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The Finances of the League of Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

J. David Singer
J. David Singer
Affiliation:
Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Michigan.
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Extract

In their first full year of operation, the United Nations and the specialized agencies spent under $25 million; ten years later, in 1956, their total regular budgets were almost $85 million. In that same year the Suez crisis led to the creation of the Emergency Force and the clearing of the Canal, adding about $25 million to the 1957–1958 expenditures. During the past three years 22 governments joined the Organization, adding much to its operating costs but little to its coffers. With the Middle East still in turmoil, and social upheaval dominating world politics, there is increasing agitation for both a permanent UN Force and a drastically expanded economic assistance program. As the Organization seeks to grapple with an ever-mounting range of responsibilities, with the consequent shift from reliance on voluntary programs to regular budgetary outlays, it is quite likely that the estimated expenditures of over $98 million for the Organization and the agencies in 1958 will be doubled within the next five years.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Spring 1959 , pp. 255 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation and Cambridge University Press 1959

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References

1 The annual estimates and expenditures for the UN itself, the specialized agencies, and the several extra-budgetary (voluntary) programs may be found in the General Assembly Official Records, Supplement No. 5A, Information Annex II or III, for each year, tables A and P.

2 From 1945 to 1955: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Budget of the United Nations, New York, 1947Google Scholar; Payne, John, “Accounting and Auditing for the United Nations,“ Journal of Accountancy, February 1947, p. 129–133Google Scholar; and Sumberg, Theodore, “Financing International Institutions,” Social Research, 1946 (Vol. 13, No. 3), p. 276–306Google ScholarPubMed. The dissertations are: Power, John A., Financing the United Nations, Catholic University, still in progressGoogle Scholar; and Singer, J. David, The United Nations Fiscal Process, New York University, 1955Google Scholar. Recent articles include: Mangone, Gerard J. and Srivastava, Anand K., “Budgeting for the United Nations,” International Organization, Autumn 1958 (Vol. 12, No. 3), p. 473–485CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Singer, J. David, “The United Nations Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,” Public Administration, Winter 1957, p. 395–410CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also: Mangone, , Chamberlin, , Backus, , and Sheeline, , “Budget and Revenues,” in Holcombe, Arthur M., ed., Strengthening the United Nations, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1957.Google ScholarForthcoming are: Egger, Rowland, International Budgets: Some Problems of Multilateral and Bilateral Program and Budgetary CoordinationGoogle Scholar; and Singer, J. David, Financing the United Nations.Google Scholar

3 The most valuable are: Loveday, A., Reflections on International Administration, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956;Google ScholarRanshofen-Wertheimer, Egon, The International Secretariat: A Great Experiment in International Administration, Washington, Carnegie Endowment, 1945;Google ScholarWalters, Francis P., Administrative Problems of International Organization, London, Oxford University Press, 1941;Google ScholarWalters, , A History of the League of Nations, London, Oxford University Press, 1952;Google ScholarHoward-Ellis, C., The Origin, Structure, and Working of the League of Nations, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1928;Google Scholarand Burton, Margaret E., The Assembly of the League of Nations, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1941.Google Scholar

4 When the Spanish delegation suggested that the Covenant ought to “specify what organ of the League shall determine the budget and approve the accounts”, David Hunter Miller noted that “the meeting was not particularly interesting, as it consisted simply of amendments proposed by neutrals”. My Diary at the Conference of Paris, New York, Appeal Printing Company, 1924, Vol. I, p. 194, and Vol. VII, p. 89.Google Scholar

5 League of Nations, Official Journal, 1920 (No. 8), p. 21Google Scholar; ibid. (No. 5), p. 274.

6 ibid., 1920 (No. 5), p. 327. The gold franc was a hypothetical currency, roughly equivalent to the Swiss franc (five to the dollar) but not subject to regular currency fluctuations.

7 Ames, Herbert, Financial Administration and Apportionment of Expenses, Geneva, League of Nations Information Section, 1923, p. 7.Google Scholar

8 League of Nations, Assembly, I, 1920, Records, Meetings of the Committees, Vol. I, p. 62, and Vol. II, p. 141–143: Records, Plenary, p. 29.Google Scholar

9 When it was moved by Sir George Foster that this Committee make its report to the Council, Sir James Allen objected strenuously, but his was the only dissenting vote on the matter. League of Nations, Assembly, I, 1920, Records, Meetings of the Committees, Vol. II, p. 77.Google Scholar

10 League of Nations, Official Journal, 1921 (No. 2), p. 113.Google Scholar

11 Jacklin, Seymour, “The Finances of the League,” International Affairs, September 1934, p. 702.Google Scholar

12 League of Nations, Assembly, II, 1921, Records, Meetings of the Committees, Vol. II. p. 193.Google Scholar

13 ibid., p. 53; League of Nations, Council, 1921, Minutes of Sessions, 14th Session, p. 128.Google Scholar

14 League of Nations, Assembly, III, 1922, Records, Meetings of the Committees, Vol. IV, p. 105–110, 264, 270.Google Scholar

15 Ames, Herbert, “Reminiscences of an International Treasurer”, Seven Years with the League of Nations, New York, 1928, p. 55Google Scholar; UN Document PC/AB/1, November 26, 1945. p. 3.Google Scholar

16 Hambro's final victory in the fight to “democratize” fiscal control was his own election to the Commission in 1931.Google Scholar

17 Egger, Rowland, “Road to Gethsemane,” Public Administration Review, 1946 (Vol. 6, No. 1), p. 75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Walters, , A History of the League of Nations, Vol. I, p. 132.Google Scholar

19 League of Nations, Official Journal, 1938, p. 701, and 1939, p. 423.Google Scholar

20 UN Document PC/AB/1, p. 7. Confirmed by Ames, Financial Administration and Apportionment of Expenses, p. 12.Google Scholar

21 LN Document C.614.M.191.1928, January 1, 1929, article 16, par. 4.Google Scholar

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24 League of Nations, Assembly, VI, 1925, Records, Plenary, Supp. 37, P. 60Google Scholar; ibid., VIII, 1927, Supp. 54, p. 200; Sumberg, , op. cit., p. 280; UN Document PC/AB/1, p. 7. Not all observers agreed, however, on the need for unanimity.Google ScholarA member of the Supervisory Commission wrote that “neither the estimate itself, nor the account requires unanimity, but only a majority of votes”. Nederbragt, J. A., The Budget of the League of Nations, The Hague, 1921, p. 21.Google Scholar

25 Miller, David Hunter, The Drafting of the Covenant, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1928, Vol. I, p. 157.Google Scholar

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27 ibid., p. 5, 33, 124.

28 ibid., p. 76–79. Over strong opposition, this resolution also provided for retroactivity back to 1921 of the scale to be adopted.Google Scholar

29 ibid., p. 159; Official Journal, No. 28, p. 332.Google Scholar

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31 Jenks, C. Wilfred, “Some Legal Aspects of the Financing of International Institutions,” Transactions of the Grotius Society, 1943 (Vol. 28), p. 89–90.Google ScholarAccording to his figures, percentages collected in the year due ranged from a low of 39.41 percent in 1940 to a high of 94.61 percent in 1937. While the League averaged 76.36 percent collections in the year due, much of this income never arrived until the last weeks of the year.Google Scholar

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36 Jenks, , op, cit., p. 92.Google Scholar

37 For a discussion of the process by which new loyalties are generated, see Guetzkow, Harold, Multiple Loyalties: Theoretical Approach to a Problem in International Organization, Princeton, Center for Research on World Political Institutions, 1955. Chap. III;Google Scholarand Bateson, Gregory, “The Pattern of an Armaments Race,” p. 131, in Haring, Douglas G., Personal Character and Cultural Milieu, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 1949.Google Scholar

38 U. S. Senate, Subcommittee on the United Nations Charter, Budgetary and Financial Problems of the United Nations, Staff Study No. 6, Washington, Government Printing Office, December 1954.Google Scholar The writer was Francis Wilcox, now Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.

39 Wright, Quincy, “Modes of Financing Unions of States as a Measure of Their Degree of Integration,” International Organization, Winter 1957 (Vol. II, No. 1), p. 35.Google Scholar