Geneva is readying itself for the Arab-Israeli peace conference due to meet here Dec. 18. At the European headquarters of the United Nations “Le Palais des Nations,” where the conference is due to take place, carpenters, electricians and masons are putting the last touches to the building’s “new wing” where Arabs and Israelis are due to meet. The grounds, overlooking the lake and the Alps, are already covered with snow and the delegates coming from hot and passion-ripped Middle East countries will find the cool atmosphere of Geneva a dramatic change from what they have known.
Geneva is not only a geographic location but also the symbol of “a spirit” and a certain old-fashioned form of international cooperation. It has also marked a number of resounding international failures such as the ill-fated League of Nations, the Indochina peace conference and the summit meetings.
It first entered modern history in Nov, 1917 when President Woodrow Wilson told Swiss statesman William Rappard that the world should set up an international organization, the League of Nation, and locate it in Geneva “to try and imitate the concept of mutual friendship and cooperation shown by the Swiss, French, Germans And Italians who together built a state.” Though America never did Join the League, Wilson believed till his death that the world, through sheer physical contact, would eventually imitate the Swiss example.
PAST MEETINGS AND EFFORTS
The first League of Nations General Assembly met in Geneva in 1920 in an old reconverted hotel renamed for the occasion “The Wilson Palace.” In 1926, the League officially decided to build for itself “a fitting headquarters.” The Swiss government offered the site, the Ariana Park, which had been donated to the Geneva canton by a Swiss art collector, Gustave Revilliod, in 1890.
Revilliod set at the time three conditions which the canton, the League and subsequently the United Nations undertook to respect; the domain was to remain open to the public, Revilliod’s grave was to remain undisturbed and a number of peacocks were always to walk at liberty in the park, thus preserv- ing a custom instituted over 150 years ago by Revilliod’s romantically inspired grandparents. The foundation stone was laid in 1929 after 377 architects submitted over 10,000 projects. While 1000 workers labored on the building, the League lived its own dramas and turmoils: Hitler and Mussolini described it as “the world melting pot of rot”; the Emperor of Ethiopia came, in vain, to ask for help from the Italian invasion; Benes to plead that his country. Czechoslovakia “is not the name of an infections disease”; and Rumania’s Titulesco to try to preserve at least a semblance of hope in the Balkans.
The building was completed in 1937 and the League’s General Assembly met there for the first time with war looming on the horizon. The League, soon to disintegrate in the fires of the second World War, was never to enjoy the luxurious and beautiful piece of architecture which it had built for itself A long facade of over 400 meters faces the lake and the Alps, broken by a large bay known as “La Grande Cour d’Honneur.” It encloses’ an assembly hall twice as large as the Paris Opera House and an endless procession of committee rooms leading to the “Council Chamber” in which its executive body–the predecessor of the UN’s Security Council–was to sit.
Practically every civilized country had contributed something; the chamber’s ceiling was decorated by Spanish painter Jose Maria Sert; France had given the two huge gilt bronze doors leading to the assembly hall; Finland and Italy, the lobby’s marble; Hungary, the reception room’s furniture; and New Zealand, the wood for the President’s office. The building regained part of its luster in the summer of 1954 when the international conference for peace.in Indochina met there. For the first time in nearly 20 fears, the tenors of international politics were there; John Foster Dulles and his brinkmanship; Mr. “Niet,” Vyachislav Molotov; dapper and elegant Anthony Eden; Pierre Men des-France and his glass of milk; and an unknown, mysterious figure, Chou En-lai and the 700 million Chinese he represented.
After seven-and-a-half years of bitter fighting, the Indochina peace agreement was finally signed in the evening of July 20, 1954. The leaders of the 19 countries which had attended the conference, expressed their confidence that “a lasting and secure peace has finally been concluded.” Speaking at the closing session. Anthony Eden said: “The Geneva peace conference has made it possible to stop a war which has lasted for eight years and has brought suffering and hardship to millions of people. It has furthermore served to reduce international tension.”
Molotov stressed that the Geneva agreement “will form the basis for the development of friendly relations between the former belligerents” and Chou En-lai praised the conference and “the spirit of Geneva” for “bringing fresh hope to humanity.” President Eisenhower commented: “The American role in Geneva has been to try and be helpful where (it was) desired and aid the belligerents obtain a-just and-honorable settlement which will take into account the needs of the interested parties.” A few months later, American “experts” and “observers” arrived in South Vietnam while North Vietnamese forces crossed the republic’s border. The Indochinese war had become the Vietnam operation and was on again. Geneva and the world had another chance a year later when the heads of state of Russia. America, France and Britain met in the “Palais des Nations” for their summit conference on July 18, 1955.
The Russian premier, Nikita Bulganin, a debonair figure with a small white goatee, arrived accompanied by an unknown, Nikita Khruschev; President Eisenhower with John Foster Dulles; Anthony Eden with his Foreign Secretary and eventual successor, Harold Macmillan; and Frenchman Edgar Faure with his Foreign Minister and successor. Antoine Pinay. Eisenhower met his former comrade, Marshal Zhukov, and Israeli Premier Moshe Sharett to plead with all to try and put a stop to rising tension in the Middle East. It was in Geneva that Sharett secretly met the French Foreign Minister and reached the first formal agreement for French arms sales to Israel. Since then. Geneva and its “spirit” receded. All the other major conferences were held elsewhere. Its chance will come when Arabs and Israelis meet there next week. Geneva is. meanwhile, readying itself for the conference which, for the first time in 25 years, is bringing a glimmer of hope to the war torn Middle East.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
