The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire

590 Pages·2015·7.634 MB·English

by  Susan Pedersen

The GuaRdians
Frontispiece. Permanent Mandates Commission, 1929. seated, left to right: sir
Frederick Lugard, Valentine dannevig, Marquis alberto Theodoli, d. F. W. Van
Rees, and Pierre Orts. standing, left to right: nobumichi sakenobe, Ludwig Kastl,
William Weaver, Martial Merlin, William Rappard, Count de Penha Garcia, Vito
Catastini, and Leopoldo Palacios.
The GuaRdians
the league of nations and
the crisis of empire
susan PedeRsen
1
1
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it isn’t to harm the slave, that we say he must be ruled . . . but because it is
better for everyone to be ruled by divine reason, preferably within himself
and his own, otherwise imposed from without . . . This is clearly the aim of
the law, which is the ally of everyone. But it’s also our aim in ruling our
children, we don’t allow them to be free until we establish a constitution in
them, just as in a city, and—by fostering their best part with our own—
equip them with a guardian and ruler similar to our own to take our place.
Then, and only then, we set them free.
Plato, Republic, Book iX
(trans. G. M. a. Grube)

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Tables and Maps xi
Principal Players xii
introduction: Guardians assemble 1
PaRT i. MakinG The MandaTes sysTeM
1. Of Covenants and Carve-ups 17
2. Rules of the Game 45
3. a Whole World Talking 77
PaRT ii. ReTReaT fRoM
self-deTeRMinaTion, 1923–30
Preface: allies and Rivals 107
4. news from the Orange River 112
5. Bombing damascus 142
6. a Pacific People says no 169
PaRT iii. new TiMes, new noRMs, 1927–33
Preface: enter the Germans 195
7. The struggle over sovereignty 204
8. Market economies or Command economies? 233
9. an independence safe for empire 261
viii contents
PaRT iV. BeTween eMPiRe and
inTeRnaTionalisM, 1933–39
Preface: Multiple exits 289
10. Legitimation Crisis 296
11. When empire stopped Working 325
12. When internationalism stopped Working 356
Conclusion: Mandatory statehood in the Making 394
Appendix I: Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations 408
Appendix II: Principal Administrators of the Mandated Territories
and Appearances before the PMC 410
Acknowledgements 414
A Note on Sources 418
Notes 421
Works Cited 519
Illustration Credits 547
Index 549
List of Illustrations
Frontispiece The members of the Permanent Mandates Commission, 1929 ii
1.1 Faysal bin husayn, King of syria (1920) and of iraq (1921–33) 21
1.2 Chaim Weizmann, William Ormsby-Gore, and the Zionist Commission
to Palestine, spring 1918 26
1.3 east african Schutztruppen officers on parade in Berlin, 2 March 1919 32
1.4 allies at odds, May 1920 36
1.5 architects of mandate syria: General Gouraud, François
Georges-Picot, and Robert de Caix 37
1.6 Faysal inspecting troops, aleppo, June 1920 38
1.7 General Gouraud inspecting troops before the battle of Maysalun,
July 1920 39
1.8 herbert samuel’s arrival in Jaffa as first high Commissioner 42
1.9 architects of mandate Palestine: emir abdullah, herbert samuel,
and Winston Churchill 43
2.1 sir eric drummond 47
2.2 William Rappard with the staff of the Mandates section 56
3.1 The syro-Palestinian Congress, Geneva, august 1921 81
3.2 Lord Balfour opens hebrew university, april 1925 101
4.1 dantès Bellegarde, delegate of haiti to the League of nations 113
4.2 smuts arriving in Windhoek 117
4.3 Gysbert hofmeyr with officials 117
4.4 abraham Morris, leader of the Bondelswarts rebellion 119
4.5 The Permanent Mandates Commission in session, 1924 128
5.1 Gabriel Carbillet with druze, c. 1925 143
5.2 sultan al-atrash in exile 145
5.3 al-atrash with druze and Bedouin fighters during a prisoner
exchange, 1925 146
5.4 destruction of the azm Palace, October 1925 148
5.5 Palestine high Commissioner Viscount Plumer and syria high
Commissioner henry de Jouvenel, april 1926 161