geneva in M a y 1941. 

O P I U M S E C T I O N 

Drug Traffic 

A t meetings held in Geneva in M a y 

1940 the three international organizations 

dealing with the drug traffic, namely, the 

Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium 

and Dangerous Drugs, the Permanent 

Central Opium Board, and the D r u g 

Supervisory Body, decided to continue 

their technical work during the war, since 

past experience had shown that need for 

drug control increased rather than di-

minished under war conditions. 

T h e Advisory Committee on Traffic in 

Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs, 

which met for its twenty-fifth session on 

M a y 13-17, 1940, included delegations 

from thirteen out of the twenty-three gov-

ernment members. Special emphasis was 

placed on the importance of cooperation 

of the governments with the international 

organizations in order to prevent the ex-

tension of illicit drug traffic and increased 

drug addiction resulting from the war. 

T h e Minutes of this meeting were pub-

lished in Geneva, December 1940. 

T h e Permanent Central Opium Board 

is concerned with the control of trade in 

narcotic drugs, based on statistics supplied 

by the various governments. In January 

1941 it issued the regular Annual Report 

on the Statistics of Narcotics for 1939 

and the IVork of the Board during 1940. 

T h i s report which is based on statistics 

received from fifty countries and from 

ninety to one hundred dependencies, is 

mainly statistical as war conditions have 

made it necessary to omit analysis and 

comment. 

T h e D r u g Supervisory Body is the or-

ganization which determines the lawful 

amount of drugs that may be manufactured 

and consumed throughout the world dur-

ing a given year. It examines the estimates 

of the narcotic requirements submitted by 

the various governments and draws up 

estimates for countries for which estimates 

have not been submitted. Its most recent 

statement, Estimated World Requirements 

of Dangerous Drugs in 1942, was pub-

lished in Geneva, December 1941. 

In the spring of 1941, owing to diffi-

culties of communication with certain 

countries, a branch office of the Perma-

nent Central Opium Board and the D r u g 

Supervisory Body was established in Wash-

ington where the control of drug traffic 

will be centered during the present war. 

Refugees 

By a resolution passed by the Assembly 

of the League of Nations in September 

1938 the Nansen International Office for 

Refugees ceased its activities in Decem-

ber 1938 and a high commissioner of the 

League of Nations was appointed to deal 

with refugees. T h e high commissioner 

issued an Annual Report in July 1939, a 

Supplementary Report, October 1939, 

and an Intermediate Report, April 1940. 

His latest report which is dated January 

1941, as in the case of previous ones, deals, 

not only with the humanitarian aspect of 

the refugee problem, but with the provi-

sions made for the legal protection of refu-

gees and their emigration and settlement. 

M u c h of the information included is based 

SEPTEMBER, 1942 
2 77 



on personal interviews of the high com-

missioner with representatives of the 

governments and private organizations as-

sisting in the work. 

Treaty Series 

About two hundred volumes of this 

series have been published since September 

1920. T h e series includes treaties of 

peace, treaties of commerce, international 

conventions, renewals and denunciation of 

treaties, and so forth. T h e texts of the 

treaties are in their original language with 

an English and French translation added 

when the text is not in one of these two 

languages. It is the intention of the league 

to continue the publication of this series as 

long as funds permit. 

Library 

T h e Monthly List of Selected Articles 

resumed publication in January 1941, after 

an interruption from M a y to December 

1940. A t present it is not published each 

month but appears in combined issues at 

various intervals. It is a selected list of 

articles on political, legal, economic, finan-

cial, and social questions of the day com-

piled from abstracts made of about eight 

hundred periodicals appearing in all parts 

of the world. A t the present time there 

is no other such publication being issued in 

Europe. 

Recent Publications on Present Activities 

of the League of Nations 

T h e purpose of the foregoing article has 

been to list and describe the services and 

publications of the league which have con-

tinued during the present W o r l d W a r . 

T h e articles in the following bibliography 

are cited as a useful means of current 

orientation on the actual work of this vast 

organization. 

Geneva Research Center. "Geneva as an 
International Centre." (Its Information 
Bulletin v. 3, no. I, 1940) 

Hambro, C. J. "League Agencies Function-
ing." New York Times, Nov. 3, 1941, p. 
6. 

Mary E. Woolley Committee. Press Release. 
New York, June 1, 1940. 

Sweetser, Arthur. "Correcting a False Im-
pression about the League." New York 
Times, Nov. 23, 1941, Sec. 4, p. 4. 

Sweetser, Arthur. "League Work in Amer-
ica." Changing World 12:7,12, Sept. 
1940. 

Sweetser, Arthur. "The United States and 
World Organization in 1940." (Geneva 
Studies, v. 11, no. 8, Dec. 1940) Reprinted 
in International Conciliation, 1941, p. 603-
13. 

Woolley, Mary E. "Must These Things 
Die?" Changing World 12:9, June 1940. 

332 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES