The League of Nations Commissions

Question 1

What was a mandate?

Answer 1

A territory that had been transferred from the control of one country to another (e.g. from Germany’s control to the League’s)

Question 2

What was the Mandates Commission?

Answer 2

A team of expert advisers who ensured Britain and France acted in the interests of the people of that territory, not its own interests

Question 3

Why was the Mandates Commission necessary?

Answer 3

Germany’s overseas colonies had been taken over the League of Nation (in reality, Britain and France)

Question 4

Did the Mandates Commission just focus on territories in the hands of Britain and France?

Answer 4

No - it also protected minorities, particularly in states that had been created as part of the peace treaties of 1919-23 (e.g. Czechoslovakia)

Question 5

Why was there a need for the Refugees Committee?

Answer 5

WWI had left hundreds of thousands of people trying to get home - if they still had a home to get to

Question 6

Which areas had the largest numbers of refugees?

Answer 6

Former Russian territories (the Balkans, Greece, Armenia and Turkey)

Question 7

Who did the League appoint to find homes for these refugees?

Answer 7

Famous explorer, Fridtjof Nansen (Frid - t - jof Nansen)

Question 8

How many people did Nansen and his team help return home?

Answer 8

450,000

Question 9

How was the Refugee Commission considered?

Answer 9

As a tremendous success for helping deal with a huge refugee crisis (one of the largest the world had ever seen)

Question 10

What did the Slavery Commission work to do?

Answer 10

Abolish slavery around the world - particularly in East Africa

Question 11

How many slaves did the Slavery Commission manage to free?

Answer 11

200,000 (from Sierra Leone)

Question 12

How many prisoners of war did the League help return home?

Answer 12

500,000

Question 13

What was the Nansen passport?

Answer 13

A passport to stateless refugees, which allowed them to travel around the world. (Named after Fridtjof Nansen, the explorer.)

Question 14

Who led the Health Organisation?

Answer 14

Ludwig Rajchman

Question 15

How was the Health Organisation regarded?

Answer 15

As one of the most successful of the League’s agencies

Question 16

What did the Health Organisation achieve in the USSR?

Answer 16

It helped prevent a typhus epidemic in Siberia by organising a public health campaign

Question 17

What did the Health Organisation begin with relation to mosquitoes?

Answer 17

An international campaign to exterminate them

Question 18

What impact did the campaign to exterminate mosquitoes have?

Answer 18

It helped reduce the spread of malaria and yellow fever

Question 19

What did the Health Organisation help establish in London, Copenhagen and Singapore?

Answer 19

Research institutions that helped develop vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and tuberculosis

Question 20

What is the best indicator the Health Organisation’s success?

Answer 20

Even after the demise of the League, the Health Organisation became the World Health Organisation, affiliated (linked) to the United Nations

Question 21

What other successes did the Slavery Commission have?

Answer 21

Its persistent campaigning helped lead to Nepal, Iraq and Jordan outlawing slavery completely

Question 22

Why was the Slavery Commission not a total success?

Answer 22

It failed to end ‘white slavery’ - where young girls and women are forced into prostitution. This problem still persists in some advanced countries today.

Question 23

What was the aim of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)?

Answer 23

To generally improve working conditions around the world

Question 24

How successful was the International Labour Organisation (ILO)?

Answer 24

Not very. Although it did raise awareness and popularise certain issues - like a 48 hour working week and a minimum employment age - few countries adopted these practices until the 1930s and 1940s.

Question 25

How successful was the Disarmament Commission?

Answer 25

The least successful of the League’s commissions. It managed to organise the Washington Naval Conference of 1921, which led to the USA, Britain, Japan and France agreeing naval limitations. But the next conference was in 1932 - and it was a complete failure.

Question 26

Why was the failure of the Disarmament Commission so significant?

Answer 26

It made it easy for Hitler to argue that the former Allies (Britain, France, USA) were not really interested in disarming.