The complete failure of the League!
to-day needing neither further proof' nor further discussion, the official statement continues. The hopes, above all of the many small states, placed in the League have dis: Appeared with the recognition that the Geneva policy of collective secur. ity has in reality Jed to collective insecurity. Only from Moscow can one to-day hear an tunqualifled avowal of the Geneva ideals, If now and an attempt is made to explain the failure of the Geneva institution by its Inck of universality, this 1s quite obviously a confusion of cause and. effect, The reasons that caused frst Japan, then Germany and now Italy leave the League prove—it is phasized—where be the radical' mistakes in the attitude and political tendencies that dominate it. It is hopeless to endeavour to try to remove these radical mistakes by partial reforms Whether the Great Powers still remaining at Geneva will desire after this to employ the League of Nations a a serious factor in their policy is their affair, the commentary continues. These Powers would however no longer have the right to extol the League of Nations as the authoritative representative of a world-wide union of states and as the supreme organ of international ce: operation.
The official statement concludes: "In any case the Reichs Government will, in accord with the Italian Government, not allow Its conviction to be weakened that the political system of Geneva Is not only mistaken but also reprehensible. The return of Ger~ many to the League of Nations will therefore never again come Into con-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.