Abstract
During the Second World War, former League of Nations official John E. Wheeler contemplated what international organizations would look like after the war’s end. At that time he was authoring a study for the prestigious London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs on pre-First World War and interwar organizations with a strong focus on infrastructures.1 Wheeler argued that ‘there is no official European body whose field of activity extends to all branches of transport and communications, but the League of Nations Transit Organisation, […], has concerned itself very largely with Europe’.2 The ‘Transit Organisation’ to which Wheeler referred was the Organisation for Communications and Transit (OCT), a body not originally founded with a European scope, but as part of the universal League of Nations (1919).3 Wheeler’s suggestion that the OCT might have been an effective body in dealing with European affairs raises two important and, as we will argue, closely related issues about the League of Nations: its ‘European’ focus and its overall success (or rather failure) as an organization. Both these issues are central to the way in which historical scholarship has framed the League up to now. By taking the OCT’s activities in the field of infrastructure as central rather than peripheral aspects of the League’s method and mission, we look here to revise these narratives. In so doing, we point to the ways in which technology, and in particular technological expertise, formed a central plank in efforts to integrate and unify Europe before the Second World War.
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Notes
Sir Osborne Mance and J.E. Wheeler, International Telecommunications (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1943)
Sir Osborne Mance, International Road Transport, Postal, Electricity and Miscellaneous Questions (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1946)
Sir Osborne Mance, Frontiers, Peace Treaties, and International Organization (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1946)
Sir Osborne Mance and Ralph Wedgwood and Wheeler, International Rail Transport (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1946).
The notion of experiment is invoked in Robert Cecil, A Great Experiment: An Autobiography by Viscount Cecil (London: Jonathan Cape 1941).
Steiner, The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919–1933 (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2005), p. 350.
Steiner, The Lights, p. 349; Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1919–1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations (London: Macmillan 1939).
Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers: The Paris Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War (London: John Murray 2001), p. 92.
‘Technical’ in League terminology covered the work of its technical committees, including anything from public health and education to maritime buoys or the unification of statistics. In many ways the word was used as an antonym of ’political’: see Pitman B. Potter, ‘Note on the Distinction between Political and Technical Questions’, in Political Science Quarterly 50(2) (1935), pp. 264–71.
For a recent review of studies on the League of Nations, see Susan Pedersen, ‘Back to the League of Nations (review essay)’, The American Historical Review 112(4) (2007), pp. 1091–117. She also underlines the lack of a study on the OCT.
A similar opinion is expressed by F.P. Walters, the author of A History of the League of Nations (London: Oxford University Press 1960, reprinted from 1952 as one volume), p. 180.
Erik van der Vleuten, Irene Anastasiadou, Frank Schipper and Vincent Lagendijk, ’Europe’s system builders: The Contested Shaping of Europe’s Road, Electricity and Rail Networks’, Contemporary European History 16(3) (2007), pp. 321–47. Particularly after the Second World War there were manifold contenders for fostering European co-operation, such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation, the Council of Europe and the European Economic Community.
J.C. Smuts, The League of Nations: A Practical Suggestion (London: Hodder and Stoughton 1918), p. 43. Jan Smuts’ pamphlet is considered among the most influential inputs for the set-up of the League; see MacMillan, Peacemakers, pp. 97–9. Jan Smuts became South Africa’s prime minister in September 1919.
Jo-Anne Pemberton, ‘New Worlds for Old: The League of Nations in the Age of Electricity’, Review of International Studies 28 (2002), pp. 311–36, at pp. 312, 314.
Pierre Gerbet, Marie-Renée Mouton and Victor-Yves Ghébali, Le Rêve d’un Ordre Mondiale de la SDN à l’ONU (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale 1986), p. 42.
For a well-informed account of why the United States did not join the League of Nations, based on an analysis of domestic American politics, see John M. Cooper, Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2001).
The permanent members of the League were France, Germany (1926–33/4), Italy (until 1937), Japan (until 1933), the Soviet Union (1933/4–9) and the United Kingdom. In addition there were between four and eleven elected members; see Patricia Clavin and Jens-Wilhelm Wessels, ‘Transnationalism and the League of Nations: Understanding the Work of its Economic and Financial Organisation’, Contemporary European History 14(4) (2005), pp. 465–92, note 43.
Éric Bussière, La France, la Belgique et l’Organisation Économique de l’Europe, 1918–1935 (Paris: Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France 1992), pp. 301–13
Patrick O. Cohrs ‘The First “Real” Peace Settlements after the First World War: Britain, the United States and the Accords of London and Locarno, 1923–1925’, Contemporary European History 12(1) (2003), pp. 1–31.
See Sally Marks, The Illusion of Peace: International Relations in Europe, 1918–1933 (London: Macmillan 1976).
This move infuriated Brazil, which had been denied a permanent seat, and it promptly left the League. Spain left temporarily, while a Polish walkout was prevented. During the next decade more Latin American countries renounced their membership. On the problems caused by German membership see Georges Scelle, Une Crise de la Société des Nations: La Réforme du Conseil et l’Entrée de l’Allemagne à Genève (Mars-Septembre 1926) (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1927).
Akira Iriye, Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), p. 22.
Patricia Clavin, ‘Europe and the League of Nations’, in Robert Gerwarth (ed.) Twisted Paths: Europe 1914–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007), pp. 325–54, at p. 325.
For the notion ‘projects for Europe’, see Peter Bugge, ‘The Nation Supreme: The Idea of Europe 1914–1945’ in Kevin Wilson and Jan van der Dussen (eds) The History of the Idea of Europe (London: Routledge 1995), pp. 83–149.
Veronique Pradier, ‘L’Europe de Louis Loucheur: Le Projet d’un Homme d’Affaires en Politique’, Études et Documents V (1993), pp. 293–306, at p. 295.
Also see Eric Bussière, ‘L’Organisation Économique de la SDN et la Naissance du Régionalisme Économique’, Relations Internationales 75 (1993), pp. 301–13, at p. 304.
This was reflected in the WEC’s closing resolution, stressing how ‘the Conference has fully carried out its task of setting forth the principles and recommendations best fitted to contribute to an improvement of the economic situation of the world and in particular to that of Europe, thus contributing at the same time to the strengthening of peaceful relations among nations’, LoN, World Economic Conference: Discussion and Declarations on the Report of the Conference of the Council of the League of Nations on June 16th 1927 (Geneva: LoN 1927), p. 14.
Arthur Salter, The United States of Europe and Other Papers (London: George Allen and Unwin 1933), Chapter 7, ‘The French Memorandum on a European Federal Union’, 20 May 1930, pp. 105–24.
The CEEU has been described elsewhere; see for example Antoine Fleury, ‘Une Évalution des Travaux de la Commission d’Étude pour l’Union Européenne 1930–1937’, in Sylvain Schirmann (ed.) Organisations Internationales et Architectures Européennes 1929–1939. Actes du Colloque de Metz 31 mai — 1er juin 2001. En Hommage à Raymond Poidevin (Metz: Centre de Recherche Histoire et Civilisation de l’Université de Metz, 2003), pp. 35–53
Fleury and Lubor Jilek, Le Plan Briand d’Union Fédérale Européenne: Perspectives Nationales et Transnationales, Avec Documents (Bern: Peter Lang 1998).
See Irene Anastasiadou, In Search of a Railway Europe: International Railway Developments in Interwar Europe (PhD thesis, Eindhoven University of Technology 2009), Chapter 4.
See for example J.A. Salter, Allied Shipping Control: An Experiment in International Administration (London: Clarendon Press 1921).
Lord Hankey, Diplomacy by Conference: Studies in Public Affairs (London: Ernest Benn 1946); J. Salter, Allied Shipping Control; and Smuts, The League, p. 7.
Martin David Dubin, ‘Transgovernmental Process in the League of Nations’, International Organization 37(3) (1983), pp. 469–93, at p. 484.
R. Haas, ‘World Transit and Communications’ in Problems of Peace: Lectures Delivered at the Geneva Institute of International Relations (London 1927), pp. 212–13.
A recent article that focuses on the role of experts in international organizations such as the LoN is Johan Schot and Vincent Lagendijk, ‘Technocratic Internationalism in the Interwar Years: Building Europe on Motorways and Electricity Networks’, Journal of Modern European History 6(2) (2008), pp. 196–217.
For an account of all technical committees, see H.R.G. Greaves, The League Committees and World Order: A Study of the Permanent Committees of the League of Nations as an Instrument of lnternational Government (London: Humphrey Milford 1931).
Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895–1930 (Stanford: Stanford University Press 1997)
Jonathan S. McMurray, Distant Ties; Germany, the Ottoman Empire and the Construction of the Baghdad Railway (London: Praeger 2001)
Daniel R. Headrick, The Tentacles of Progress; Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, 1850–1940 (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1988), pp. 180–203
C.B. Davis, K.E. Wilburn Jr. and R.E. Robinson (eds), Railway Imperialism (London: Greenwood Press 1991).
Norman J.G. Pounds, An Historical Geography of Europe 1800–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 1–36, 449–61. On international railway co-operation before the outbreak of the war, see Wedgwood and Wheeler, International Rail Transport, pp. 1–7.
LoN, ‘General Transport Situation in 1921; Statements Submitted by the States which took part in the First General Conference on Communications and Transit, held in March-April 1921’ (Geneva: LoN 1922), p. xi.
Elemèr Hantos, ‘Une Nouvelle Organisation des Transports en Europe Central’, Revue Economique Internationale 23 (1931), pp. 271–2.
Mance, Frontiers, pp. 0–71. It co-operated closely with the International Union of Railways (UIC, 1922) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC, 1919) in promoting the unification of transport statistics, and the revision of the Berne Convention on the Transport of Goods by Rail (Convention Internationale Merchandises CIM, 1890). Laurent Tissot, ‘Naissance d’ une Europe Ferroviaire: La Convention Internationale de Berne (1890)’, in Michèle Merger and Dominique Barjot (eds) Les Entreprises et Leurs Réseaux: Hommes, Capitaux, Techniques et Pouvoirs XIXe-XXe Siècles: Mélanges en honneur de Francois Caron (Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne 1998), pp. 283–95.
Osborne H. Mance, ‘Recent Developments in International Railway Questions’, Proceedings of the Great Western Railway (London) Lecture and Debating Society 1929–30(236) (1929), p. 7. The Permanent Committee for Transport by Rail met only once in the years 1931–45 (in 1935). Hostie reports that, owing to the primarily regional character of railway problems and the dominant position of the Reichsbahn in Europe, Germany’s withdrawal from OCT was a paralyzing factor in the field of both railways and navigable waterways. Hostie, The Organisation, p. 255.
A. Desaunais, ‘Le Bief de Kembs, Premier Tronçon du Grand Canal d’Alsace’, Les Études rhodaniennes 9(2) (1933), pp. 143–8, at p. 146.
This can be read by the fact that two publications on the European electricity sector both reprinted the Convention; see Kittler, Der Internationale, p. 21ff, and Joseph Legge, Grundsätzliches und Tatsächliches zu den Elektrizitätswirtschaften in Europa (Gebrüder Lensing 1931), p. 191ff.
Lagendijk, Electrifying, p.76 ff. A vital link between the industry and politics was Dannie Heineman, a friend of Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Europeanist Paul Hymans, who proposed the study to the CEEU. See letter dated 19 January 1931, Collection Hymans, #11440 I, Diplobel. Heineman chaired the Brussels-based Société Financière de Transport et d’Entreprises Industrielles (SOFINA) and was a close friend and associate of one of the drafters of a general plan for the electrification of Europe, Oskar Oliven. See Oliven, ‘Europas Großkraftlinien. Vorschlag eines europäischen Höchtspannungsnetzes’, Zeitschrift des Vereines Deutscher Ingenieure 74(25) (21 June 1930), pp. 875–9.
For relations between Heineman and Oliven see Liane Ranieri, Dannie Heineman, Patron de la SOFINA: Un Destin Singulier, 1872–1962 (Brussels: Éditions Racine 2005).
ICC, Proceedings of the Congress, Amsterdam, July 1929, Supplement 2 to World Trade (Paris: ICC) (October 1929), p. 69.
LoN Document, CCT/CR/024(1), ‘Road Committee, Minutes Fourth Session (25–28 April 1927)’, p. 4; LoN Document, C.234.M.102.1931.VIII, p. 9. For a more elaborate discussion on road signs, see Frank Schipper, ‘Unravelling Hieroglyphs: Urban traffic signs and the League of Nations’, Métropoles 6 (2009), pp. 65–100.
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© 2010 Frank Schipper, Vincent Lagendijk and Irene Anastasiadou
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Schipper, F., Lagendijk, V., Anastasiadou, I. (2010). New Connections for an Old Continent: Rail, Road and Electricity in the League of Nations Organisation for Communications and Transit. In: Badenoch, A., Fickers, A. (eds) Materializing Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230292314_7
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