In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

LEAGUE OF NATIONS
On Saturday, March 20, the philologist, philosopher, novelist, and former
rector of the University of Salamanca, Miguel de Unamuno, writes
a letter to his friend Jean Cassou from the Basque border-town of Hendaye,
where he lives, having been exiled by the Spanish military government
under Miguel Primo de Rivera. Unamuno is in a triumphant mood,
although he expresses his feelings in words of sorrow and concern: "Ah,
my dear Cassou, how the tragedy of my poor Spain and my poor heart
deepens! I am beginning to lose hope that I shall live to see the sun of
justice enlighten Spain. Geneva has taught us a good lesson, and the
tyrannical government of Don Alfonso ... must have understood that
to gain a voice and a vote in a League of Nations it is necessary to be a
nation" (Unamuno, 188-189). [see Action = Impotence (Tragedy)] The
"good lesson" of Geneva which Unamuno mentions is a major defeat
suffered by Spanish foreign politics, only three days earlier, at the League
of Nations. During its annual plenary session in March, this international
assembly was expected to approve the entry of Germany as a new
member. The ideal of establishing a family of nations united by the
shared goals of peace and territorial stability seemed finally to have
prevailed over the economic interests and national resentments that had
shaped the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. One of the prearranged conditions
for Germany's return to the stage of international politics was its
participation, as a permanent member, in the Council of Nations, the
League's equivalent of a State's executive body. But Brazil, China, Po-
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