Legal > Powers and duties attributed to the League of Nations by international treaties

— 8 —
working of the international control of narcotic drugs discussed
in section 6 of this memorandum, there should be the League’s
Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous
Drugs and the Council and Assembly, i.e., a machinery through
which any question as to the observance and operation of the con¬
ventions can in normal times be raised and brought under inter¬
national discussion. Nor does the absence from a convention of
clauses giving functions to the League mean that in normal times
its operation would not be closely followed by the competent tech¬
nical organisation of the League and the possibility of improving
or adding to its provisions be under constant consideration.
The second thing to be remembered is that the activity dealt
with in the present memorandum has been only a part—and a
diminishing part—of the total performance of the League. This is
in particular true in the field of non-political activity. The fact that
several pages are given to sections 6 (Conventions dealing with the
traffic in narcotic drugs) and 10 (The protocols and general bonds
of the so-called League Loans), whereas other subjects are disposed
of in little more than a page, is due to the complexity of the func¬
tions described, and is no index of their importance as compared
with the other work of technical organisations concerned, or that
of the other organisations of the League.
Since the object in view is not to show how the League works,
but only the gaps which would be caused by its disappearance, it
has not seemed necessary to make the memorandum more com¬
plicated by stating in all cases what is the League organ by which
particular functions are performed.
The memorandum deals only with instruments which have come
into force. A note on functions which have not come into force but,
theoretically at least, might still do so, will be found in the Appen¬
dix. It has been felt that no practical purpose would be served by
including functions which for legal or other reasons have ceased
to exist or have ceased to be capable of being performed and do
not seem likely to be revived. Apart from the provisions creating
the League and the International Labour Organisation, this is the
case for most of the functions resulting from the Treaties of Ver¬
sailles, St. Germain, Trianon and Neuilly. Many of them were
subject to a time limit which has expired—Articles 22, 98, 280, 289,
312, 342, 378, 379 of the Treaty of Versailles and corresponding
articles of the three other treaties; Articles 310, 320, 324, 327 of the
Treaty of St. Germain; Articles 292, 293 of the Treaty of Trianon.
Others have been completely performed: for example, the deter-