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McDonald’s relinquishment of his office “both shocked the League and shamed it
into continuing the Nansen tradition of humanitarian assistance.” 30
The League
membership was divided between those who wanted to dissolve the Nansen Office and
end its refugee efforts and those who sought the creation of a new refugee body. Many
States endeavored to avoid any action that would “prevent the eventual return of
Germany to the League” or provoke the fears of the Soviet Regime that the League was
planning to continue the Nansen Office (which had provided passports for White
Russians) despite its earlier decision to dissolve this organization in December 1938. 31
A Committee of Experts was established to examine the refugee problem as a
whole and concluded that any project to promote mass resettlement of stateless migrants
required cooperation between nations who belonged to or remained outside of the
League. The Committee called for the merging of the Nansen Office and the High
Commission for Refugees from Germany and the granting of a wider scope of authority
to the High Commissioner. In addition, the Committee believed nations needed to share
the financial, political, legal and bureaucratic responsibilities among themselves coupled
with a greater degree of cooperation with private organizations. However, the
recommendations of the Committee of Experts were ignored. Instead, the activities of
the High Commissioner were to be limited “to seeking the assistance of Governments” to
resolve issues regarding the “legal status of refugees.” Changes to national immigration
30 Skran, “Profiles,” 292-293.
31 Observations Présentées par Sir Horace Rumbold (annexe) - Comité Pour L’Assistance Internationale
aux Réfugies. Procès-Verbal (C.A.I.R./P.V.), December 18, 1935, League of Nations Archives
R5633/21365/20038 cited in Philip Orchard, “A Right to Leave: Refugees; States, and International
Society” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of British Columbia, 2008), 191.
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