Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 201
NANSEN AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
By Viscount Cecil.
EVERYONE who saw Nansen in the Assembly of the
League of Nations is agreed about the immense in-
fluence he exercised there. It is a remarkable body, the
reverse of impressionable. Its members are the foremost in-
ternational statesmen of the day. Some are diplomats, a few
are lawyers or business men. But most of them are the Mi-
nisters of countries from all over the world. They belong
to different races, they speak different languages, they pro-
fess different religions. Each has the interests of his country
at heart. They distrust fine sentiments. Though they are con-
noisseurs of oratory and will applaud a great speech, they are not
overmuch moved by it. Mere fluent verbiage leaves them absolute-
ly cold. In the ordinary sense of the word, Nansen’s speeches at
Geneva were not oratorical. He spoke in English, with the simpli-
city and directness of a child. He had something important to say
and he said it without ornament but with the persuasiveness that
comes of utter sincerity. Physically he was a splendid figure,
standing there before a world audience. His gallant pose, his ath-
letic frame, perhaps above all his wonderful clear blue eyes ar-
rested attention. Here was unmistakably a Norseman, the descen-
dant of Vikings, a great personality. He has left no successor.
Indeed, at the time no-one was quite like him. Not that the As-
sembly lacked men of eminence and ability. There was Branting,
for instance, a pillar of peace and international justice. Then too,
there was — and I am glad to say, still is — Dr. Benes, a man of
infinite resource, devoted to his country and therefore to peace.
He often collaborated with that prince of draughtsmen, Monsieur
Politis. There were few difficulties of which Dr. Benes could not
find a solution quickly expressed in admirable phrases by his
Greek colleague. These and many others worked with splen-
did unity to lay the foundations of what we hoped would
be the permanent structure of peace. Those I have named be-
longed to the smaller nations. Nor were the larger nations with-
out great representatives. Lord Balfour for instance brought his
immense intellectual powers to help our work. He and Léon Bour-
geois were perhaps the best-known personalities in the earlier
years, soon to be followed by Briand and Stresemann. Nor should
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