171-554: Black Mischief was Evelyn Waugh 's third novel , published in 1932. Expanded from a novella, 'Seth', the novel chronicles the efforts of the British-educated Emperor Seth, assisted by a fellow Oxford graduate, Basil Seal, to modernise his Empire, the fictional African island of Azania , located in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa . The novel was written by Waugh whilst staying as
342-568: A League of Nations mandate ) and the Soviet Union on 18 September 1934, but the Empire of Japan and Germany (under Hitler) withdrew in 1933. This marked the League's largest extent at 58 member states. In December 1920, Argentina quit (being absent from all sessions and votes) without formally withdrawing, on rejection of an Argentine resolution that all sovereign states would be admitted to
513-564: A comic novel ; after several temporary working titles this became Decline and Fall . Having given up teaching, he had no regular employment except for a short, unsuccessful stint as a reporter on the Daily Express in April–May 1927. That year he met (possibly through his brother Alec) and fell in love with Evelyn Gardner , the daughter of Lord and Lady Burghclere . In December 1927, Waugh and Evelyn Gardner became engaged, despite
684-604: A company of marines, but he proved an unpopular officer, being haughty and curt with his men. Even after the German invasion of the Low Countries (10 May – 22 June 1940), his battalion was not called into action. Waugh's inability to adapt to regimental life meant that he soon lost his command, and he became the battalion's Intelligence Officer. In that role, he finally saw action in Operation Menace as part of
855-458: A homosexual relationship came to light. Alec departed Sherborne for military training as an officer , and, while awaiting confirmation of his commission , wrote The Loom of Youth (1917), a novel of school life, which alluded to homosexual friendships at a school that was recognisably Sherborne. The public sensation caused by Alec's novel so offended the school that it became impossible for Evelyn to go there. In May 1917, much to his annoyance, he
1026-471: A "permanent league of neutral nations" to work for peace and disarmament. Within months, a call was made for an international women's conference to be held in The Hague . Coordinated by Mia Boissevain , Aletta Jacobs and Rosa Manus , the congress, which opened on 28 April 1915 was attended by 1,136 participants from neutral nations, and resulted in the establishment of an organisation which would become
1197-585: A "pose of world-weary boredom". In 1960, Waugh was offered the honour of a CBE but declined, believing that he should have been given the superior status of a knighthood . In September, he produced his final travel book, A Tourist in Africa , based on a visit made in January–March 1959. He enjoyed the trip but "despised" the book. The critic Cyril Connolly called it "the thinnest piece of book-making that Mr Waugh has undertaken". The book done, he worked on
1368-586: A Father Underhill about being a parson". Throughout the period, Waugh was influenced by his friend Olivia Plunket-Greene, who had converted in 1925 and of whom Waugh later wrote, "She bullied me into the Church". It was she who led him to Father Martin D'Arcy , a Jesuit , who persuaded Waugh "on firm intellectual convictions but little emotion" that "the Christian revelation was genuine". In 1949, Waugh explained that his conversion followed his realisation that life
1539-578: A League with the reservation that only Congress could take the U.S. into war. Lodge gained a majority of Senators and Wilson refused to allow a compromise. The Senate voted on the ratification on 19 March 1920, and the 49–35 vote fell short of the needed 2/3 majority . The League held its first council meeting in Paris on 16 January 1920, six days after the Versailles Treaty and the Covenant of
1710-644: A body. In the midst of the War, Wilson refused. In 1915, a body similar to the Bryce Group was set up in the United States, led by former president William Howard Taft . It was called the League to Enforce Peace . It advocated the use of arbitration in conflict resolution and the imposition of sanctions on aggressive countries. None of these early organisations envisioned a continuously functioning body; with
1881-495: A book, Waugh in Abyssinia (1936), which Rose Macaulay dismissed as a "fascist tract", on account of its pro-Italian tone. A better-known account is his novel Scoop (1938), in which the protagonist, William Boot, is loosely based on Deedes. Among Waugh's growing circle of friends were Diana Guinness and Bryan Guinness (dedicatees of Vile Bodies ), Lady Diana Cooper and her husband Duff Cooper , Nancy Mitford who
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#17327801923962052-421: A condition of durable peace, "behind international law, and behind all treaty arrangements for preventing or limiting hostilities, some form of international sanction should be devised which would give pause to the hardiest aggressor." The war had had a profound impact, affecting the social, political and economic systems of Europe and inflicting psychological and physical damage. Several empires collapsed: first
2223-458: A daughter, Maria Teresa, was born on 9 March 1938 and a son, Auberon Alexander , on 17 November 1939. Between these events, Scoop was published in May 1938 to wide critical acclaim. In August 1938 Waugh, with Laura, made a three-month trip to Mexico after which he wrote Robbery Under Law , based on his experiences there. In the book he spelled out clearly his conservative credo; he later described
2394-516: A few days, he was writing home complaining of "other passengers whispering about me" and of hearing voices, including that of his recent BBC interlocutor , Stephen Black. He left the ship in Egypt and flew on to Colombo , but, he wrote to Laura, the voices followed him. Alarmed, Laura sought help from her friend, Frances Donaldson , whose husband agreed to fly out to Ceylon and bring Waugh home. In fact, Waugh made his own way back, now believing that he
2565-618: A film critic for Isis . He also became secretary of the Hertford College debating society, "an onerous but not honorific post", he told Driberg. Although Waugh tended to regard his scholarship as a reward for past efforts rather than a stepping-stone to future academic success, he did sufficient work in his first two terms to pass his "History Previous", an essential preliminary examination. The arrival in Oxford in October 1922 of
2736-658: A further complication, Laura Herbert was a cousin of Evelyn Gardner. Despite some family hostility the marriage took place on 17 April 1937 at the Church of the Assumption in Warwick Street, London. As a wedding present the bride's grandmother bought the couple Piers Court , a country house near Stinchcombe in Gloucestershire. The couple had seven children, one of whom died in infancy. Their first child,
2907-577: A game of consequences at a party; and two members of the RSPCA , Dame Mildred Porch and Miss Sarah Tin, who the Azanians believe are there to assist in creating more efficient ways to be cruel to animals. After a period of rapid but haphazard modernisation, including renaming the street the Anglican Cathedral is on "Place Marie Stopes ", Emperor Seth launches his own currency. This last act is
3078-660: A generally favourable reception in April 1928: J. C. Squire in The Observer praised the book's elegance and wit; Acton gave cautious approval; and the novelist Rebecca West wrote to express how much she had enjoyed the book. Less pleasing to Waugh were the Times Literary Supplement ' s references to him as "Miss Waugh". When Decline and Fall was completed, Duckworths objected to its "obscenity", but Chapman & Hall agreed to publish it. This
3249-407: A good choice for the nations of the world. Support for Geneva as the selection came from Swiss Federal Councillor Gustave Ador and economist William Rappard. The Palais Wilson on Geneva's western lakeshore, named after Woodrow Wilson, was the League's first permanent home. The covenant had ambiguities, as Carole Fink points out. There was not a good fit between Wilson's "revolutionary conception of
3420-578: A house captain, editor of the school magazine and president of the debating society , and won numerous art and literature prizes. He also shed most of his religious beliefs. He started a novel of school life, untitled, but abandoned the effort after writing around 5,000 words. He ended his schooldays by winning a scholarship to read Modern History at Hertford College, Oxford , and left Lancing in December 1921. Waugh arrived in Oxford in January 1922. He
3591-546: A house guest at Madresfield Court in Worcestershire . The old nursery had been converted into a writing room for Waugh. The novel is dedicated to the Lygon sisters, who had the run of the place (their father, William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp , having been forced into exile in 1931 under threat of prosecution for his homosexuality), and posed for some of the drawings Waugh did for the first edition. When Black Mischief
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#17327801923963762-781: A major Catholic biography, he selected the Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion as his subject. The book, published in 1935, caused controversy by its forthright pro-Catholic, anti- Protestant stance but brought its writer the Hawthornden Prize . He returned to Abyssinia in August 1935 to report the opening stages of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War for the Daily Mail . Waugh, on the basis of his earlier visit, considered Abyssinia "a savage place which Mussolini
3933-668: A natural scientist who became notorious through his depiction as a religious fanatic in his son Edmund's memoir Father and Son . Among ancestors bearing the Waugh name, the Rev. Alexander Waugh (1754–1827) was a minister in the Secession Church of Scotland who helped found the London Missionary Society and was one of the leading Nonconformist preachers of his day. His grandson Alexander Waugh (1840–1906)
4104-488: A particularly close relationship; his father, Arthur Waugh, was a more distant figure, whose close bond with his elder son, Alec, was such that Evelyn often felt excluded. In September 1910, Evelyn began as a day pupil at Heath Mount preparatory school. By then, he was a lively boy of many interests, who already had written and completed "The Curse of the Horse Race", his first story. A positive influence on his writing
4275-399: A pressure group within the then-governing Liberal Party . In Dickinson's 1915 pamphlet After the War he wrote of his "League of Peace" as being essentially an organisation for arbitration and conciliation. He felt that the secret diplomacy of the early twentieth century had brought about war, and thus, could write that, "the impossibility of war, I believe, would be increased in proportion as
4446-525: A recurrent feature in his life. In 1950, as a means of tax avoidance , he had set up a trust fund for his children (he termed it the "Save the Children Fund", after the well-established charity of that name ) into which he placed the initial advance and all future royalties from the Penguin (paperback) editions of his books. He was able to augment his personal finances by charging household items to
4617-496: A river trip by steam launch into the interior. He travelled on via several staging-posts to Boa Vista in Brazil, and then took a convoluted overland journey back to Georgetown. His various adventures and encounters found their way into two further books: his travel account Ninety-two Days , and the novel A Handful of Dust , both published in 1934. Back from South America, Waugh faced accusations of obscenity and blasphemy from
4788-578: A short film about Waugh. In the course of it, Newman learned that Waugh hated the modern world and wished that he had been born two or three centuries sooner. Waugh disliked modern methods of transportation or communication, refused to drive or use the telephone, and wrote with an old-fashioned dip pen . He also expressed the views that American news reporters could not function without frequent infusions of whisky , and that every American had been divorced at least once. Restored to health, Waugh returned to work and finished Officers and Gentlemen . In June 1955
4959-461: A teaching job. Almost at once, he secured a post at Arnold House, a boys' preparatory school in North Wales , beginning in January 1925. He took with him the notes for his novel, The Temple at Thatch , intending to work on it in his spare time. Despite the gloomy ambience of the school, Waugh did his best to fulfil the requirements of his position, but a brief return to London and Oxford during
5130-475: A visit to Gloucester , where he bought "a lion of wood, finely carved for £25, also a bookcase £35 ... a charming Chinese painting £10, a Regency easel £7". Some of his buying was shrewd and prescient; he paid £10 for Rossetti's "Spirit of the Rainbow" to begin a collection of Victorian paintings that eventually acquired great value. Waugh also began, from 1949, to write knowledgeable reviews and articles on
5301-797: A year in September. The special functions of the Assembly included the admission of new members, the periodical election of non-permanent members to the council, the election with the Council of the judges of the Permanent Court, and control of the budget. In practice, the Assembly was the general directing force of League activities. The Council acted as a type of executive body directing the Assembly's business. It began with four permanent members – Great Britain , France , Italy , and Japan – and four non-permanent members that were elected by
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5472-620: Is dark, bitter, "a manifesto of disillusionment", according to biographer Martin Stannard. As a best-selling author Waugh could now command larger fees for his journalism. Amid regular work for The Graphic , Town and Country and Harper's Bazaar , he quickly wrote Labels , a detached account of his honeymoon cruise with She-Evelyn. On 29 September 1930, Waugh was received into the Catholic Church. This shocked his family and surprised some of his friends, but he had contemplated
5643-773: Is in turn killed on Basil’s orders. Basil attends Seth's funeral feast and discovers afterwards that he has eaten the stewed remains of his girlfriend Prudence Courteney, the coddled daughter of the British Minister, whose plane had vanished after the evacuation of the British compound . With no heir to the monarchy, the League of Nations steps in and claims the country as a League of Nations Mandate. Basil returns to England and disturbs his old friends because he has become serious. Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh ( / ˈ iː v l ɪ n ˈ s ɪ n dʒ ən ˈ w ɔː / ; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966)
5814-531: The Daily Mail on the meaning of the marriage ceremony. During this period Waugh began the practice of staying at the various houses of his friends; he was to have no settled home for the next eight years. Vile Bodies , a satire on the Bright Young People of the 1920s, was published on 19 January 1930 and was Waugh's first major commercial success. Despite its quasi-biblical title, the book
5985-747: The 1939 New York World's Fair , a semi-official flag and emblem for the League of Nations emerged: two five-pointed stars within a blue pentagon. They symbolised the Earth's five continents and "five races ". A bow at the top displayed the English name ("League of Nations"), while another at the bottom showed the French (" Société des Nations "). The League consisted of 42 founding members in November 1920. Six other states joined in its founding year (by December 1920), and seven more joined by September 1924, bringing
6156-581: The Axis powers in the 1930s. Its credibility was weakened because the United States never joined. Japan and Germany left in 1933, Italy left in 1937, and Spain left in 1939. The Soviet Union only joined in 1934 and was expelled in 1939 after invading Finland . Furthermore, the League demonstrated an irresolute approach to sanction enforcement for fear it might only spark further conflict, further decreasing its credibility. One example of this hesitancy
6327-685: The British East Africa colonies and the Belgian Congo formed the basis of two books; the travelogue Remote People (1931) and the comic novel Black Mischief (1932). Waugh's next extended trip, in the winter of 1932–1933, was to British Guiana (now Guyana) in South America, possibly taken to distract him from a long and unrequited passion for the socialite Teresa Jungman . On arrival in Georgetown , Waugh arranged
6498-470: The Daily Express journalist and reviewer Nancy Spain , accompanied by her friend Lord Noel-Buxton, arrived uninvited at Piers Court and demanded an interview. Waugh saw the pair off and wrote a wry account for The Spectator , but he was troubled by the incident and decided to sell Piers Court: "I felt it was polluted", he told Nancy Mitford. Late in 1956, the family moved to Combe Florey House in
6669-651: The First World War . The main organisation ceased operations on 18 April 1946 when many of its components were relocated into the new United Nations . As the template for modern global governance, the League profoundly shaped the modern world. The League's primary goals were stated in its eponymous Covenant . They included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration . Its other concerns included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking ,
6840-570: The Fourteen Points of January 1918), as well as the work of the Phillimore Commission. The outcome of House's work and Wilson's own first draft proposed the termination of "unethical" state behaviour, including forms of espionage and dishonesty. Methods of compulsion against recalcitrant states would include severe measures, such as "blockading and closing the frontiers of that power to commerce or intercourse with any part of
7011-559: The Holy Land with his future biographer, Christopher Sykes, and in 1953, he travelled to Goa to witness the final exhibition before burial of the remains of the 16th-century Jesuit missionary-priest Francis Xavier . In between his journeys, Waugh worked intermittently on Helena , a long-planned novel about the discoverer of the True Cross that was by "far the best book I have ever written or ever will write". Its success with
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7182-803: The Ian Fleming -managed Queen Anne Press , 1952) and Love Among the Ruins (1953), a dystopian tale in which Waugh displays his contempt for the modern world. Nearing 50, Waugh was old for his years, "selectively deaf, rheumatic, irascible" and increasingly dependent on alcohol and on drugs to relieve his insomnia and depression. Two more children, James (born 1946) and Septimus (born 1950), completed his family. From 1945 onwards, Waugh became an avid collector, particularly of Victorian paintings and furniture. He filled Piers Court with his acquisitions, often from London's Portobello Market and from house clearance sales. His diary entry for 30 August 1946 records
7353-509: The Rockefeller Foundation . It made major grants designed to build up the technical expertise of the League staff. Ludovic Tournès argues that by the 1930s the foundations had changed the League from a "Parliament of Nations" to a modern think tank that used specialised expertise to provide an in-depth impartial analysis of international issues. The official languages of the League of Nations were French and English. During
7524-723: The Russian Empire in February 1917, followed by the German Empire , Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire . Anti-war sentiment rose across the world; the First World War was described as " the war to end all wars ", and its possible causes were vigorously investigated. The causes identified included arms races, alliances, militaristic nationalism, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit. One proposed remedy
7695-526: The Treaty of Versailles , signed on 28 June 1919. French women's rights advocates invited international feminists to participate in a parallel conference to the Paris Conference in hopes that they could gain permission to participate in the official conference. The Inter-Allied Women's Conference asked to be allowed to submit suggestions to the peace negotiations and commissions and were granted
7866-621: The United Nations (UN) replaced it in 1946 and inherited several agencies and organisations founded by the League. Current scholarly consensus views that, even though the League failed to achieve its main goal of world peace , it did manage to build new roads towards expanding the rule of law across the globe; strengthened the concept of collective security , gave a voice to smaller nations; fostered economic stabilisation and financial stability , especially in Central Europe in
8037-578: The War Office ; Evelyn loitered about the War Office in hope of glimpsing Lord Kitchener , but never did. Family holidays usually were spent with the Waugh aunts at Midsomer Norton in Somerset , in a house lit with oil lamps, a time that Waugh recalled with delight, many years later. At Midsomer Norton, Evelyn became deeply interested in high Anglican church rituals, the initial stirrings of
8208-519: The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). At the close of the conference, two delegations of women were dispatched to meet European heads of state over the next several months. They secured agreement from reluctant foreign ministers, who overall felt that such a body would be ineffective, but agreed to participate in or not impede creation of a neutral mediating body, if other nations agreed and if President Woodrow Wilson would initiate
8379-596: The Zürich Peace Conference held between 17 and 19 May 1919, the women of the WILPF condemned the terms of the Treaty of Versailles for both its punitive measures, as well as its failure to provide for condemnation of violence and exclusion of women from civil and political participation. Upon reading the Rules of Procedure for the League of Nations, Catherine Marshall , a British suffragist, discovered that
8550-468: The 1920s; helped to raise awareness of problems like epidemics , slavery , child labour , colonial tyranny, refugee crises and general working conditions through its numerous commissions and committees; and paved the way for new forms of statehood, as the mandate system put the colonial powers under international observation. Professor David Kennedy portrays the League as a unique moment when international affairs were "institutionalised", as opposed to
8721-435: The 20th century. Waugh was the son of a publisher, educated at Lancing College and then at Hertford College, Oxford . He worked briefly as a schoolmaster before he became a full-time writer. As a young man, he acquired many fashionable and aristocratic friends and developed a taste for country house society. He travelled extensively in the 1930s, often as a special newspaper correspondent; he reported from Abyssinia at
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#17327801923968892-428: The Allied invasion of Sicily . Despite his undoubted courage, his unmilitary and insubordinate character were rendering him effectively unemployable as a soldier. After spells of idleness at the regimental depot in Windsor , Waugh began parachute training at Tatton Park , Cheshire, but landed awkwardly during an exercise and fractured a fibula . Recovering at Windsor, he applied for three months' unpaid leave to write
9063-447: The Allies. He now saw little difference in morality between the war's combatants and later described it as "a sweaty tug-of-war between teams of indistinguishable louts". Although he took momentary pleasure from the defeat of Winston Churchill and his Conservatives in the 1945 general election , he saw the accession to power of the Labour Party as a triumph of barbarism and the onset of a new "Dark Age". In September 1945, after he
9234-399: The Assembly for a three-year term. The first non-permanent members were Belgium , Brazil , Greece , and Spain . The composition of the Council was changed several times. The number of non-permanent members was first increased to six on 22 September 1922 and to nine on 8 September 1926. Werner Dankwort of Germany pushed for his country to join the League; joining in 1926, Germany became
9405-412: The British force sent to the Battle of Dakar in West Africa (23–25 September 1940) in August 1940 to support an attempt by the Free French Forces to overthrow the Vichy French colonial government and install General Charles de Gaulle . Operation Menace failed, hampered by fog and misinformation about the extent of the town's defences, and the British forces withdrew on 26 September. Waugh's comment on
9576-420: The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster was prepared, but on the advice of Waugh's friends was not sent. The novel has been published in the United Kingdom by Penguin Classics ( ISBN 9780141183985 ), and in the U.S.A. by Back Bay Books ( ISBN 0316917338 ). After winning a civil war against his late father Seyid (who is unfortunately eaten by his own soldiers), Seth, Oxford -educated emperor of
9747-417: The Catholic journal The Tablet , which objected to passages in Black Mischief . He defended himself in an open letter to the Archbishop of Westminster , Cardinal Francis Bourne , which remained unpublished until 1980. In the summer of 1934, he went on an expedition to Spitsbergen in the Arctic , an experience he did not enjoy and of which he made minimal literary use. On his return, determined to write
9918-428: The Council of the League took place on 16 January 1920, and the first meeting of the Assembly of the League took place on 15 November 1920. In 1919, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as the leading architect of the League. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on
10089-400: The Council take action aiming at the international organisation of intellectual work, which it did by adopting a report presented by the Fifth Committee of the Second Assembly and inviting a committee on intellectual co-operation to meet in Geneva in August 1922. The French philosopher Henri Bergson became the first chairman of the committee. The work of the committee included: an inquiry into
10260-480: The Easter holiday only exacerbated his sense of isolation. In the summer of 1925, Waugh's outlook briefly improved, with the prospect of a job in Pisa , Italy, as secretary to the Scottish writer C. K. Scott Moncrieff , who was engaged on the English translations of Marcel Proust 's works. Believing that the job was his, Waugh resigned his position at Arnold House. He had meantime sent the early chapters of his novel to Acton for assessment and criticism. Acton's reply
10431-542: The IPU by 1914. Its foundational aims were to encourage governments to solve international disputes by peaceful means. Annual conferences were established to help governments refine the process of international arbitration. Its structure was designed as a council headed by a president, which would later be reflected in the structure of the League. At the start of the First World War, the first schemes for an international organisation to prevent future wars began to gain considerable public support, particularly in Great Britain and
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#173278019239610602-460: The League accused Italian soldiers of targeting International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement medical tents, Benito Mussolini responded that "the League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out." At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. After some notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by
10773-400: The League as a solid replacement for a corrupt alliance system, a guardian of international order, and protector of small states," versus Lloyd George's desire for a "cheap, self-enforcing, peace, such as had been maintained by the old and more fluid Concert of Europe." Furthermore, the League, according to Carole Fink, was, "deliberately excluded from such great-power prerogatives as freedom of
10944-426: The League of Nations came into force. On 1 November 1920, the headquarters of the League was moved from London to Geneva , where the first General Assembly was held on 15 November 1920. Geneva made sense as an ideal city for the League, since Switzerland had been a neutral country for centuries and was already the headquarters for the International Red Cross. Its strong democracy and location in central Europe made it
11115-542: The League of Nations, Afghanistan abolished slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in 1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929, Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942. Led by Fridtjof Nansen , the Commission for Refugees was established on 27 June 1921 to look after the interests of refugees, including overseeing their repatriation and, when necessary, resettlement. At the end of the First World War, there were two to three million ex-prisoners of war from various nations dispersed throughout Russia; within two years of
11286-408: The League of Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), was formed by the peace activists William Randal Cremer and Frédéric Passy in 1889 (and still exists as an international body focused on the world's various elected legislative bodies). The IPU was founded with an international scope, with a third of the members of parliaments (in the 24 countries that had parliaments) serving as members of
11457-409: The League on the grounds that "Ethiopia had not reached a state of civilisation and internal security sufficient to warrant her admission." The League also succeeded in reducing the death rate of workers constructing the Tanganyika railway from 55 to 4 per cent. Records were kept to control slavery, prostitution, and the trafficking of women and children . Partly as a result of pressure brought by
11628-481: The League's size to 55. Costa Rica withdrew in December 1924, making it the member to have most quickly withdrawn, and Brazil became the first founding member to withdraw in June 1926. Germany (under the Weimar Republic ) was admitted to the League of Nations through a resolution passed on 8 September 1926. The League's size remained at 54 for the next five years. Through the first half of the 1930s, six more states joined, including Iraq in 1932 (newly independent from
11799-413: The League. It resumed its participation in September 1933. The League's membership declined through the second half of the 1930s as it weakened. Between 1935 and the start of World War II in Europe in September 1939, only Egypt joined (becoming the last state to join), 11 members left, and 3 members ceased to exist or fell under military occupation (Ethiopia, Austria, and Czechoslovakia). The Soviet Union
11970-512: The League. The British were particularly active in setting up junior branches for secondary students. The League of Nations was relatively more universal and inclusive in its membership and structure than previous international organisations, but the organisation enshrined racial hierarchy by curtailing the right to self-determination and prevented decolonisation. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Wilson, Cecil and Smuts all put forward their draft proposals. After lengthy negotiations between
12141-418: The League: representation had been accorded not only to governments but also to representatives of employers' and workers' organisations. Albert Thomas was its first director. The ILO successfully restricted the addition of lead to paint, and convinced several countries to adopt an eight-hour work day and forty-eight-hour working week. It also campaigned to end child labour, increase the rights of women in
12312-574: The Paris-based Office international d'hygiène publique (OIHP) founded in 1907 after the International Sanitary Conferences , was discharging most of the practical health-related questions, and its relations with the League's Health Committee were often conflictual. The Health Committee's purpose was to conduct inquiries, oversee the operation of the League's health work, and prepare work to be presented to
12483-860: The Permanent Court of International Justice and several other agencies and commissions created to deal with pressing international problems. These included the Disarmament Commission, the International Labour Organization (ILO) , the Mandates Commission, the International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation (precursor to UNESCO ), the Permanent Central Opium Board , the Commission for Refugees,
12654-568: The Secretariat was responsible for preparing the agenda for the Council and the Assembly and publishing reports of the meetings and other routine matters, effectively acting as the League's civil service. In 1931 the staff numbered 707. The Assembly consisted of representatives of all members of the League, with each state allowed up to three representatives and one vote. It met in Geneva and, after its initial sessions in 1920, it convened once
12825-1051: The Slavery Commission, and the Economic and Financial Organization . Three of these institutions were transferred to the United Nations after the Second World War: the International Labour Organization, the Permanent Court of International Justice (as the International Court of Justice ), and the Health Organisation (restructured as the World Health Organization ). The Permanent Court of International Justice
12996-607: The Somerset village of Combe Florey . In January 1957, Waugh avenged the Spain–Noel-Buxton intrusion by winning libel damages from the Express and Spain. The paper had printed an article by Spain that suggested that the sales of Waugh's books were much lower than they were and that his worth, as a journalist, was low. Gilbert Pinfold was published in the summer of 1957, "my barmy book", Waugh called it. The extent to which
13167-471: The United States. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson , a British political scientist, coined the term "League of Nations" in 1914 and drafted a scheme for its organisation. Together with Lord Bryce , he played a leading role in the founding of the group of internationalist pacifists known as the Bryce Group , later the League of Nations Union . The group became steadily more influential among the public and as
13338-529: The affair was this: "Bloodshed has been avoided at the cost of honour." In November 1940, Waugh was posted to a commando unit, and, after further training, became a member of " Layforce ", under Colonel (later Brigadier) Robert Laycock . In February 1941, the unit sailed to the Mediterranean, where it participated in an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Bardia , on the Libyan coast. In May, Layforce
13509-542: The arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. The Covenant of the League of Nations was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles , and it became effective with the rest of the Treaty on 10 January 1920. Australia was granted the right to participate as an autonomous member nation, marking the start of Australian independence on the global stage. The first meeting of
13680-472: The autumn. In September 1928, Decline and Fall was published to almost unanimous praise. By December, the book was into its third printing, and the American publishing rights were sold for $ 500. In the afterglow of his success, Waugh was commissioned to write travel articles in return for a free Mediterranean cruise, which he and Gardner began in February 1929, as an extended, delayed honeymoon. The trip
13851-529: The basis of the xenophobia fostered by the genre books of invasion literature , that the Germans were about to invade Britain, Waugh organised his friends into the "Pistol Troop", who built a fort, went on manoeuvres and paraded in makeshift uniforms. In 1914, after the First World War began, Waugh and other boys from the Boy Scout Troop of Heath Mount School were sometimes employed as messengers at
14022-525: The book as dealing "little with travel and much with political questions". Waugh left Piers Court on 1 September 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War and moved his young family to Pixton Park in Somerset, the Herbert family's country seat, while he sought military employment. He also began writing a novel in a new style, using first-person narration, but abandoned work on it when he
14193-494: The boy was christened Arthur Evelyn St John Waugh but was known in the family and in the wider world as Evelyn. In 1907, the Waugh family left Hillfield Road for Underhill, a house which Arthur had built in North End Road , Hampstead , close to Golders Green , then a semi-rural area of dairy farms, market gardens and bluebell woods. Evelyn received his first school lessons at home, from his mother, with whom he formed
14364-567: The commission's foundation, it had helped 425,000 of them return home. It established camps in Turkey in 1922 to aid the country with an ongoing refugee crisis, helping to prevent the spread of cholera , smallpox and dysentery as well as feeding the refugees in the camps. It also established the Nansen passport as a means of identification for stateless people . The Committee for the Study of
14535-569: The commission's results were later incorporated into the Covenant of the League of Nations . The French authorities also drafted a much more far-reaching proposal in June 1918; they advocated annual meetings of a council to settle all disputes, as well as an "international army" to enforce its decisions. American President Woodrow Wilson instructed Edward M. House to draft a US plan which reflected Wilson's own idealistic views (first articulated in
14706-516: The conditions of intellectual life, assistance to countries where intellectual life was endangered, creation of national committees for intellectual cooperation, cooperation with international intellectual organisations, protection of intellectual property, inter-university co-operation, co-ordination of bibliographical work and international interchange of publications, and international co-operation in archaeological research. The Slavery Commission sought to eradicate slavery and slave trading across
14877-492: The council or the Assembly. The Court was open to all the nations of the world under certain broad conditions. The International Labour Organization was created in 1919 on the basis of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles. The ILO, although having the same members as the League and being subject to the budget control of the Assembly, was an autonomous organisation with its own Governing Body, its own General Conference and its own Secretariat. Its constitution differed from that of
15048-436: The council. This body focused on ending leprosy , malaria , and yellow fever , the latter two by starting an international campaign to exterminate mosquitoes. The Health Organisation also worked successfully with the government of the Soviet Union to prevent typhus epidemics, including organising a large education campaign. Linked with health, but also commercial concerns, was the topic of narcotics control. Introduced by
15219-545: The course of the diplomatic efforts surrounding World War I , both sides had to clarify their long-term war aims. By 1916 in Britain, fighting on the side of the Allies , and in the neutral United States, long-range thinkers had begun to design a unified international organisation to prevent future wars. Historian Peter Yearwood argues that when the new coalition government of David Lloyd George took power in December 1916, there
15390-494: The creation of a mandate system for captured colonies of the Central Powers during the war. Cecil focused on the administrative side and proposed annual council meetings and quadrennial meetings for the Assembly of all members. He also argued for a large and permanent secretariat to carry out the League's administrative duties. According to historian Patricia Clavin, Cecil and the British continued their leadership of
15561-477: The cruise ended Waugh was invited to stay at the Herbert family's villa in Portofino , where he first met Gabriel's 17-year-old sister, Laura. On his conversion, Waugh had accepted that he would be unable to remarry while Evelyn Gardner was alive. However, he wanted a wife and children, and in October 1933, he began proceedings for the annulment of the marriage on the grounds of "lack of real consent". The case
15732-473: The delegates, the Hurst – Miller draft was finally produced as a basis for the Covenant . After more negotiation and compromise, the delegates finally approved of the proposal to create the League of Nations ( French : Société des Nations , German : Völkerbund ) on 25 January 1919. The final Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted by a special commission, and the League was established by Part I of
15903-478: The development of a rules-based global order into the 1920s and 1930s, with a primary focus on the League of Nations. The British goal was to systematise and normalise the economic and social relations between states, markets, and civil society. They gave priority to business and banking issues, but also considered the needs of ordinary women, children and the family as well. They moved beyond high-level intellectual discussions, and set up local organisations to support
16074-494: The early 1950s. Waugh converted to Catholicism in 1930 after his first marriage failed. His traditionalist stance led him to strongly oppose all attempts to reform the Church, and the changes by the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) greatly disturbed his sensibilities, especially the introduction of the vernacular Mass . That blow to his religious traditionalism, his dislike for the welfare state culture of
16245-581: The exception of the Fabian Society in England, they maintained a legalistic approach that would limit the international body to a court of justice. The Fabians were the first to argue for a "council" of states, necessarily the Great Powers , who would adjudicate world affairs, and for the creation of a permanent secretariat to enhance international co-operation across a range of activities. In
16416-404: The fictional nation of Azania, makes it his goal to modernise his country. He recruits Basil Seal, a shiftless college friend and heir to an English political family in the country after stealing his mother’s jewellery to pay for his ticket, to preside over the newly established Ministry of Modernization, with the help of Krikor Yokoumian, a successful Armenian shopkeeper and fixer. Basil enters into
16587-431: The fifth permanent member of the Council. Later, after Germany and Japan both left the League, the number of non-permanent seats was increased from nine to eleven, and the Soviet Union was made a permanent member giving the council a total of fifteen members. The Council met, on average, five times a year and in extraordinary sessions when required. In total, 107 sessions were held between 1920 and 1939. The League oversaw
16758-441: The first Geneva Conventions establishing laws dealing with humanitarian relief during wartime, and the international Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 governing rules of war and the peaceful settlement of international disputes. Theodore Roosevelt at the acceptance for his Nobel Prize in 1910, said: "it would be a masterstroke if those great powers honestly bent on peace would form a League of Peace." One small forerunner of
16929-422: The first of several homosexual relationships, the most lasting of which were with Hugh Lygon , Richard Pares and Alastair Graham (potentially the inspiration for the fictional character Lord Sebastian Flyte in the novel Brideshead Revisited , though this is rather disputed and was most likely a blend of numerous individuals including Stephen Tennant ). He continued to write reviews and short stories for
17100-557: The frustrations of postwar European travel in a novella, Scott-King's Modern Europe . In February 1947, he made the first of several trips to the United States, in the first instance to discuss filming of Brideshead . The project collapsed, but Waugh used his time in Hollywood to visit the Forest Lawn cemetery , which provided the basis for his satire of American perspectives on death, The Loved One (1948). In 1951 he visited
17271-400: The guidelines were completely undemocratic and they were modified based on her suggestion. The League would be made up of a Assembly (representing all member states), a Council (with membership limited to major powers), and a permanent Secretariat. Member states were expected to "respect and preserve as against external aggression" the territorial integrity of other members and to disarm "to
17442-750: The hands of the Serbian Orthodox Church and would fare worse when the Communists took control. He expressed those thoughts in a long report, "Church and State in Liberated Croatia". After spells in Dubrovnik and Rome, Waugh returned to London on 15 March 1945 to present his report, which the Foreign Office suppressed to maintain good relations with Tito, now the leader of communist Yugoslavia. Brideshead Revisited
17613-596: The hope that each state would declare itself a free state that respects its citizens and welcomes foreign visitors as fellow rational beings, thus promoting peaceful society worldwide. International co-operation to promote collective security originated in the Concert of Europe that developed after the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century in an attempt to maintain the status quo between European states and so avoid war. By 1910, international law developed, with
17784-526: The issues of foreign policy should be known to and controlled by public opinion." The 'Proposals' of the Bryce Group were circulated widely, both in England and the US, where they had a profound influence on the nascent international movement. In January 1915, a peace conference directed by Jane Addams was held in the neutral United States. The delegates adopted a platform calling for creation of international bodies with administrative and legislative powers to develop
17955-403: The last fortnight I have been nearly insane.... I may perhaps one day in a later time tell you some of the things that have happened". He did just enough work to pass his final examinations in the summer of 1924 with a third-class. However, as he had begun at Hertford in the second term of the 1921–22 academic year, Waugh had completed only eight terms' residence when he sat his finals, rather than
18126-494: The last of the war trilogy, which was published in 1961 as Unconditional Surrender . League of Nations The League of Nations ( LN or LoN ; French : Société des Nations [sɔsjete de nɑsjɔ̃] , SdN ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace . It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ended
18297-402: The legation garden and gossip from home at the expense of any interest in local affairs, headed by a failed career diplomat Sir Samson Courteney; Monsieur Ballon, the French freemason consul, determined that all actions on the part of the British are in fact coded pieces of a great master plan and his wife, generally believed to be having an affair with General Connolly after French agents overhear
18468-547: The lowest point consistent with domestic safety." All states were required to submit complaints for arbitration or judicial inquiry before going to war. The Council would create a Permanent Court of International Justice to make judgements on the disputes. Despite Wilson's efforts to establish and promote the League, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1919, the United States never joined. Senate Republicans led by Henry Cabot Lodge wanted
18639-418: The nine required under the university's statutes. His poor results led to the loss of his scholarship, which made it impossible for him to return to Oxford for that final term, so he left without his degree. Back at home, Waugh began a novel, The Temple at Thatch , and worked with some of his fellow Hypocrites on a film, The Scarlet Woman , which was shot partly in the gardens at Underhill. He spent much of
18810-606: The novel that had been forming in his mind. His request was granted and, on 31 January 1944, he departed for Chagford , Devon, where he could work in seclusion. The result was Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder (1945), the first of his explicitly Catholic novels of which the biographer Douglas Lane Patey commented that it was "the book that seemed to confirm his new sense of his writerly vocation". Waugh managed to extend his leave until June 1944. Soon after his return to duty he
18981-401: The opposition of Lady Burghclere, who felt that Waugh lacked moral fibre and kept unsuitable company. Among their friends, they quickly became known as "He-Evelyn" and "She-Evelyn". Waugh was at this time dependent on a £4-a-week allowance (equivalent to £302 in 2023) from his father and the small sums he could earn from book reviewing and journalism. The Rossetti biography was published to
19152-513: The panel took an aggressive line: "they tried to make a fool of me, and I don't think they entirely succeeded", Waugh wrote to Nancy Mitford. Peter Fleming in The Spectator likened the interview to "the goading of a bull by matadors". Early in 1954, Waugh's doctors, concerned by his physical deterioration, advised a change of scene. On 29 January, he took a ship bound for Ceylon , hoping that he would be able to finish his novel. Within
19323-446: The postwar world, and the decline of his health all darkened his final years, but he continued to write. He displayed to the world a mask of indifference, but he was capable of great kindness to those whom he considered his friends. After his death in 1966, he acquired a following of new readers through the film and television versions of his works, such as the television serial Brideshead Revisited (1981). Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh
19494-413: The pre-First World War methods of law and politics. The concept of a peaceful community of nations had been proposed as early as 1795, when Immanuel Kant 's Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch outlined the idea of a league of nations to control conflict and promote peace between states. Kant argued for the establishment of a peaceful world community, not in a sense of a global government, but in
19665-524: The process for the annulment of their marriage a few years later. Waugh's first biographer, Christopher Sykes , records that after the divorce friends "saw, or believed they saw, a new hardness and bitterness" in Waugh's outlook. Nevertheless, despite a letter to Acton in which he wrote that he "did not know it was possible to be so miserable and live", he soon resumed his professional and social life. He finished his second novel, Vile Bodies , and wrote articles including (ironically, he thought) one for
19836-492: The public was limited, but it was, his daughter Harriet later said, "the only one of his books that he ever cared to read aloud". In 1952 Waugh published Men at Arms , the first of his semi-autobiographical war trilogy in which he depicted many of his personal experiences and encounters from the early stages of the war. Other books published during this period included When The Going Was Good (1946), an anthology of his pre-war travel writing, The Holy Places (published by
20007-460: The rest of the summer in the company of Alastair Graham; after Graham departed for Kenya , Waugh enrolled for the autumn at a London art school, Heatherley's . Waugh began at Heatherley's in late September 1924, but became bored with the routine and quickly abandoned his course. He spent weeks partying in London and Oxford before the overriding need for money led him to apply through an agency for
20178-509: The right to sit on commissions dealing specifically with women and children. Though they asked for enfranchisement and full legal protection under the law equal with men, those rights were ignored. Women won the right to serve in all capacities, including as staff or delegates in the League of Nations organisation. They also won a declaration that member nations should prevent trafficking of women and children and should equally support humane conditions for children, women and men labourers. At
20349-553: The school's cadet corps and founding the Corpse Club "for those who were bored stiff". The end of the war saw the return to the school of younger masters such as J. F. Roxburgh , who encouraged Waugh to write and predicted a great future for him. Another mentor, Francis Crease, taught Waugh the arts of calligraphy and decorative design; some of the boy's work was good enough to be used by Chapman and Hall on book jackets. In his later years at Lancing, Waugh achieved success as
20520-548: The seas and naval disarmament, the Monroe Doctrine and the internal affairs of the French and British empires, and inter-Allied debts and German reparations, not to mention the Allied intervention and the settlement of borders with Soviet Russia." Although the United States never joined, unofficial observers became more and more involved, especially in the 1930s. American philanthropies became heavily involved, especially
20691-545: The seat of the League at Geneva, comprised a body of experts in various spheres under the direction of the general secretary . Its principal sections were Political, Financial and Economics, Transit, Minorities and Administration (administering the Saar and Danzig ), Mandates, Disarmament, Health, Social (Opium and Traffic in Women and Children), Intellectual Cooperation and International Bureaux, Legal, and Information. The staff of
20862-494: The second International Opium Convention , the Permanent Central Opium Board had to supervise the statistical reports on trade in opium , morphine, cocaine and heroin. The board also established a system of import certificates and export authorisations for the legal international trade in narcotics . The League of Nations had devoted serious attention to the question of international intellectual cooperation since its creation. The First Assembly in December 1920 recommended that
21033-641: The shore. During the following two years Waugh taught at schools in Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire (from which he was dismissed for the attempted drunken seduction of a school matron) and Notting Hill in London. He considered alternative careers in printing or cabinet-making, and attended evening classes in carpentry at Holborn Polytechnic while continuing to write. A short story, "The Balance", written in an experimental modernist style, became his first commercially published fiction, when it
21204-717: The society of the capital, Debra Dowa. This consists mainly of various heads of society and government, including the head of the Army, General Connolly. Connolly was a former Irish game-warden who had taken a local wife, whom he refers to as "Black Bitch", as the Duke & Duchess of Ukaka; the Minister of the Interior Viscount Boaz, and the Earl of Ngumo; the representatives of the British diplomatic corps, interested only in
21375-482: The sophisticated Etonians Harold Acton and Brian Howard changed Waugh's Oxford life. Acton and Howard rapidly became the centre of an avant-garde circle known as the Hypocrites' Club (Waugh was the secretary of the club), whose artistic, social and homosexual values Waugh adopted enthusiastically; he later wrote: "It was the stamping ground of half my Oxford life". He began drinking heavily, and embarked on
21546-428: The spiritual dimension that later dominated his perspective of life, and he served as an altar boy at the local Anglican church. During his last year at Heath Mount, Waugh established and edited The Cynic school magazine. Like his father before him, Alec Waugh went to school at Sherborne. It was presumed by the family that Evelyn would follow, but in 1915, the school asked Evelyn's older brother Alec to leave after
21717-696: The start of his downfall. Unbeknownst to Seth and the Ministry, the French consul Ballon plans a coup d'état. At a " Birth Control Parade " organised by Seth, Ballon and several religious leaders overthrow the Emperor and install his senile uncle Achon. The British nationals in Debra Dowa flee the town to impose on Sir Samson’s grudging hospitality. Blind, senile Achon dies upon coronation, having spent 50 years in prison after supposedly being eaten by lions, and Seth dies in hiding, killed by his own Minister, who
21888-468: The step for some time. He had lost his Anglicanism at Lancing and had led an irreligious life at Oxford, but there are references in his diaries from the mid-1920s to religious discussion and regular churchgoing. On 22 December 1925, Waugh wrote: "Claud and I took Audrey to supper and sat up until 7 in the morning arguing about the Roman Church". The entry for 20 February 1927 includes, "I am to visit
22059-457: The story is self-mockery, rather than true autobiography, became a subject of critical debate. Waugh's next major book was a biography of his longtime friend Ronald Knox , the Catholic writer and theologian who had died in August 1957. Research and writing extended over two years during which Waugh did little other work, delaying the third volume of his war trilogy. In June 1958, his son Auberon
22230-550: The subject of painting. By 1953, Waugh's popularity as a writer was declining. He was perceived as out of step with the Zeitgeist , and the large fees he demanded were no longer easily available. His money was running out and progress on the second book of his war trilogy, Officers and Gentlemen , had stalled. Partly because of his dependency on drugs, his health was steadily deteriorating. Shortage of cash led him to agree in November 1953 to be interviewed on BBC radio, where
22401-627: The time of the 1935 Italian invasion . Waugh served in the British armed forces throughout the Second World War, first in the Royal Marines and then in the Royal Horse Guards . He was a perceptive writer who used the experiences and the wide range of people whom he encountered in his works of fiction, generally to humorous effect. Waugh's detachment was such that he fictionalised his own mental breakdown which occurred in
22572-472: The trust or selling his own possessions to it. Nonetheless, by 1960, shortage of money led him to agree to an interview on BBC Television, in the Face to Face series conducted by John Freeman . The interview was broadcast on 26 June 1960; according to his biographer Selina Hastings , Waugh restrained his instinctive hostility and coolly answered the questions put to him by Freeman, assuming what she describes as
22743-448: The two descended into mutual hatred. Waugh continued the feud long after his Oxford days by using Cruttwell's name in his early novels for a succession of ludicrous, ignominious or odious minor characters. Waugh's dissipated lifestyle continued into his final Oxford year, 1924. A letter written that year to a Lancing friend, Dudley Carew , hints at severe emotional pressures: "I have been living very intensely these last three weeks. For
22914-416: The university journals, and developed a reputation as a talented graphic artist, but formal study largely ceased. This neglect led to a bitter feud between Waugh and his history tutor, C. R. M. F. Cruttwell , dean (and later principal) of Hertford College. When Cruttwell advised him to mend his ways, Waugh responded in a manner which, he admitted later, was "fatuously haughty"; from then on, relations between
23085-533: The victorious Allied Powers of World War I (Britain, France, Italy and Japan were the initial permanent members of the Council) to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. The Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them. During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War , when
23256-672: The workplace, and make shipowners liable for accidents involving seamen. After the demise of the League, the ILO became an agency of the United Nations in 1946. The League's Health Organisation had three bodies: the Health Bureau, containing permanent officials of the League; the General Advisory Council or Conference, an executive section consisting of medical experts; and the Health Committee. In practice,
23427-530: The works of Charles Dickens . He had married Catherine Raban (1870–1954) in 1893; their first son Alexander Raban Waugh (always known as Alec) was born on 8 July 1898. Alec Waugh later became a novelist of note. At the time of his birth the family were living in North London , at Hillfield Road, West Hampstead where, on 28 October 1903, the couple's second son was born, "in great haste before Dr Andrews could arrive", Catherine recorded. On 7 January 1904
23598-463: The world and to use any force that may be necessary..." The two principal drafters and architects of the covenant of the League of Nations were the British politician Lord Robert Cecil and the South African statesman Jan Smuts . Smuts's proposals included the creation of a council of the great powers as permanent members and a non-permanent selection of the minor states. He also proposed
23769-406: The world, and fought forced prostitution. Its main success was through pressing the governments who administered mandated countries to end slavery in those countries. The League secured a commitment from Ethiopia to end slavery as a condition of membership in 1923, and worked with Liberia to abolish forced labour and intertribal slavery. The United Kingdom had not supported Ethiopian membership of
23940-416: Was "unintelligible and unendurable without God". On 10 October 1930, Waugh, representing several newspapers, departed for Abyssinia to cover the coronation of Haile Selassie . He reported the event as "an elaborate propaganda effort" to convince the world that Abyssinia was a civilised nation which concealed the fact that the emperor had achieved power through barbarous means. A subsequent journey through
24111-466: Was a country medical practitioner, who bullied his wife and children and became known in the Waugh family as "the Brute". The elder of Alexander's two sons, born in 1866, was Evelyn's father, Arthur Waugh. After attending Sherborne School and New College, Oxford , Arthur Waugh began a career in publishing and as a literary critic . In 1902 he became managing director of Chapman and Hall , publishers of
24282-474: Was a schoolmaster, Aubrey Ensor. Waugh spent six relatively contented years at Heath Mount; on his own assertion he was "quite a clever little boy" who was seldom distressed or overawed by his lessons. Physically pugnacious, Evelyn was inclined to bully weaker boys; among his victims was the future society photographer Cecil Beaton , who never forgot the experience. Outside school, he and other neighbourhood children performed plays, usually written by Waugh. On
24453-409: Was allocated by the Assembly (the League was supported financially by its member states). The relations between the assembly and the council and the competencies of each were for the most part not explicitly defined. Each body could deal with any matter within the sphere of competence of the league or affecting peace in the world. Particular questions or tasks might be referred to either. Unanimity
24624-414: Was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934), the novel Brideshead Revisited (1945), and the Second World War trilogy Sword of Honour (1952–1961). He is recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in
24795-442: Was born on 28 October 1903 to Arthur Waugh (1866–1943) and Catherine Charlotte Raban (1870–1954), into a family with English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Huguenot origins. Distinguished relatives included Lord Cockburn (1779–1854), a leading Scottish advocate and judge, William Morgan (1750–1833), a pioneer of actuarial science who served The Equitable Life Assurance Society for 56 years, and Philip Henry Gosse (1810–1888),
24966-405: Was commissioned into the Royal Marines in December and entered training at Chatham naval base. He never completed the novel: fragments were eventually published as Work Suspended and Other Stories (1943). Waugh's daily training routine left him with "so stiff a spine that he found it painful even to pick up a pen". In April 1940, he was temporarily promoted to captain and given command of
25137-670: Was delayed for a month. The mission eventually arrived at Topusko , where it established itself in a deserted farmhouse. The group's liaison duties, between the British Army and the Communist Partisans, were light. Waugh had little sympathy with the Communist-led Partisans and despised Tito. His chief interest became the welfare of the Catholic Church in Croatia, which, he believed, had suffered at
25308-496: Was disrupted when Gardner contracted pneumonia and was carried ashore to the British hospital in Port Said . The couple returned home in June, after her recovery. A month later, without warning, Gardner confessed that their mutual friend, John Heygate , had become her lover. After an attempted reconciliation failed, a shocked and dismayed Waugh filed for divorce on 3 September 1929. The couple apparently met again only once, during
25479-439: Was doing well to tame" according to his fellow reporter, William Deedes . Waugh saw little action and was not wholly serious in his role as a war correspondent. Deedes remarks on the older writer's snobbery: "None of us quite measured up to the company he liked to keep back at home". However, in the face of imminent Italian air attacks, Deedes found Waugh's courage "deeply reassuring". Waugh wrote up his Abyssinian experiences in
25650-517: Was expelled on 14 December 1939 for invading Finland , as one of the last acts of the League before it ceased functioning. The main constitutional organs of the League were the Assembly, the council, and the Permanent Secretariat. It also had two essential wings: the Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Labour Organization . In addition, there were several auxiliary agencies and bodies. Each organ's budget
25821-413: Was heard by an ecclesiastical tribunal in London, but a delay in the submission of the papers to Rome meant that the annulment was not granted until 4 July 1936. In the meantime, following their initial encounter in Portofino, Waugh had fallen in love with Laura Herbert. He proposed marriage, by letter, in spring 1936. There were initial misgivings from the Herberts , an aristocratic Catholic family; as
25992-476: Was included by Chapman and Hall in a 1926 anthology, Georgian Stories . An extended essay on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was printed privately by Alastair Graham, using by agreement the press of the Shakespeare Head Press in Stratford-upon-Avon , where he was undergoing training as a printer. This led to a contract from the publishers Duckworths for a full-length biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti , which Waugh wrote during 1927. He also began working on
26163-411: Was led by Walter Phillimore (and became known as the Phillimore Committee), but also included Eyre Crowe , William Tyrrell , and Cecil Hurst . The recommendations of the so-called Phillimore Commission included the establishment of a "Conference of Allied States" that would arbitrate disputes and impose sanctions on offending states. The proposals were approved by the British government, and much of
26334-429: Was originally a friend of Evelyn Gardner's, and the Lygon sisters . Waugh had known Hugh Patrick Lygon at Oxford; now he was introduced to the girls and their country house, Madresfield Court , which became the closest that he had to a home during his years of wandering. In 1933, on a Greek islands cruise, he was introduced by Father D'Arcy to Gabriel Herbert, eldest daughter of the late explorer Aubrey Herbert . When
26505-407: Was provided for by the Covenant, but not established by it. The Council and the Assembly established its constitution. Its judges were elected by the Council and the Assembly, and its budget was provided by the latter. The Court was to hear and decide any international dispute which the parties concerned submitted to it. It might also give an advisory opinion on any dispute or question referred to it by
26676-419: Was published in 1932, the editor of the Catholic journal The Tablet , Ernest Oldmeadow, launched a violent attack on the book and its author, stating that the novel was "a disgrace to anybody professing the Catholic name". Waugh, wrote Oldmeadow, "was intent on elaborating a work outrageous not only to Catholic but to ordinary standards of modesty". Waugh made no public rebuttal of these charges; an open letter to
26847-433: Was published in London in May 1945. Waugh had been convinced of the book's qualities, "my first novel rather than my last". It was a tremendous success, bringing its author fame, fortune and literary status. Happy though he was with this outcome, Waugh's principal concern as the war ended was the fate of the large populations of Eastern European Catholics, betrayed (as he saw it) into the hands of Stalin 's Soviet Union by
27018-517: Was recruited by Randolph Churchill to serve in the Maclean Mission to Yugoslavia , and, early in July, flew with Churchill from Bari , Italy, to the Croatian island of Vis . There, they met Marshal Tito , the Communist leader of the Partisans , who was leading the guerrilla fight against the occupying Axis forces with Allied support. Waugh and Churchill returned to Bari before flying back to Yugoslavia to begin their mission, but their aeroplane crash-landed, both men were injured, and their mission
27189-454: Was released by the army, he returned to Piers Court with his family (another daughter, Harriet, had been born at Pixton in 1944) but spent much of the next seven years either in London, or travelling. In March 1946, he visited the Nuremberg trials , and later that year, he was in Spain for a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the death of Francisco de Vitoria , said to be the founder of international law . Waugh wrote up his experiences of
27360-469: Was required for the decisions of both the assembly and the council, except in matters of procedure and some other specific cases such as the admission of new members. This requirement was a reflection of the league's belief in the sovereignty of its component nations; the league sought a solution by consent, not by dictation. In case of a dispute, the consent of the parties to the dispute was not required for unanimity. The Permanent Secretariat, established at
27531-450: Was required to assist in the evacuation of Crete : Waugh was shocked by the disorder and its loss of discipline and, as he saw it, the cowardice of the departing troops. In July, during the roundabout journey home by troop ship, he wrote Put Out More Flags (1942), a novel of the war's early months in which he returned to the literary style he had used in the 1930s. Back in Britain, more training and waiting followed until, in May 1942, he
27702-413: Was sent to Lancing College , in his opinion a decidedly inferior school. Waugh soon overcame his initial aversion to Lancing, settled in and established his reputation as an aesthete . In November 1917 his essay "In Defence of Cubism" (1917) was accepted by and published in the arts magazine Drawing and Design ; it was his first published article. Within the school, he became mildly subversive, mocking
27873-529: Was severely wounded in a shooting accident while serving with the army in Cyprus . Waugh remained detached; he neither went to Cyprus nor immediately visited Auberon on the latter's return to Britain. The critic and literary biographer David Wykes called Waugh's sang-froid "astonishing" and the family's apparent acceptance of his behaviour even more so. Although most of Waugh's books had sold well, and he had been well-rewarded for his journalism, his levels of expenditure meant that money problems and tax bills were
28044-406: Was so coolly dismissive that Waugh immediately burnt his manuscript; shortly afterwards, before he left North Wales , he learned that the Moncrieff job had fallen through. The twin blows were sufficient for him to consider suicide. He records that he went down to a nearby beach and, leaving a note with his clothes, walked out to sea. An attack by jellyfish changed his mind, and he returned quickly to
28215-472: Was soon writing to old friends at Lancing about the pleasures of his new life; he informed Tom Driberg : "I do no work here and never go to Chapel". During his first two terms, he generally followed convention; he smoked a pipe, bought a bicycle, and gave his maiden speech at the Oxford Union , opposing the motion that "This House would welcome Prohibition". Waugh wrote reports on Union debates for both Oxford magazines, Cherwell and Isis , and he acted as
28386-472: Was suffering from demonic possession . A brief medical examination indicated that Waugh was suffering from bromide poisoning from his drugs regimen. When his medication was changed, the voices and the other hallucinations quickly disappeared. Waugh was delighted, informing all of his friends that he had been mad: "Clean off my onion!". The experience was fictionalised a few years later, in The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (1957). In 1956, Edwin Newman made
28557-444: Was sufficient for Waugh and Gardner to bring forward their wedding plans. They were married in St Paul's Church, Portman Square , on 27 June 1928, with only Acton, Robert Byron , Alec Waugh and the bride's friend Pansy Pakenham present. The couple made their home in a small flat in Canonbury Square , Islington . The first months of the marriage were overshadowed by a lack of money, and by Gardner's poor health, which persisted into
28728-422: Was the Abyssinia Crisis , in which Italy's sanctions were only limited from the outset (coal and oil were not restricted), and later altogether abandoned despite Italy being declared the aggressors in the conflict. The onset of the Second World War in 1939 showed that the League had failed its primary purpose: to prevent another world war. It was largely inactive until its abolition. The League lasted for 26 years;
28899-432: Was the creation of an international organisation whose aim was to prevent future war through disarmament, open diplomacy, international co-operation, restrictions on the right to wage war, and penalties that made war unattractive. In London Balfour commissioned the first official report into the matter in early 1918, under the initiative of Lord Robert Cecil . The British committee was finally appointed in February 1918. It
29070-473: Was transferred to the Royal Horse Guards , on Laycock's recommendation. On 10 June 1942, Laura gave birth to Margaret, the couple's fourth child. Waugh's elation at his transfer soon descended into disillusion as he failed to find opportunities for active service. The death of his father, on 26 June 1943, and the need to deal with family affairs prevented him from departing with his brigade for North Africa as part of Operation Husky (9 July – 17 August 1943),
29241-431: Was widespread discussion among intellectuals and diplomats of the desirability of establishing such an organisation. When Lloyd George was challenged by Wilson to state his position with an eye on the postwar situation, he endorsed such an organisation. Wilson himself included in his Fourteen Points in January 1918 a "league of nations to ensure peace and justice." British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour , argued that, as
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