Transcription: P1/8 (21) - 2 - threatened to resign frequently during the first five months of the year, when the French military situation rapidly deteriorated, he definitely decided to stay on. It was on the 25th of June in view of his remarks that Lester, moved by the statementsmade by Avenol, felt called upon to make an appeal to his personal honour in view of the trust placed in him by fifty States, but a day or two later, he said to Lester that he would of course not resign as he had been appointed by. 60 States "including Germany and Italy". Except for one short conversation, he then ceased to call Lester into personal consultation. As Loveday had refused to accept the personal facilities to leave the League he sent a message to him offering him a six months mission in America with full pay and informed several people that "Loveday was going". The proposal was refused by Loveday. Simultaneously, Aghnides, who had been pushed aside very much during recent months, was again cultivated and vague suggestions at first made that he would be needed in the new circumstances. This was accompanied by indefinite suggestions that Lester would not fill the bill. The pressure on Aghnides continued steadily, but he refused to accept Avenol's plan to cooperate with him in some thing he said he felt would be dishonourable. Aghnides pressed him instead to accept his resignation which had been in his hands for several weeks. - Skylstad was also to be dismissed at the same times as Lester. -From that moment there were three possibilities offered to Lester to get out the circular of June 25th calling for resignations on favourable terms was, Averol emphasized, to be equally applicable to Members of the High Direction. It seemed natural during a crisis that the Members of the High Direction should place their posts at the Chief's disposal, but neither Jacklin, Loveday, Lester nor Skylstad complied with the direction to offer their resignations. On July the 16th, this part of the plan was pushed a further stage and unlimited paid holidays offered to a number of persons not directly engaged in technical activities. There was to be no dismissing and of course no economies, but individuals, including Lester, were to be enabled to go away with dignity and again financial comfort. The following day Avenol outlined his plan that he would remain Secretary-General, but delegate certain of his powers to Aghnides, while retaining other powers. This was on the assumption that Lester would not be in the Secretariat; but Lester again refused this opportunity. A few days afterwards Avenol proposed a mission to the United States for Lester, Loveday and Skylstad.

Transcription: P1/8 (21) - 3 -  Note in the margine   Burckhardt, Bourquin etc Before the end of June Avenol was sounding individuals about the formation of a small Committee - European in character - of persons who had been connected in some way or other with League activities, which would form with him a kind of 'Directoire". About the same time Lester sent Avenol  a note regarding the reductions of staff and pointing out that those proposed to be retained were mainly Europeans and that it was important to keep an international and inter-continental character in the staff if at all possible. He saw Lester on this question of the international character of the staff on the 8th of July, spoke vaguely of what the future might be and at one time used the words "that he did not yet know what Hitler and Mussolini would want as regards the League". He said he was not sure if Hitler wanted a League, but he said he was fairly sure Mussolini would, to help indirectly to create a balance of power. Lester said that these speculations might be true, but they had nothing to do with the duty of the Secretariat and that for each of us there was a moral issue and the question of loyalty to our trust and self-respect. - Avenol then spoke of "the realities of the situation" and said he was not yet sure if France would remain in the League and that there would be pressure on Switzerland. If Avenol was seriously pushing his ideas it was anticipated that he had already made, or would try to make, contact with Germany and Italy. It was on the 3rd of July that Avenol asked a Secretariat official if he were in close touch with Dr. Krauel, the German Consul. The answer not being favourable, he put a similar inquiry to Pardo two days later. On the 5th of July Avenol had a conversation with a Frenchman in Geneva in close touch with the French political situation and asked him would he undertake a mission to Mr. Laval. He accompanied the request with an exposé of his views. The Frenchman in question denounced Avenol's proposals as both foolish and dishonourable, but it was subsequently on the same day) that Avenol made the second inquiry of which we know, as to contact with Dr. Krauel. It was on the 10th of July that Avenol saw Stoppani, whom he had been denouncing with extreme violence a few weeks before. He had learned that Stoppani was expecting to go to Rome to make contact again with governmental circles. Stoppani reported that the interview was a one-sided one, that Avenol made an enthusiastic totalitarian and anti-British speech to him and spoke with the greatest praise of the greatness of Herr Hitler.

Transcription: P1/8 (21) Note prepared for Kelly but covered in personal converstation. During the Swiss crisis in April-May, Avenol's plans were to save in the emergency a sort of core and reorganizing centre of the Secretariat if we were driven out by invasion. There were still (in Lester's opinion), the intention and will to carry on in the terms of the responsabilities placed on him. With the first hint of a possible French armistice his outlook and policy changed. His reaction for the first few days was simply, and not unnaturally, that all was lost. Long before the armistice was signed however, from his remarks to Lester and to others, it became evident he was thinking in terms of a future which fitted in with the military situation onthe Continent. The first manifestation of this was the repeated expression, again to Lester as well as to others, of violent anti-British sentiments and of opinions such as "the British must be kept out of Europe and driven out of the Mediteranean"; and again "the British are going to expiate their crimes and mistakes". In close sequence came a policy to remove or assist in removing all British elements in the Secretariat. This was rendered less difficult by the natural desire of a number of British people to return to their own country either to help there or to escape being completely cut off. When the policy of excluding the British from the Secretariat was protested against and he was told he could not send them away, he replied "but they will go of their own free will and I shall only be facilitating them."  It seemed to Lester that this desire was dictated by one or two objectives: the first and the strongest in his mind, so far as Lester could estimate, was to play a part and enable the machinery of the League to play a part in the new Europe, especially economically, as a consequence of the defeat of France, a Europe which  would be identical with that desired by the conquering States. Justification in his mind came from 1) the facts of the military situation plus the anticipated overthrow of Britain and 2) hopes, definitely expressed, that France would receive decent and generous treatment and even be allowed to have a substantial share (3) to the possibilities of a Latin block (France, Italy and Spain) to partly counter-balance German power. But a great deal of the motive power seemed to come from the violent feelings regarding Britain which had so suddenly replaced the equally violent feelings regarding Germany and Italy. Thus came into possibility the alternative: if the machine which he controlled (and during this period he  often said: "I am now the League of Nations") could not be utilized under his guidance for the new European purposes, he would not allow it to exist for its original purposes. The main idea, however, continued to be the transformation of the League machinery. A note outlining this possibility was made about the 24th of June. It was remarked that while Avenol

Transcription: Left page   Costa du Rels interview with Avenol took place on the morning of the 31st and lasted an hour. It should be noted that Avenol, probably partly as a result of his visit to Vichy, proposed to circulate with his letter only an extract from one of the two annexes which had been referred to the Supervisory Commission. This extract was to show that a budget for 1941 was impossible and constituted really arguments for closing on the 31st of December. From it however, he omitted his final proposal which disclosed that the buildings should be placed in care of the Genevese Authorities. He also suppressed the partisan statement concerning the British and Princeton and the letters concerning the departure of Drummond. When Costa du Rels came out (Pardo and Aghnides were in my office) he told us that Avenol had insisted on his letter being circulated. Costa du Rels had equally insisted it should not be done without his reply also being circulated; they had therefore agreed that neither should be circulated (! ! !). Avenol had however obtained from Costa du Rels an agreement that a note should be circulated to States Members declaring null and void the letters exchanged between the two concerning Avenol's resignation. There was a P.S. to this amazing agreement which was  Right page   signed by both of them that the two telegrams concerning the resignation (of the 20th and 24th) were to remain valid; both of these telegrams consisted mainly of extracts from the two letters now declared null and void (! ! ! !)) I congratulated the President on having Avenol see reason on the rather silly letter he wanted to circulate and said I did not understand the purpose of the agreement and I was afraid States Members would not understand it, they would merely attribute it to a state of chaos in Geneva. The agreement was then sent out by Avenol for circulation to States Members, but he added that the P.S. was not to be included. I let it be circulated in this form but subsequently found that Costa du Rels was furious that part of the agreement - and a vital part - had been omitted and said that he had never agreed to that. Avenol left the building having said good-bye only to a few people and still having refused to see me, even on written request. Costa du Rels suggested and arranged to pay a formal visit to me the day I took up duties; he said that Avenol would be present and that we should have a number of the principal officials in the room. Although I was afraid Avenol might say something which would finally provoke me, I agreed. The little function was arranged for 5 p.m. on Monday the 2nd of September. Without any notification and although it was arranged to suit him, Avenol did not turn up his empty chair was a reproach to his manners, but no one seemed to be particularly hurt, except Jacklin who regarded it as a personal offence. The President of the Council was also naturally annoyed.

Description: Hierarchie: Großherzogliches Familienarchiv (Eigentum des Hauses Baden) und Markgräfliches/Großherzogliches Familienarchiv: Nachträge >> Einzelne Angehörige des Hauses Baden >> [13 A] Luise Großherzogin von Baden (1838-1923) >> Familie, Hof, Regierung >> Erziehung, Schulen >> Victoria-Schule und -Pensionat >> Berichtserien >> Emilie Göler von Ravensburg [?-?, Oberin des Viktoria-Pensionats Karlsruhe und der Filiale Baden-Baden 1917-1920/1923]

Description: Hierarchie: Großherzogliches Familienarchiv (Eigentum des Hauses Baden) und Markgräfliches/Großherzogliches Familienarchiv: Nachträge >> Einzelne Angehörige des Hauses Baden >> [13 A] Luise Großherzogin von Baden (1838-1923) >> Familie, Hof, Regierung >> Erziehung, Schulen >> Victoria-Schule und -Pensionat >> Berichtserien >> Emilie Göler von Ravensburg [?-?, Oberin des Viktoria-Pensionats Karlsruhe und der Filiale Baden-Baden 1917-1920/1923]

Description: Hierarchie: Großherzogliches Familienarchiv (Eigentum des Hauses Baden) und Markgräfliches/Großherzogliches Familienarchiv: Nachträge >> Einzelne Angehörige des Hauses Baden >> [13 A] Luise Großherzogin von Baden (1838-1923) >> Familie, Hof, Regierung >> Erziehung, Schulen >> Victoria-Schule und -Pensionat >> Berichtserien >> Emilie Göler von Ravensburg [?-?, Oberin des Viktoria-Pensionats Karlsruhe und der Filiale Baden-Baden 1917-1920/1923]

Description: Hierarchie: Großherzogliches Familienarchiv (Eigentum des Hauses Baden) und Markgräfliches/Großherzogliches Familienarchiv: Nachträge >> Einzelne Angehörige des Hauses Baden >> [13 A] Luise Großherzogin von Baden (1838-1923) >> Familie, Hof, Regierung >> Erziehung, Schulen >> Victoria-Schule und -Pensionat >> Berichtserien >> Emilie Göler von Ravensburg [?-?, Oberin des Viktoria-Pensionats Karlsruhe und der Filiale Baden-Baden 1917-1920/1923]

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