Overture

With showers of blue sparks the great European expresses slid into Geneva's railway station last week, and out of the windows came the bags & brief cases of many a diplomat. Both the Council and the General Assembly of the League of Nations were reopening.

As usual, the statesmen did not wait for the gun. Hardly had they shaken hands with their favorite concierges before they were padding about the corridors, lobbying in each other's bedrooms.

Marked by correspondents as the statesman of this week was that vivacious veteran of high politics the Foreign Minister of France, twinkly-eyed, white-whiskered Louis Barthou. His three big jobs:

1) to get Russia into the League with a permanent seat on the Council;

2) to wring an answer out of Poland as to whether she will or will not sign an "Eastern Locarno" nailing down Germany's frontiers (TIME, July 23);

3) to get action from the League on the issue of whether or not to send an armed force to supervise the Saar plebiscite next January, as urgently demanded by the League's own Commissioner of the Saar, Mr. Geoffrey Knox (TIME, Aug. 27).

After a routine opening, the Council met secretly for its second session, which lasted 15 minutes, ended in a deadlock on the issue of Russia's permanent seat, with Poland and Portugal obstructing action which must be unanimous in the Council.

As the Assembly which acts by two-thirds vote convened, Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Dr. Eduard Benes, "Europe's Smartest Little Statesman.''strongly urged Russia's candidacy. In a pungent speech he hinted that to escape Depression large areas of the world may have to modify their Capitalist systems. Even so, Dr. Benes pessimistically declared, "Perhaps an entire generation is condemned to weakness and a long, painful struggle."

After the Assembly had disposed of such routine business as electing for its President Foreign Minister Richard Sand-ier of Sweden, a thoroughgoing Socialist, it began to appear that Foreign Minister Barthou might reach his first objective even sooner than he had expected. Three days of corridor-padding and bedroom-lobbying had produced the assurance that, when Russia's entry came up in the Council, Poland would vote yes, Argentina and Portugal would cast no ballots.

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