It was with great relief that I left Geneva today. I took away with me a vague, unpleasant aftertaste. The weather had been foul throughout. The League of Nations smelled of carrion. But what repelled me most of all about Geneva was the fact that I witnessed at first hand the staggering might of the legal-procedural chicanery which has built its nest in the ‘Palace of Nations’. It is the apotheosis of chicanery. An impenetrable web of chicanery. Knots, traps and gaps at every turn. Everything is strictly regulated: every step or action taken by the Assembly, Council or chairman. Even breathing seems to be regulated at the League of Nations. The Secretariat is omnipotent, and Avenol an absolute dictator. He was awfully indignant at my behaviour (and did not conceal this in public). Regulations, traditions and precedents decreed that the chairman should follow the ‘advice’ of the secretary-general whenever in doubt. It has always been thus. The chairmen usually dance to Avenol’s tune like puppets. I took unheard-of liberties: not only did I refuse to be led on his string, but I took issue with him and acted contrary to his advice. He could not forgive me for that. Avenol told everyone that I was too ‘independent’ a chairman and that it was certainly not possible to call me the ‘mouthpiece of the Secretary General’.

[There follows the text of the British proposals, which were based on Chamberlain’s evasive attempt to shift the negotiations to Geneva and conclude an agreement under the umbrella of the League’s covenant. Molotov was quick to dismiss the proposals as ‘unacceptable’. It was an Anglo-French attempt ‘to continue conversations indefinitely and not to bind themselves to any concrete engagement’.

Neilson, Britain Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, pp. 295–7.

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