Paul Hymans | |
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| Born | Paul Louis Adrien Henri Hymans (1865-03-23)23 March 1865 Ixelles/Elsene, Belgium |
| Died | 8 March 1941(1941-03-08) (aged 75) Nice, France |
| Occupation | politician |
Paul Louis Adrien Henri Hymans (23 March 1865 – 8 March 1941), was aBelgianpolitician associated with theLiberal Party. He was the second president of theLeague of Nations and served again as its president in 1932–1933.
Hymans was the son of the Belgian writer and historianLouis Hymans, himself the son of aJewish doctor originally fromDordrecht,[1] and Louise de l'Escaille, aChristianProtestant BelgianWalloon.[2] His mother came from anold aristocratic Belgian Walloon family.[3] He became alawyer and professor at theUniversite Libre de Bruxelles. As a politician, he became Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, holding this post from 1918 to 1920 (and again from 1927 to 1935), was Minister of Justice from 1926 to 1927 and member of the Council of Ministers from 1935 to 1936. In 1919, together withCharles de Broqueville andEmile Vandervelde he introduceduniversal suffrage for all men (one man, one vote) andcompulsory education.
As foreign minister during theGreat War, Hymans was successful in securing promises from the Allies that amounted toco-belligerency. Britain, France and Russia pledged in theDeclaration of Sainte-Adresse in February 1916 that Belgium would be included in the peace negotiations, its independence would be restored and it would receive monetary compensation from Germany for the damage. When the war began, Hymans also received major promises of relief support from the United States that were approved by PresidentWoodrow Wilson. Relief was directed primarily by the AmericanHerbert Hoover and involved several agencies: theCommission for Relief in Belgium,American Relief Administration, andComité National de Secours et d'Alimentation. At theParis Peace Conference in 1919, Belgium officially ended its longtime neutral status and became the first in line to receive reparations payments from Germany. However, Belgium received only a bit of German territory and was rejected in its demands for all of Luxembourg and part of the Netherlands. However, it was given colonial mandates over the German colonies of Rwanda and Burundi. Hymans was the leading spokesman for the small countries at Paris and became the president of the first assembly of the new League of Nations. He helped to form thecustoms union of Belgium andLuxembourg (Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union) in 1921 and played a leading part in negotiating theDawes Plan in 1924. In 1928, he signed theKellogg-Briand Pact for Belgium.[4]
AProtestant and afreemason, he was a member of the lodgeLes Amis Philanthropes of theGrand Orient of Belgium in Brussels. He is interred in theIxelles Cemetery inBrussels.
| Preceded by | President of the League of Nations 1920–1921 | Succeeded by |
