The Covenant and the Charter
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205200700307 |
| Date | 01 September 1952 |
| Author | S. Mack Eastman |
| Published date | 01 September 1952 |
| Subject Matter | Special Book Review |
SPECIAL
BOOK
REVIEW
The
Covenant
and
the
Charter*
Here
at
last
is
the long-awaited
complete
and authentic history
of
the
League,
written
from
the
inside
by a
thoroughly
competent
and
utterly
devoted
member
of
the
Secretariat.
Frank
P.
Walters
was
a
junior
assistant
to
Lord
Cecil
in
the
commission
on
the
Covenant
in
Paris
in
1919.
For
the
first
thirteen
years
of
the League's
life
in
Geneva, he
was
personal
assistant
to
the
Secretary-General,
Sir
Eric
Drummond;
then
director
of
the Political
Section
and
finally,
to
1940,
Deputy Secretary-General.
This
magnum
opus
fittingly crowns
his
long
and
successful
career
as
an
international
civil
servant.
Springing
naturally
from
the character
and
experience
of
the
author,
these
volumes
are
spontaneously
accurate
and
eminently
readable,-a
sort
of
political
autobiography
without
the
ego.
They
cheer
us
and
depress
us
by
turns
as
we
recall
how
our
hopes
in
the
League
rose
and
fell.
Without
national
bias,
Mr.
Walters
judges
men
and
actions
accord-
ing
to
the
principles
of
the
Covenant,
a
clear and
austere criterion.
This
work
is
indispensable
to
specialists,
and
enlightening
for
laymen:
it
should
be
in
every public
library, for
the
story
of
the
League
is really
very little
known.
The
History
is
divided chronologically
into
five
periods, and
topically
within
each
period,
thus
keeping
the
reader
conscious
of
the
changing
world
around,
yet
without
pretence
of
summarizing
current
history,
or
formulating
a
new
philosophy,
or
otherwise exceeding
self-imposed
limits.
Mr. Walters
had
access
to
all
the League's
published
records
and
unpublished
files;
he
appends
no
bibliography:
it
would
be
too
long;
he
further
saves space
by
giving
exact dates instead
of
constant
footnote
references
to
authorities.
The
five
periods
of
the Great
Experiment
are
seen
as
follows:
The
Making
of
the
League
(from
its
antecedents
to
1920),
The
Years
of
Growth
(to
September
1923),
The Years
of
Stability
(to
September
1931),
The
Years
of
Conflict (to
March
19ý36),
The
Years
of
Defeat
(to
the
second
world
war).
In
my
allotted
space
I
can
attempt
only
to
outline
and
occasionally
comment upon
the
author's
treatment
of
certain
subjects.
Nothing
need
be
said
of
his
interesting
and
masterly description
of
the organs
of
the
League
and
their
actual
functioning:
we
turn
rather
to the
fundamental
political
problems.
*A
HISTORY
OF
THE LEAGUE
OF
NATIONs.
2
Vols.
By
F.
P.
Walters.
1952.
(London,
Toronto:
Oxford,
for
the
Royal
Institute
of
International
Affairs.
xxiii,
833
pp.
$10.00,
members
$8.00.)
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