Foreign News: Seventh to Quit

Up to July last year the League of Nations had received six unwelcome letters from six Latin American countries—Costa Rica, Brazil, Paraguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras—announcing their withdrawal from the League. Since withdrawal is provided for in the League’s Covenant it must be accepted, and automatically takes effect two years after notice has been given.

Last week the League announced that it had received the seventh such letter. It was from Miguel Angel Araujo, Foreign Minister of El Salvador, who wrote that “reasons of an economic nature compel my Government to withdraw.”

El Salvador, not much bigger than Maryland, with a population of about 1,500,000, was one of the Central American countries that did not declare war on Germany. As a neutral she was invited by the League to join up at the outset, signed the Covenant in March 1920, but she rapidly proved herself a troublesome member. Soon she began to haggle about the amount of her contribution to the League, later raised objections to the cost of the International Labor Office being included in the League’s budget. Why El Salvador worries so much about her League dues is not apparent, for up to the end of last year, according to official figures from Geneva, she owed the League 53,943.87 Swiss gold francs ($17,638.65), will owe an additional 23,060.45 ($5,294.79) at the end of this year.

Despite the insistence of El Salvador that she was quitting the League for financial reasons, a better reason was probably to be found in the friendships she has lately made with Germany, who is no longer in the League, with Italy who, though a member, scorns it.

El Salvador’s dictator, General Maximiliano H. Martinez, made haste to recognize the Fascist Government of General Franco in Spain as early as last November. He has cultivated trade with Germany. Gentlemen who cease to find the membership of their club congenial are apt to run behind on dues.