Book Review: International Law and Organization: Betrayal from Within: Joseph Avenol, Secretary-General of the League of Nations, 1933–1940
| Author | Henri Reymond |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500315 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
641
sector, both in
oil
exploration and
in
oil
refining,
partly
with various
forms
of
aid from
the
USSR.
It
also
forced
the
three
international
major
companies
operating
in
India
to
reduce
their
costs
of
imported
crude
oil
and
their
prices
of
products,
while
allowing
them
gradually
to
expand
their
refineries.
It
even
managed
to
allocate
some
of
its
scarce
capital
to
the
search
for
oil
in
the
Persian
Gulf.
Nonetheless,
it
receives
a
poorer
mark
in
terms
of
over-all
results
in
the
energy
field
than
does
China, which
had
no
ambivalence
as
between
the
public
and
the
private
sectors.
In
rather
more
summary
form,
the
work
also
traces
the
varying
experiences of
Mexico,
Cuba,
Iraq,
and
various
countries
of
Latin
America.
Dr.
Tanzer
knows
a
good
deal
about
the
world
oil
industry.
What
a
number
of others
who
also know
it
would
quarrel
with
are
many
of
his
analyses and
interpretations.
For
him,
social
costs seem
always
to
be
less
than
economic
costs.
Many
of
the
latter
(e.g.,
the
costs
of
tax
and
royalty
payments
to the
governments
of
countries
producing
crude
oil)
fail
to
appear
in
the
calculations.
Equally, government
operation,
whether
the
result
of
nationalization
or
of
direct
investment, always
aims
at
the
nation's
interest
more
surely
than
does
a
market-oriented,
private
system.
Oil
investment
by
the
government
of
an
underdeveloped
country
comes
out
a
winner without
any
need
for
comparing
it
with
other national
needs
for
capital
and effort.
Plowing
back
oil
profits
into
the
economy
through
government
ownership
and
operation
is
more
advantageous
than
plowing
back
oil
royalties
because
Mexico
is
judged
to
have
done well
by
the
former
route,
Iraq
not
so
well
by
the
latter.
Dr. Tanzer
does
recognize
that
the
oil
scene
internationally
is
changing,
that
the
advent
of
many
new
companies
(some
government-
owned),
new
supply
sources (such
as
Libya
and Nigeria),
the
squeeze
by
the
oil-producing
countries
on
the
oil
companies,
and
the
constant
pressure
on
them
by
governments of
the
oil-consuming
countries,
all
have
produced
greater
fragmentation,
greater
competition,
and
an
erosion
of
the
high profits
which
once
existed.
Toronto
RONALD
S.
RrrcHm
International
Law
and
Organization
Betrayal
from Within:
Joseph
Avenol,
Secretary-General
of
the
League
of
Nations,
1933-1940.
By
JAMES
BARROS.
New
Haven:
Yale
Univer-
sity
Press
[Montreal:
McGill
University
Press].
1969.
xii,
289pp.
$11.00.
We
have
already had
studies
of
the
role
of
the
secretary-general
in
the
United
Nations.
For
his
predecessor
in
the
League
of Nations,
we
had
so
far
to
look
at
general
works
such
as
Frank
P.
Walters' history
of
the
League,
or
at
memoirs published
after
the
demise of
that
institution
by
statesmen or
diplomats
who,
in
one
way
or
another,
had
participated
in
its
work.
With
his
book
on
Joseph
Avenol,
Professor
Barros
therefore
fills
a
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