League of Nations Secretariat

Thus, the role of the DSG and USG was always double. On the one hand, they (often) had substantial managerial and supervisory roles within the Secretariat. This was perhaps particularly true of the DSG, who – at least until 1933 – had the overall responsibility of the technical and economic sections; and was acting on the SG’s behalf in his absence. Moreover, according to the 1921 Noblemaire Report produced for the Assembly, the SG and the DSG, were to keep “close personal contact with the Assembly and with the members of the committees and conference meeting under the auspices of the League” and to maintain “close relations with the important political centers of the world”. Yet, the Deputy-Secretary-General’s official position was considerably higher than his responsibilities and actually “exercised less influence upon the day-to-day work of the Secretariat than did a number of directors”. On the other hand, the DSG and even more so the USGs were essentially “ambassadorial positions”. Their most important function “seemed to be that of being present, to indicate thereby the existence of normal relations between the League and their country of origin and its willingness to collaborate at Geneva”.

After the admission of Germany to the League of Nations (1926), a third post of Under-Secretary-General was created for a German national and until the time of Drummond’s departure, there were three posts of Under-Secretary-General between 1927 and 1932, each having a designated area of responsibility. When the so-called Committee of Thirteen was set up to study the reorganization of the Secretariat, in 1929-30, the five posts of the Principal Officers were occupied by nationals of the five permanent members of the Council. The majority of the committee, carried particularly by the British and French delegates, called for an increase in the number of USGs turning them into higher ranking directors. Power mattered, and trust and recognition of the permanent council members was indispensable. In 1932 the Assembly approved the structure of seven posts: SG, two DSGs, three USGs and a Legal Advisor with the rank of USG. The norm of favouring permanent Council members continued as well. When the U.S.S.R. was admitted to the League of Nations, a Soviet Under-Secretary-General, Rosenberg, was appointed and when Japan, Germany, Italy and the U.S.S.R. withdrew (or were kicked out) of the League the corresponding USGs and DSGs retired. From 1933 onwards, the DSGs were increasingly detached from the overall leadership of the Secretariat, now concentrated in the hands of Avenol.

Drummond appointed a Deputy-Secretary-General and two Under-Secretaries-General to assist him. (For a few months, there was a third Under-Secretary-General, Raymond Fosdick from the United States, but he withdrew from the position when it became clear that the United States would not become Member of the League of Nations). When one of these Under-Secretaries-General left the Secretariat, the Fourth Committee of the Assembly, in 1921, recommended that the post which he had occupied should be abolished. Accordingly, the Secretariat was to have a Secretary-General, a Deputy-Secretary-General and an Under-Secretary-General.

Following this, the Noblemaire Report recommended that all routine, internal administrative business should be assigned to a designated Under-Secretary-General. This USG would thus be placed in permanent charge of all matters connected with interior organisation and finance, discipline, staff questions and routine and supervise those sections “which properly belong to what may be called the machinery of the Secretariat”. This, the Noblemaire Report held, would leave the SG and DSG “free to concentrate all the reins of policy in their hands”. The Noblemaire Report underlined the close association between the DSG and the SG, which, in fact, already existed between Sir Eric Drummond and M. Jean Monnet. Monnet was responsible for the general direction of the sections of a technical character, such as the Economic and Financial Section. In 1923, Joseph Avenol succeeded Jean Monnet as DSG. The division of labor, however, remained intact until Drummond stepped down as SG in July 1933.