300 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
what they simply could not and would not understand was
that the Norwegian Premier in particular should suddenly
attempt to override considerations of rationalistic politics. Why
could not Dr. Mowinckel see, like the rest, that many of the
states^ including some Great Powers, saw in the Soviet Union a
business colleague., even a future ally, for which reason they
themselves, even in a humanitarian question like this, must
treat with consideration the co-signatory of a future treaty.1
It was shown once more that this predominance of political
interests in Europe means a death sentence for every attempt
to bring developments at Geneva on to a higher plane. The
fiasco of the disarmament conference is a further proof of this.
Is it surprising that the League of Nations is to-day passing
through a severe moral crisis, that its prestige as the repre-
sentative of the ideal of supernational co-operation for the
realization of loftier and better principles is sinking lower and
lower?
If Dr. Mowinckel had succeeded in persuading the Geneva
Assembly to inform the Soviet Government in suitable language
that the question of the famine or of relief must be cleared
up without further delay, and that if the existence of the
famine was denied, the matter must be investigated—for
example, by sending a committee of experts to Russia, the
League of Nations would have done a striking service not only
to the good cause, but to its own prestige. Even if it had taken
some time to break down any resistance offered by the Bol-
sheviks, Moscow must in the long run have given way under
the moral pressure of the world's public opinion.
In view of the attitude of the majority of the League Council
the Norwegian Premier had no choice but to approach the
1 A well-known Geneva correspondent observed to the writer: "What
is the use of all this talk ahout the people who are dying in Russia? You
are pushing at an open door. No one but Herriot thinks of denying that
there is a famine in South Russia. But, for the well-known political reasons,
there is no possibility now of a discussion of the famine., an awkward question
for Moscow and so for its friends too—let alone any talk of relief,"