How was the league of nations supposed to function?

The League of Nations had set itself a wider task than simply waiting for disputes and hoping to solve them. Through its agencies, the League aimed to fight poverty, disease and injustice all over the world.

Refugees

The League did tremendous work in getting refugees and former prisoners of war back to their homelands. It is estimated that in the first few years after the war about 400,000 prisoners were returned to their homes by the Leagues' agencies.

When a refugee crisis hit Turkey in 1922, hundreds of thousands of people had to be housed in refugee camps. The League acted quickly to stamp out cholera, smallpox and dysentery in the camps.

Working conditions

The International Labour Organisation was successful in banning poisonous white lead from paint and in limiting the hours that small children were allowed to work. It also campaigned strongly for employers to improve working conditions generally. It introduced a resolution for a maximum 48-hour week and 8 hour day, but only a minority of members adopted it because they thought it would raise costs in their own home industries.

Health

The Health Committee, which later became the World Health Organisation, worked hard to defeat the dreadful disease leprosy. It started the global campaign to exterminate mosquitoes, which greatly reduced cases of malaria and yellow fever in later decades. Even Russia, which was otherwise opposed to the League, used the Health Committee to advise it on preventing plague in Siberia.

Transport

The League made recommendations on marking shipping lanes and produced an international highway code for road users.

Social problems

The League blacklisted four large German, Dutch, French and Swiss companies, which were involved in the illegal drug trade. It brought about the freeing of slaves in British-owned Sierra Leone. It organised raids against slave owners and traders in Burma. It challenged the use of forced labour to build the Tanganiyka railway in Africa, where the Death Rate among African workers was a staggering 50%. League pressure brought this down to 4% which they said was 'a much more acceptable figure.'

Even in areas where it could not remove social injustice the League kept careful records of what was going on and provided information on problems such as drug trafficking, prostitution and slavery.