Author: Not Decided
Status: In Research
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the nuremberg laws explained and the consequences
i have read them but don’t fully understand then
Might be worth mentioning the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and the subsequent failure of the League of Nations to enforce long term Economic sanctions. From Ralph Allens Ordeal by Fire: Canada 1910-1945
…When Italy invaded Ethiopia in October of that year, Canada was on the eve of an election. But its League delegation got Conservative Prime Minister R. B. Bennett’s authority to join in condemning Italy as an aggressor. The question of economic sanctions was still being debated when Canadians learned they were working for a new administration. The head of the delegation, Dr. Walter A. Riddell, asked the incoming Mackenzie King government for instructions. In reply, the Department of External Affairs cabled the summary of a statement King had given the press: Canada would cooperate in economic sanctions but couldn’t consider military sanctions without consulting Parliament. Riddell, who was on a committee debating what goods should be barred to Italy and on what conditions, took this as an official guidance. He had learned, though, that aggression or no aggression, sanctions or no sanctions, the world government was crowded with local patriots to whom the lofty avowals of the League’s Covenant were less compelling than business as usual. France argued against extending the embargo to iron, steel, coal and oil. Argentina, where around a million Italians lived, stressed the possible economic and social damage to Latin America if Mussolini were opposed too zealously. Norway, Poland, and Romania demanded to be allowed to send Italy war goods already ordered. Spain argued she ought to be allowed to sell iron ore. Switzerland claimed that to comply with a ban on war goods to Italy would cost the country its best market and throw thousands out of work.
Riddell knew Canada was not immune to temptation. Most of the 27 raw materials described by the League as essential for war purposes were being mined from the Canadian Shield. One was Copper. When he learned copper was to be added to the embargo list, Riddell, still without detailed instructions, drew up a resolution of his own, adding the items he felt must be proscribed if sanctions were to work (oil, iron, steel and coal). Copper was not mentioned. “If I left off copper,” he explained later, “as the inclusion of copper at the time was not important, it might be more acceptable to my government; we were already as much affected as any country by the key products proposal.” Riddell cabled Ottawa for approval. When no reply came, he felt free to obey his instinct. His motion was clearly in harmony with King’s press statement. In any case, the sanctions pointed at Italy now had a safety catch: any committee recommendations had to go to individual governments for acceptance. Riddell’s motion sailed through the committee unopposed. Limited sanctions went into force in mid-November and soon cut Italy’s trade by half. If oil was forbidden to him-as now seemed certain-Mussolini’s adventure in Ethiopia would be doomed.
Mackenzie King, on vacation in Georgia, had left Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe, his Quebec lieutenant, in charge of external affairs. Lapointe came under heavy pressure. Practically every French-language newspaper opposed action by Canada: what was the difference between Mussolini’s foray into Africa and Britain’s war of conquest against the Boers? Canada had joined in Anglo-Saxon hypocrisy then; must she repeat the error now? The Roman Catholic Church took no official stand, but to most priests and bishops two facts stood out: Italy was Catholic, Rome was Rome. No one paid much attention when Fascist Adrien Arcand led his Silver Shirts through the streets of Montreal to deride the League and hail Mussolini, but it was different when Camillien Houde spoke up. “If war should come between Britain and Italy,” said the sometime mayor of Montreal and leader of the provincial Conservative Party. “French –Canadian sympathies will be with Italy.” Lapointe stood his ground until almost a month after the oil embargo had been endorsed by the League committee. Then, with King’s approval, he disavowed all responsibility for the motion. “The Canadian resolution” had represented Riddell’s personal views, not the views of the Government. The oil embargo had little chance of finding another sponsor. Mussolini went on with his conquest and the committee shoved the embargo into a pigeonhole. By midsummer the Ethiopian Capital was in Italy’s hands, Emperor Haile Selasie was in exile and the League was back in session. There was no further talk of an oil-and-steel embargo and the embargo on less important materials was removed. Canada’s new delegate Vincent Massey had this to say by the end of it: “These sanctions having proved inadequate, continuance of the ineffective economic pressure would not secure the original objective and would be worse than useless.