Sean Lester

Although he had left school aged fourteen, had no experience of foreign affairs and spoke only English, in 1929 Sean Lester became the Irish representative to the League of Nations in Geneva, eventually succeeding to the post of its third and last Secretary-General. In his dairies he witnessed many dark chapters of European history in the 1930s and 1940s.

Marit Fosse is a writer, journalist, entrepreneur, and creative manager with a broad-based background in highly competitive and dynamic organizations. She set up Diva International and succeeded in making it a reference magazine for the international community in Geneva, Switzerland, and has published hundreds of articles and co-authored several books. She is also the vice-president of the World Trade Center in Dakar, Senegal, and is involved in developing business in Mali. John Fox, after a career working as a publications officer for the BBC and UNESCO, is now a retired international civil servant. He is a contributor to and co-editor of Diva: International Diplomat and co-author with Marit Fosse of the book The League of Nations: From Collective Security to Global Rearmament. He has also contributed an article on Lord Robert Baden-Powell to UNESCO's educational journal Prospects.

Foreword by Michael Moller, Acting Director-General, United Nations Headquarters, Geneva Introduction 1. A Brief Account of Recent Irish history 2. Who Was Sean Lester? 3. The Diplomat 4. The Manchurian Question 5. Latin American Matters 6. Disarmament and Finance 7. Secretariat Appointments 8. Minority Questions 9. Appointed High Commissioner in Danzig 10. Danzig, 1933 and 1934 11. Danzig, 1935 12. Danzig, 1936 and Beyond 13. Ethiopia/Abyssinia 14. Deputy Secretary-General, 1937-1940 15. War Begins, 1939 16. The Summer of 1940 17. Becoming Secretary-General 18. The End of the League Bibliography Index