392 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

League; it was to be the organisation which would preserve peace.
The peoples of the world, in concentrating attention on this
topic, have been inclined to underestimate the other activities;
but that concentration has been fundamentally right. For unless
the peace is preserved, all other work is halted short of its goal,
as the example of the war on China shows. Unless the League
Members can take effective action against any State which breaks
its word, Treaties and Conventions have little force. The
Assembly and, usually, the Council, meet in public; the Prime
Ministers or Foreign Secretaries of the Powers attend; the U.S.A.
has changed its attitude from contempt to friendly interest. All
this means that a blaze of publicity lights up any breach of faith
or social abuse; and for fifteen years this served to raise the
standard of international conduct. But should any State be
prepared to defy world opinion, how was it to be answered?
The League is not a World State with a force of its own. It is
an organisation set up by Sovereign States, by means of Treaties.
These Treaties are exceptionally solemn and comprehensive, but
the parties to them are still Sovereign. Can the organisation be
used to exercise the necessary common authority? Before
examining this question it will be convenient to describe the
parallel institutions dealing with Labour and Justice; their work,
like.that of the League, rests in the last resort on the maintenance
of the Rule of International Law.

THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION.

The Peace Treaties recognised the connection between peace
and social justice* A land where discontent prevails may be torn
by civil war in which foreign nations may, for their own purposes,
take part. If oppression of labour is wide-spread, nations will be
eager to snatch colonies in order to profit from overworking the
natives. The I.L.O. was accordingly set up; it is a separate body
from the League and its membership includes the U.S.A. and
Brazil as well as the League States. Comparable to the League
Assembly and Council respectively are the General Conference