League of Nations Agencies Accomplishments

    The agencies of the League of Nations contributed a lot to improving global welfare and helping countries after the war. Here are the accomplishments of each agency

    Refugee Organisation (Success)

  • Helped prisoners of war (mainly located: USSR, Poland, France, Germany and Turkey)
  • Many were homeless or in camps
  • Fridtjof Nansen led this organisation with small budget
  • Helped 425K people rehouse or return to their homes
  • Found transport, set up camps, taught skills, created new settlements, created Nansen Passport for immigration


Health Organisation (Success)

  • Directed by Ludwig Rajchman
  • One of biggest successes
  • Links with non-member countries with information network and advisory services on health
  • Stopped typhus epidemic from spreading in Siberia, launched campaigning teaching sanitation
  • Reduced leprosy, along with malaria and yellow fever through the extermination of mosquitos
  • Set up research institutions to develop and distribute vaccines of diseases such as diphteria, tetanus, and tuberculosis
  • Became the World Health Organisation under the UN after League of Nations collapsed


Economic and Financial Organisation (Success)

  • Offer aid and assistance for countries that were financially troubled
  • Rescue plans were devised for these countries
  • This advised countries to stabilise the economy through the regulation of interest rates, banknote circulation, and credit issuing
  • Trade improved, rates of unemployment were lessened, budget became more controlled
  • Countries that were assisted include Austria, Hungary, Greece, and Bulgaria


International Labour Organisation (SUCCESS)

  • Albert Thomas was director
  • Made working conditions better
  • Used reports and information about different work policies and persuaded governments to follow them (eg. health and safety of white lead in print manufacturing)
  • Some countries had not been ready for these changes (eg. Britain did not have a leaving-school age of 15+ until WW2, while the minimum age of employment was 15 before)
  • In US, employers did not allow employees to form trade unions despite changes made with the advice of the ILO
  • Contributed a lot to changing working hours, sickness and unemployment insurance, minimum wages, pensions (money drawn to help with retirement)


Slavery Commission (PARTIAL SUCCESS)

  • Aimed to eradicate the practice of slavery and unmoral practices of exploitation
  • Reports and persuasion was used to convince governments to take effective action
  • There were some successes that contributed to the lessening of the use of slave practices such as the release of 200,000 slaves in Sierra Leone and cutting the death rate on the Tanganyikan Railway from 50% to 4%
  • However, these contributions were nowhere near their ultimate goal of abolishing slavery


Disarmament Commission (Failure)

  • Aimed to disarm nations "to the lowest point consistent with national safety"
  • Even at the end of 1920s, only losing countries disarmed according to the Treaty of Versailles
  • Washington Naval Conference was small success, limiting navy force of US, Britain, France, and Japan
  • Showed difficulty for willingness to disarm
  • A World Disarmament Conference was unable to be organised before 1932 because of disagreement on definitions, classifications, methods of armaments and other technicalities
  • In Disarmament Conference in 1932-1934, France was willing to disarm only if guarantees were given by Britain or the US, which they were not able to provide. Germany accused the Allies of not being serious about disarmament


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