In Council

During the week the following business was considered at the 29th session (TIME, June 16, 23) of the Council of the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland:

Germany. The Council approved a resolution requesting the Permanent Advisory Commission on Armaments to draw up a technical plan for control of armaments in Germany. This was considered likely to result in transference to the League from the Interallied Mission of military control in Germany.

Central Europe. A British proposal for an immediate investigation into the League's responsibility for military control of Central Europe was carried.

Covenant. There was adopted a resolution calling for the appointment of a committee of jurists to interpret Paragraph 5, Article 4 of the League Covenant with a view to determining the rights of members to sit on the Council when matters affecting their interests are being discussed.

Iraq. Approval of Great Britain's mandate for Iraq was postponed until the September session of the Council in order to permit the thorough examination of a recently concluded treaty between Britain and Iraq.

Opium. A new investigation into the quantity of opium necessary to the world's medical and scientific needs was authorized.

Health. Thanks were conveyed to the Rockefeller Foundation for supplying funds for the establishment of an intelligence bureau at Singapore to combat epidemics in the Far East. The Council also approved the establishment of the bureau.

Albania. The Permanent Court of International Justice was asked to give a decision on a boundary dispute between Albania and Yugo-Slavia. This question was referred to the League by the Council of Ambassadors as a matter likely to endanger peace.

Armaments. In private session the Council decided to distribute as an official document to all Governments represented in the Council a plan for limitation of armaments devised by a group of Americans headed by Prof. J. T. Shotwell of Columbia University and General Tasker Howard Bliss. Sir Eric Drummond, Secretary General of the League, stated that the report would soon be received by President Benes (Premier of Czecho-Slovakia) of the League Council and that he thought it was a serious and probably extremely useful study of the armament problem.

The American plan for limitation of armaments is called a "Draft Treaty of Disarmament and Security," and consists of five parts: Part I contains three articles making aggressive warfare an "international crime;" four articles forbidding and defining acts of aggression; two articles dealing with sanctions of an economic nature to be taken against an aggressor; two articles making the Permanent Court of International Justice sole arbiter of disputes under the Treaty.

Part II in the main deals with the technical details of disarmament and security and the establishment of a permanent advisory committee upon disarmament.

Part III concerns control of armaments through the League, sets forth regulations for the compilation by a special commission of international information on armaments.

Part IV permits and lays down the rules for the conclusion of treaties of mutual assistance between members of the League.

Part V permits any State, member or nonmember of the League, to become a party to the Treaty, allows any State to withdraw on one year's notice, sets forth rules for ratification of the Treaty.

The Draft Treaty was thought to 'be the greatest contribution to the maintenance of world peace that had been devised since the establishment of the League and World Court. Within a comparatively few hours various organizations in Europe had asked for more than 100,000 copies of the peace plan.

The Americans who are responsible for drawing up the Treaty: General Tasker H. Bliss, American representative on the Supreme War Council; General James G. Harbord, onetime Chief of Staff of the American Army; Frederick P. Keppel, onetime Assistant Secretary of War; David Hunter Miller, legal adviser to the U. S. Government at the Paris Peace Conference; Dr. Isaiah Bowman, executive head of the technical experts of the American delegation at the Paris Peace Conference; Dr. James T. Shotwell, professor of History at Columbia University, a member of the American delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, and a commissioner of the Labor Section of the Treaty; Professor John Bates Clark, former director of the Division of Economics and History of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Professor Henry S. Pritchett, President of the Carnegie Foundation; Dr. Joseph Chamberlain, professor of International Law at Columbia University and Dr. Stephen P. Duggan, director of the Institute for International Education of the Carnegie Foundation.

General Tasker Howard Bliss, 70 years of age, is one of the grand old men of the U. S. At the comparatively tender age of 17, Tasker was appointed to West Point. So pleased was he that he walked 28 miles in order to thank the man instrumental in getting him appointed.

In 1875 he was graduated, and his first commission made him second lieutenant in the artillery. His first work was naturally purely military but little by little it was found that he possessed great tact in addition to linguistic and mathematical ability, all of which made him an eminently suitable diplomat. In this latter capacity his services were frequently utilized by the U. S. Government, chiefly in Cuba, the Philippines, and then at Paris during the War.

It has been said that whereas General Pershing had to command, the less spectacular task of being a statesman on the War Council was allotted to General Bliss. His work at Paris was carried out with his characteristic intelligence, courtesy and energy, and earned for him a great reputation.

Great has been his devotion to the Army, and in 42 years of service he has taken only three months and twelve days leave, although he would have been entitled to four years leave on full pay. At the time of the Paris Conference, he, General Pershing and General March were the only U. S. officers entitled to wear four stars on their shoulder straps.