Also in October 1925, following an incident where Greek soldiers were killed on the Bulgarian border, Greece invaded Bulgaria. The Bulgarians appealed to the league for help. The league condemned the Greek action and ordered it to pull out and pay compensation to Bulgaria. Faced with this moral condemnation, it yielded. This shows how the league’s strategy of moral condemnation was working successfully.
But it wasn’t just border disputes the league had success with. They were also successful in making social and industrial improvements. The league did tremendous work to get refugees and former prisoners of war, back to their home countries. It is estimated that in just the first few years after the war, about 400 000 prisoners were returned to their homes by the leagues agencies. Also in 1922, when a refugee crisis hit Turkey, hundreds of thousands of people had to be housed in refugee camps. The League acted quickly to stamp out cholera, small pox and dysentery in the camps.
The League also strived hard to improve working conditions around the world. The international labour organisation was successful in banning poisonous white lead from paint and in limiting the hours small children were allowed to work. They also introduced a resolution for a maximum 48 hour week and an eight hour day.
The league worked hard to defeat the terrible diseases such as leprosy. It also started global campaigns to exterminate mosquitoes, greatly reducing the cases of malaria and yellow fever in later decades. To add to this success even the USSR, a country opposed to the League, took its advice on preventing plague in Siberia.
Aside from health and working conditions, the League also helped greatly in solving social problems. It blacklisted four large Dutch, Swiss, French and German companies which were involved in illegal drug trade. In addition, it helped free 200,000 slaves in Sierra Leone and organised raids against slave owners and traders in Burma. League pressure also bought down the number of deaths at the Tanganyika railway in Africa from a colossal 50 percent to a “much more acceptable” 4 percent. Even in the areas where it could not remove social injustice, the League kept careful records of the goings on and provided information on problems such as prostitution, slavery and drug trafficking.
Despite its successes the League did have its failings. From the very start the League encountered difficulties when U.S.A refused to join, despite being Wilson’s idea. This stressed the lack of confidence people had in the league at the start, especially the Americans, who were not convinced about its effectiveness and felt there country would be better off isolating themselves from the affairs of Europe. Furthermore, America’s refusal to join the league meant that the way it dealt with aggression from other countries, by either economic sanctions or moral condemnation would be undermined as an aggressor could still continue trade with non members, such as the USA. Also without the backing of the most powerful country in the world, moral condemnation would not be as effective.
The league also faced difficulties when it came to its most powerful members, Britain and France. After the war neither country was the world power it once was and neither had the resources to fill the gap left by USA. Also they had their own agendas and put them before the league. Britain was busy re-building trade and looking after its empires than concentrating on helping the international peace keeping force. France’s main concern was still Germany and it felt that without an army of its own, the league would be unable to protect them. This made France quite prepared to bypass the league if necessary, in order to strengthen its position against Germany.
Even the very structure of the league made it difficult to pass anything as the decision would have to be unanimous and even then, permanent countries would have no way of enforcing the rulings.
To add to its failings some border disputes also remained unresolved. An example of this would be the Vilna crisis in 1920, when a private polish army invaded the capital city of Lithuania (Vilna) and simply took control of it. When Lithuania appealed for help, the League protested to Poland but they refused to leave. This shows how Moral condemnation was not working and left the league with only one possible solution, Military action. But this however was not to be, as France did not want to upset Poland, seeing it as a future ally against Germany, and because of this Britain then refused to act alone. In the end the League did nothing and the Poles kept Vilna.
Another failure for the league was the incident at Corfu in 1923, when an Italian general was killed on the Greek border. The Italian leader Mussolini blamed the Greek government for the murder and on 29 August he demanded Greece pay compensation and executes the murderers. Greece had no idea who the murderers were and soon after; Mussolini bombarded and took control of the Greek Island of Corfu. Greece appealed to the League for help. The league quickly condemned Mussolini’s action and ordered Greece pay compensation but that the money is held by the league until the killers could be found. Though officially Mussolini accepted this decision, he worked behind the scenes and convinced the conference of ambassadors to change the ruling. The final result was the Greeks apologising and paying compensation directly to Italy. This was a major failure for the league as not only did Greece have to pay compensation for a murder that wasn’t proven to have been done by them, but Mussolini saw no repercussions for his actions in Corfu. Also it showed how the league was bias towards the stronger country.
The international agreements made in the 1920’s also undermined the league as the majority of those signed did not involve the league directly, despite the goal of these treaties being one of their aims. For example, the Washington treaty stated that countries should limit their navies and though it was a strong move towards disarmament, the league was not involved. Also the Locarno Treaty stated the official acceptance of Germans western borders, as set out by the Treaty of Versailles. Though this gave people new hope for the future and meant Germany could join the league, the agreement itself was negotiated outside the league and so had no bearing on its prestige.
Overall, weather or not the league is deemed successful in the 1920’s depends upon the importance of their successes and failings. Though they did resolve conflicts between countries, the fact of the matter is that neither country was a world power or important enough to cause much of an impact on the league’s reputation. Despite this however the Leagues efforts for social and industrial improvement was commendable and made a big impact on world affairs. However, their failings were numerous ranging from their lack of involvement in important treaties (such as the Washington Treaty and the Dawes Plan), to the Vilna and Corfu crisis. Not to mention the fact that the USA didn’t join despite being Wilson’s idea. In addition to this, the main leaders Britain and France were also pre-occupied and acting in their own interests when really they should have taken on board a more global view. The league also never achieved its goal of Disarmament, and whenever there was move towards this goal, the league was not involved.
In short, one can conclude that despite having successfully averted war between smaller countries and improving industrial and social conditions, the Leagues failings were far more serious and numerous for it to have been successful in the 1920’s.