. League of Nations League of Nations was the brainchild of American president Woodrow Wilson. It was Wilson’s desire that a League in which the states of the world would join and cooperate for the preservation of peace be established. The Covenant of the League was worked out at the Paris Peace Conference, and included every treaty signed after the First World War.
He believed that the defeat of Germany would mean the rejection of militarism and therefore the organisation of a comity of nations to control international relations was necessary rather than the ineffective balance of power. Wilson took personal interest to see that this task was accomplished. League of Nations Structure and Composition In drawing up the constitution of this organisation, the ideas of Britain and America prevailed. The League consisted of five bodies: the Assembly, the Council, the Secretariat, the Permanent Court of Justice, and the International Labour Organisation.
Each member-country was represented in the Assembly. It discussed general policy and any decision taken in the Assembly had to be unanimous. The Council was the executive of the League. Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States were originally declared permanent members of the Council.
Each member had one vote and since all decisions had to be unanimous, even the small nations, in effect, possessed the right of veto. Secretariat The Secretariat of the League of Nations was located at Geneva and the first Secretary General was Sir Eric Drummond from Britain. The International Court of Justice was set up in The Hague. The International Labour Organisation comprised a secretariat and a general conference which included four representatives from each country.
Objectives of the League The two-fold objective of the League of Nations was to avoid war and maintain peace in the world and to promote international cooperation in economic and social affairs. The League intended to act as conciliator and arbitrator, and thereby resolve a dispute in its early stages. If wars should break out despite arbitration, the members were to apply sanctions to the aggressor - first economic and then military. The difficulty in achieving