The inauguration of the League of Nations took place at Paris in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 16, 1920. Representatives of the eight members of the Council, exclusive of the United States, namely, Belgium, Brazil, the British Empire, France,Greece, Italy, Japan and Spain, formally met, elected M. Leon Bourgeois, of France, the first chairman of the Council, and proceeded to organize the machinery for the practical execution of the clauses of the Treaty of Peace, the urgent necessity of which, the chairman explained, made it impossible further to postpone the meeting of the Council.

If a defeated Japan is to be “ pared back to her volcanic core,” China will be a prime beneficiary. The Cairo Declaration promised to return to her Formosa, the Pescadores, and Manchuria. But what of those parts of the Japanese colonial empire which were not Chinese? Some other arrangements must be made for Korea and the Japanese mandated islands. Liquidation of Italy's African empire raises similar questions.

South Asia is now poised for a nuclear arms race. Pakistan has learned how to make enriched uranium—the material that destroyed Hiroshima— and has been buying the electronic switches and hollow steel spheres used for implosion. It has tested, successfully, an implosion bomb with a dummy core. On the Indian side, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has been saying that India could make an atomic bomb “in a matter of several weeks” and “could have done so for the past ten or eleven years.”

Public Report of Review of NAO Submission No. 9703.

U.S. National Administrative Office, U.S. Department of Labor, July 31, 1998.

On July 31,1998, the U.S. National Administrative Office (NAO) issued its Public Report of Review (Report) on a petition filed by several U.S. and Canadian labor unions alleging labor law violations in Mexico. The Report found credible allegations that Mexican workers were threatened and attacked as they sought to pursue legitimate union activities at an export-processing plant in Ciudad de los Reyes, Mexico. In addition, the Report determined that Mexican officials had failed to protect the labor interests of Mexican workers seeking to exercise their freedom of association. The Report called for ministerial consultations between the U.S. Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare of Mexico to address these issues.

On September 20, 1967, the Governments of Denmark, Norway and Sweden instituted an action against Greece before the European Commission of Human Rights. The Netherlands took the same step on September 27, 1967. These proceedings were brought in response to a resolution adopted on June 23, 1967, by the Standing Committee of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe which, on behalf of the Assembly, expressed “the wish that the Governments of the Contracting Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights refer the Greek case, either separately or jointly, to the European Commission of Human Rights in accordance with Article 24 of the Convention.”

The shade of distinction sought to be shown by the title of this paper may require explanation. Imperfect wording involves either carelessness or ignorance; bad faith indicates dishonesty; nonexecution or disregard implies laxness in the government, if not carelessness; adverse or hostile municipal or judicial action connotes lack of coordination between the internal and external affairs of the State. It follows that such adverse action may be considered from a practical point of view as almost a normal kind of violence against international contracts. It is not to be excused on that account, but it may be considered as a frictional incident almost inseparable under some conditions from the existence of a State. Given either a government of definitely separated elements, such as the United States, or a government without much stability, or a State founded on a type of civilization different from the European order, and this sort of violation of treaty may be forecasted with certainty. Fortunately, however, the instances that cause contractual friction of this sort are of the grosser kinds of personal violence, or are commercial; they are not of a political character, cannot be said to involve policy, and only by a stretch of the imagination involve the tweedledum and tweedledee of international relations, “national honor and vital interest.” They are consequently extremely susceptible to simple and orderly solution.