INDEPENDENT Ireland has been well served by the calibre of its higher public servants, and nowhere is this more evident than in the case of Seán Lester, who died 50 years ago next Saturday. He rose to become Ireland’s permanent delegate to the League of Nations, deputy secretary-general of the league and finally secretary-general from 1940 to 1946. In these roles, he found himself in interesting places at interesting times.
Born in 1888, the son of a Protestant grocer, he grew up in the strongly unionist town of Carrickfergus. Nevertheless, he joined the Gaelic League as a young man and became a convert to the cause of Irish nationalism, also joining the Irish Republican Brotherhoood and the Irish Volunteers. He worked as a journalist for a number of Northern papers, before moving to Dublin where he secured work with The Freeman’s Journal.
By 1919, he had risen to the position of news editor at the Freeman. The following year, he married Elizabeth Tyrrell, with whom he had three daughters: Dorothy, Patricia and Ann.
Following the War of Independence, Lester joined the new Free State’s Department of External Affairs in 1923. Also in that year, the Irish Free State was admitted to the League of Nations, founded after the first World War to build lasting peace and co-operation among nations. It was while working for this organisation that Lester was to achieve his greatest diplomatic successes.
In 1929, he was sent to Geneva, the headquarters of the League, as Ireland’s Permanent Delegate to the international organisation. The following year, he achieved success in overseeing Ireland’s election to the council (executive body) of the league, which was to be for a three-year term. He frequently represented Ireland at meetings of the council, deputising for his Minister for External Affairs. As a result, he became increasingly involved in the workings of the league and was to play a significant role in resolving two conflicts in South America.
The first of these involved the Chaco territorial dispute between Bolivia and Paraguay, which erupted into war in 1932. Lester was appointed, together with the delegates of Spain and Guatemala, to a three-member committee to mediate on behalf of the League of Nations. They had made some progress when Ireland’s mandate on the council ended in September 1933.
The second South American conflict, which also erupted in 1932, was between Colombia and Peru over the Amazonian territory of Leticia. Because the league’s three-member committee was already working for peace in Chaco, they were also appointed as negotiators between Colombia and Peru. Lester established good relations with the Colombian and Peruvian delegates and led the discussions which brought about a satisfactory resolution.
He received congratulations for his work and his achievement helped to strengthen Ireland’s international reputation. From September 1933, he had witnessed the poor performance of the Council of the League during the Manchurian affair and its inability to end the Japanese occupation. He saw the Chaco and Leticia disputes as an opportunity for the league to restore its reputation.
It would seem that Lester acted on his own initiative in the South American disputes; while he reported to his superiors in Dublin on his progress, he was not following their instructions. His main purpose was to defend the interests of the league and of world peace.
As a result of the diplomatic prestige he had gained, he was appointed the league’s high commissioner in Danzig (now Gdansk) in late 1933. At the time Danzig was a Free City, under the league’s administration, and the scene of a growing international crisis between Nazi Germany and the international community over the Polish Corridor (land belonging to Germany before the first World War but given to Poland after the war to give it access to the sea). The Nazis wished to regain control for Germany of the corridor.
It was a difficult position for Lester to be in, but he showed courage in standing up to Hitler’s Reich. His job was to ensure respect for the constitution of the Free City. During the turbulent period that followed, the German-directed Nazi party of Danzig became increasingly confrontational and violent. Lester had to deal with constant violations of the constitution and fought a valiant rearguard action to preserve it.
But the league’s authority was in decline. Fear of a new war led member states towards appeasement and opposition to strong league action. For Danzig, this meant the end of diplomatic measures to maintain democracy in the city and, for Lester, the end of his rearguard action. The Nazi party was in full control by the end of 1936.
From 1937 to 1940 as deputy secretary-general, and from 1940 to 1946 as secretary-general, Seán Lester struggled to keep his beloved League of Nations in operation, as the world became engulfed in war. His period in Geneva as head of the league was the most traumatic and difficult of his career. Lacking resources and staff, he maintained a lonely vigil, never knowing when the Germans might invade neutral Switzerland.
In 1947, he retired to Recess in Connemara. In its obituary of him, the London Times described Seán Lester as an “international conciliator and courageous friend of refugees”.
For his courage and integrity as an international civil servant, he was given the Woodrow Wilson Award and honorary doctorates from both the National University of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin.