694 



The League of Nations Health Organization 



The next primary cooperative venture in international health 

 followed World War I. The League of Nations in 1920 set up an 

 international Epidemic Commission and in 1923 the Health Organiza- 

 tion of the league. With seemingly little prospect of support, finan- 

 ciallv or iwlitically. the Health Organization was a surprising and 

 welcome success. It soon outstripped the "Paris Office" in both im- 

 portance and influence. Ultimately there was "hardly a medical field 

 or corner of the world unaffected by its §ictivities." ^^ Although an 

 integral section of a political body-»-the League of Nations, the Health 

 Organization seems to have succeeded' in part because member dele-' 

 gates wei'e preoccupied with the political problems of the League 

 itself rather than with controlling the activities of the league's 

 Health Organization. 



The United States generally favored measures to advance interna- 

 tional health, but it was not a member of the Tveague and therefore 

 supported the French who wanted the "Paris Office" to be independ- 

 ent of the League. The net result was the coexistence of two different 

 international health organizations in competition with each other. The 

 situation was a constant irritant, perhaps ameliorated somewhat in 

 1936 by a Health Committee composed of members elected by both the 

 Paris Office and the League. It hardly seems possible, however, that 

 the secret of the success of the League's health activities could reside in 

 this development or in the fact that the members of the directing com- 

 mittee "sat as members in their personal capacities," ^3 rather than as 

 delegates of their Governments. The Government's were not ade- 

 quately supporting the Health Organization of the I^eague anyw^^y, 

 and had it not been for some important financial assistance from the 

 Rockefeller Foundation the situation would have been even more 

 difficult. The IT.S.S.R., incidentally, left the League and everything 

 connected with it in 1937. 



It is an interCvSting observation, then, that an international health 

 organization in such apparent neglect could command the favorable 

 appraisal of Russell. According to tliis authority : 



The Health Organization was commonly said to be the 

 most successful League of Nations agency.^* 



Moreover — 



Time and war tend to fog memories, and today it is doubt- 

 ful that many realize how great was the achievement of the 

 Epidemic Commission and its successor, the Health Organi- 

 zation of the League * * * quarantine reform was stimu- 

 lated, and numerous epidemics were effectively quelled. 

 [There was] an attempt to standardize sera and vaccines 

 * * * Epidemiological centers were set up in Geneva, Sing- 

 apore, and Melbourne * * * International study tours and 

 lectureships * * * were established [and] sanitary safe- 

 guards [were provided] for religious pilgrimages. [It] started 

 a library of laws, decrees, reports and other documents relat- 

 ing to public health * * * it continued to promote interna- 

 tional cooperation throughout the field of preventive 



^ Goo-'lman, op. cit., page 308. 



» Ibid., page 106. 



" Russell, up. cit., page 397. 



