Word: avenol
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Badgered by the charming lady who thinks he should pay her more alimony, M. Joseph Avenol, Secretary General of the League of Nations, was full of private grief last week. Even so, something had to be done to mark the fact that Japan's resignation from the League became effective last week, exactly two years after the Japanese delegation defiantly walked out headed by cold-cigar-chewing Japanese League Delegate Yosuke Matsuoka (TIME, March 6, 1933). Turning from his own troubles to the League's, M. Avenol, unaware that he was stirring up two Oriental hornets' nests...
Instantly Chinese League Delegate Victor Hoo buzzed in to sting the Secretary General. "What does he mean by saying Japan now has no 'obligations'?" asked Dr. Hoo. "It is not for M. Avenol to interpret the Covenant of the League of Nations. In a wide sense he has ventured to contradict Article i, Paragraph 3!" This article provides that a League member may withdraw after two years' notice only if "all its international obligations and all its obligations under this Covenant shall have been fulfilled at the time of its withdrawal...
Since Japan flouted its League obligations by puppetizing Manchuria before withdrawing from the League, the inescapable inference from Dr. Hoo's protest, an inference he adroitly left for others to draw, is that Japan cannot pull out of the League. "I deplore M. Avenol's conception of Japan's obligations, a conception which would weaken the Covenant!" cried Dr. Hoo. "Under such a conception any country could violate the Covenant and withdraw with impunity...
Even the fat Swiss scrubwomen of the League of Nations were excited last week about Russia. As for M. Josef Avenol, the secretive, suspicious Frenchman who last year succeeded popular Sir Eric Drummond as League Secretary General, he became almost human. Secretary Avenol is a recluse who lives in a vast Geneva villa jammed with works of art and historical manuscripts he has picked up on his extensive travels. When Japan and then Germany quit the League, mournful M. Avenol prepared for the worst (TIME, Oct. 23). "The League has lost popularity and prestige," he croaked...
...villa Pessimist Avenol settled down to wait for chaos. He was roused by French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou's project for an Eastern Locarno Pact in which was implicit the idea that Russia as a major signatory should enter the League (TIME, July 23). This week the League Council and Assembly will meet in Geneva and M. Avenol was aquiver with hope and expectation that the League will more than make up for its loss of Japan and Germany by gaining Soviet Russia...