LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND EDUCATION. The question of interesting the younger generation in the ideals and aims of the League was first raised in the Assembly of the League in 1923. The 1924 Assembly instructed the secretariat to make it a subject of special investigation.
A report was presented to the Assembly in 1925, who decided to request the international committee on intellectual co-operation "to consider the possibility of summoning a sub committee of experts to consider and co-ordinate the means for making the League of Nations known to young people, and for familiarizing them with the idea of international co-operation." The committee on intellectual co-operation accepted this pro posal. A sub-committee was appointed and its report was sub mitted to the Assembly of 1927. It recommended : (I) Instruction in the League in international co-operation as part of the formal education of every child; (2) such instruction, where possible, to be correlated with the geography, history, civics or moral instruc tion; (3) special attention to the subject in training colleges; (4) similar instruction in all special schools, agricultural, technical, military, etc. ; (5) provision of special literature, including refer ence books by experts; (6) facilities for special courses for teachers at Geneva, etc. ; (7) special lectures in universities as to international law compulsory for all law students.
As regards administrative machinery, the report recommended: (a) A national conference in each country "to ensure co-operation between the administrative authorities, teachers and voluntary associations;" (b) an official centre for information concerning the progress of the work; (c) the maintenance of the sub-com mittee of experts to review progress and consider further action.
Meanwhile the Assembly of 1926 had passed a further resolution asking the Governments and other competent authorities to pro vide scholarships to enable students to visit Geneva before and during the Assembly, so as to obtain a first-hand knowledge of the League.
Up to Aug. 1928, 25 Governments had sent in reports to the secretary-general recording progress: South Africa, Argentine, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, the Irish Free State, Liberia, Lithuania, Holland and the Dutch Indies, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Rumania, Salvador, Siam, Vene zuela and Yugoslavia. One Government, that of Great Britain, had held a national conference of local education authorities. Eight Governments (Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Rumania, Sweden and the Saar Territory) had awarded scholarships to enable students to visit Geneva and gain a first hand knowledge of the League through attendance at the Geneva School of International Studies, which had been organized to serve this purpose. The fifth session of the school was held in the summer of 1928. It was attended by 311 university students and teachers from 29 nationalities, of whom 167 stayed for a month and over. Among these were parties of secondary school teachers from Great Britain, the United States and the Saar Territory; 46 in all.
See How to Make the League of Nations Known and to Develop the Spirit of International Co-operation: Recommendations by the sub-committee of experts (1927) ; Alfred Zimmern, Learning and Leadership (1928). (A. Z.)