bout de papier, Vol. 26, No. 3 (2012) — Spring 2012 // Printemps 2012, pp. 38–40
The Champlain Society and its general editor, Professor Roger Hall of the University of Western Ontario, have graciously consented to this pre-publication glimpse at the forthcoming volume of documents by Oscar Douglas Skelton edited by Professor Norman Hillmer of Carleton University, which is scheduled for publication next year. Professor Hillmer has kindly provided us with the documents (and the introduction) reprinted below, which has been lightly edited to adapt the material for publication in bout de papier, including the removal of annotation and reformatting the documents, which come from the Skelton Papers at Library and Archives Canada (with the exception of the published speech). The editorial board of bout de papier thanks these distinguished scholars for their courtesy and their characteristic collegiality as well as the Champlain Society for permission to reprint the documents below as well as Professor Hillmer’s editorial explanation of the context for the documents (which now follows).
When Prime Minister R. B. Bennett and his under secretary of state for external affairs, O. D. Skelton, arrived at the League of Nations in September 1934, Bennett was ill and ill-disposed toward the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Bennett and Skelton had agreed in Ottawa to back League membership for the Soviets, but the prime minister needed more convincing. Skelton provided it, and took the extraordinary step of insisting that he, not Bennett, was the Canadian spokesperson at the key committee meeting on the Soviet candidacy. Skelton’s speech, as Bennett wished, took “a whack at the Rooshians,” making a frontal assault on the Soviet experiment in Communist rule.
At the same time, however, Skelton announced Canada’s commitment to support Soviet League membership in the name of international cooperation and world peace. Skelton was pleased by the historic vote that brought the USSR into the concert of nations, but he commented acidly on the high-living hypocrites of Soviet diplomacy as they took their place at the League.
— Hector Mackenzie
Extract, O. D. Skelton to Isabel what would they think Bennetthad in persuading him that much as Skelton, 16 September 1934. come to?” The walk followed a visit we disliked the procedure of a Hôtel de la Paix to the adjoining hotel, les Bergues, formal invitation, it was the method Genéve the French headquarters, to sign that had been established & if we Sunday, 16 September 1934 the telegram to the Soviet Union willed the end we must will the inviting them to enter the League.I means, particularly as we had been I think our distinguished patient had a difficult morning withhimon instrumental in toning down the is now out of the woods. Histemper- the subject; his head was convinced invitation more in line with our ature is down and his bronchial Russia should come in, but his heart restrained ideas, & in making sure tubes cleared quite a bit. Yesterday wasn’t & various telegrams he had we’d know what the reply would he had a walk about noon, alongthe from Canada & England hardened be before the invitation was sent. lake and out on a pier full of people his heart. Finally [Stanley] Bruce But he signed reluctantly. At swimming and boating. “If my [former Australian prime minister, present he’s fed up on the League, colleagues could see me now”, he then serving as Australian high but I’m hoping he’ll feel better remarked, “sitting on this bench commissioner in London and disposed toward it after he watching five year old youngsters representing Australia at the recovers his vitality a bit. dabbling their feet in the water, League of Nations] & I succeeded
step of insisting that he, not Bennett, was the Canadian spokesperson at the key committee meeting on the Soviet candidacy. Skelton’s speech, as Bennett wished, took “a whack at the Rooshians,” making a frontal assault on the Soviet experiment in Communist rule.
At the same time, however, Skelton announced Canada’s commitment to support Soviet League membership in the name of international cooperation and world peace. Skelton was pleased by the historic vote that brought the USSR into the concert of nations, but he commented acidly on the high-living hypocrites of Soviet diplomacy as they took their place at the League.
Extract, O. D. Skelton to Isabel Skelton, 18 September 1934. Hotel de la Paix Genève Tuesday, 18 September 1934
Yesterday was a busy day, with full Assembly & committee meetings piled in thick all day. I found myself compelled to share in the Russian limelight. The P.M. began to react after having signed the invitation, particularly on reading the appeals of some of his ultra-Tory English friends. Driving to the committee hall after lunch [today] he said he had decided to go into the Sixth (or Political Questions) Committee & take a whack at the Rooshians. I told him he couldn’t as I & not he was the Canadian member of the Sixth Committee & in any case he had to preside at the same hour over his Second or Economic Committee. Well then, he said you’ll have to tackle it. I tried to argue him out of some of his more extreme positions & succeeded in some measure but he stuck to it I must lambaste them on propaganda & famine. Just then we reached the committee rooms & J had to goin. Sol scribbled down some notes while the big guns were speaking & took the rostrum. I toned down his points as much as I could & embalmed them in some of my own ideas, so didn’t have to stretch my conscience too much. The speech was not long, & seemed to go quite well. We had a great audience, & a tense debate, quite the high light of the Assembly. It was quite amusing that on a question the P.M. had so much at heart it should be I who spoke for Canada. If I had had a little time to prepare I could have improved it, but under all the circumstances I thought I got off very lightly.
Speech of O. D. Skelton at Sixth Committee of the League Assembly [Geneva], 18 September 1934. [Report of the Canadian Delegates to the Fifteenth Assembly of the League of Nations (Ottawa, 1935),
Canada is one of those countries which find substantial difficulties in the entrance of Soviet Russia into the League, but believes that under the present world circumstances its entrance is desirable. Our fundamental difficulty lies in the wide difference that exists between the social and political principles of Soviet Russia and those of our own country. We are emphatic and unrepentant believers in freedom of opinion, freedom of the Press, freedom of religious belief and worship, and the organization of industrial life on a basis of individual initiative controlled to bring it into harmony with the common good. These principles of liberty and tolerance and the institutions of parliamentary democracy which are their political complement are not the principles upon which the Soviet Union has been established. We recognize, however, that in varying degrees they are not principles which are accepted unreservedly by other States now members of the League, for which we have the highest respect. While believing firmly that in the long run the League can succeed only by the application in the international sphere of these ideals of liberty and democracy, we recognize that for the present we must agree to differ and that we cannot require other States to conform to such principles, or reject their collaboration in the League so long as they share in the one indispensable condition of readiness to work together for the peace of the world.
There were, however, two other considerations which may be stated briefly. One was the possibility of propaganda, to which reference has frequently been made this afternoon. We in Canada have not been free from serious interference in our internal affairs by representatives of the Third International, which it has frequently been difficult to distinguish from the Government of the Soviet Union. We believe, however, that the unreserved acceptance by the Soviet Union in the letter which has been read to-day of the undertaking to observe all the international obligations of the Covenant must necessarily involve a satisfactory attitude on this point.
A further question is the apprehension felt by many thousands in Canada who have relatives and friends in Russia as to the continuance of the sufferings and the famine which were reported in many districts of the Soviet Union last year and on previous occasions. We believe, however, that like other Members of the League, the Soviet Union will be prepared to do what is possible to relieve distress and will be prepared to sanction any assistance, devoid of political bias which individual citizens of any other Member of the League might desire to tender to those in distress, just as similar sanction would be given reciprocally.
We have therefore shared in the indication which was given in advance of readiness to support the proposed entry of Russia, into the League and shall vote for her admission, in the trust that her presence in the League will facilitate good neighbourliness and mean the opening of anew and better era.
Extract, O. D. Skelton to Isabel Skelton, 18 September 1934. Hôtel de la Paix Genève Tuesday evening, 18 September 1954
We just came back from the historic scene of admitting the USSR to the League. It was well staged but the chief actor didn’t rise to the occasion. [Soviet Foreign Minister Makxim] Litvinoff spoke well in parts but much of what he said was in bad taste, a pushing parvenu….
Extract, O. D. Skelton to Isabel Skelton, 25 September 1934. Geneva Tuesday, 25 September 1954
Saturday noon [Walter] Riddell [Canadian Advisory Officer, League of Nations (Geneva)] had a lunch for the P.M. & myself at his home, with Litvinoff & [Foreign Minister Jôzef] Beck of Poland as the star outsiders. “Lit” as the P.M. calls him was seated between R. B. & myself. He talks English, a bit broken & suttural, but enough for his purposes, and so the P.M. had a better chance of conversation than he does when he finds himself seated in a sea of French-speaking members. He got on quite well with Lit, razzing him quite a bit. Then yesterday I was invited by the Soviet people to lunch at the Bellevue – some twenty, chiefly French, Balkan & Baltic, only 3 English speaking, so my French got lots of practice. Some of the junior members of the party from Georgia & the Caucasus generally, I liked quite well. What struck me most was the lunch itself – caviar, lobster, pheasant, pâté de foie gras etc, with cordon rouge champagne, Chambertin etc to say nothing of vodka – quite the swankiest lunch I had seen in Geneva, & quite a striking commentary on proletarian principles & practices.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 26, No. 3 (2012) — Spring 2012 // Printemps 2012, pp. 38–40. Read the rest of this issue →
