Model League of Nations Assembly To Be Attended By Harvard Delegations

The following special article on the Model League of Nations Assembly to which Harvard is sending a delegation, has been written for the Crimson by D. H. Popper '32, the League's vice-president.

Approximately twenty-five delegates from Harvard, it is expected, will be present at the fifth annual session of the Model League of Nations Assembly, which meets at Providence on March 4 and 5 next to consider a few of the pressing problems in the international field today. The Model Assembly, as its name implies, is conducted as far as possible along the lines of the organization it strives to reproduce, and this year Harvard will present the view points of France, Slam, and Chile in the discussions.

Chinese Crisis

Harvard students will participate in the meetings of all three of the Assembly Committees, small bodies which whip into shape the material to be presented to the plenary session of the Assembly for consideration and action. Leadership in the model meeting of the League Council, which will discuss the pressing crisis in Manchuria and in Shanghal, will likewise fall to the group representing the French delegation. These delegates anticipate a difficult task in defence of the French position, one which has been subject to severe criticism in the past few years.

Three Committees

The three committees this year will discuss matters of greatest interest at Geneva today. The first will consider the prospects for world disarmament, under the leadership of the delegation from Smith College, which represents Canada. The second is scheduled to debate the question of revision of the Treaty of Versailles, with special regard to the situation now confronting Germany and Poland in the Polish Corridor. The Chairmanship of this body falls to Yale, representing Germany. The third committee will enter the vast field of economic questions, placing special stress upon the international gold situation, the possibilities of bimelallism, and the potentialities inherent in the reparations question. Amherst, acting as Great Britain, will conduct this discussion.

Broadcast Proceedings

On Friday, March 4, as group which will act as a model Council will hold a session before the entire assemblage of delegates. Arrangements are, being made for the broadcasting of this feature, at which a member of the Harvard delegation (as Aristide Briand of France) will preside.

The program this year has been shaped by the officers of the Model League with a special view to the attraction of students of wide and varied interests to participate in the sessions. Students of government and modern history will discover many topics the consideration of which will directly touch their fields of study. For the first time, a strong bid for the participation of students in economics has been made in the shape of the committee to discuss economic questions. The chief value of the Assembly, however, is still for the collegian who, while his activities do not lie directly in these fields, possesses an intelligent interest in current affairs of international scope, and for him who desires to acquire some insight into the bases and conditioning forces of contemporary problems without so much consideration of technical points as will make such discussions tiresome or incomprehensible. The technique of procedure in the Model Assembly, as in the actual workings of the League itself, revolves mainly about the central idea of pacific persuasion and consequent voluntary concerted action; and the method for the accomplishment of this end has been found in past years to be the presentation of a valid and interesting case for the position of a valid and interesting case for the position which is being defended.

Organization Meeting

The organization of the Harvard delegation this year will be undertaken at a student meeting to be held in the near future. Details with regard to joining the group will appear in the CRIMSON within a few days. A special shelf in the Reading Room at widener, it is expected, will be set aside for bibliographical matter. Graduate students as well as undergraduate are welcome. A small registration fee covers accommodations at Providence, luncheons, and the annual dance of the Model Assembly. Transportation, too, may possibly be provided.