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international

I learned from Jean-Claude Pallas that Stampfli Two dramatic incidents occurred just before the
had provided his photograph also, around artists began working on the mural, both in the
1998-99 or the beginning of 2000. A stamp newly opened Palais des Nations. First was the
on the reverse of the photo gave an address in 30 June 1936 address to the League Assembly by
Carouge/Geneva and identified Beatrix Stampfli Haile Selassie, the Negus of Ethiopia, protesting
as copyright holder. Italy’s annexation of his country. Second was
when the Slovak journalist, Štefan Lux, took
I succeeded in locating Mme Stampfli, with his own life during the 3 July 1936 Assembly
help from Jean-Claude. She telephoned saying session, to alert the world to the danger the
that she and her late husband, Donald, greatly Nazis posed. In his memoir, Kelen records how
admired Derso and Kelen, who were fine artists: each unfolded. By May 1936, Ethiopia had been
l’Assaut de la Tribune was a magnificent work. She conquered and:
recounted that she had purchased the original ‘Soon after, [Haile Selassie] requested permission
panel from the Hôtel du Palais, but her husband to come to Geneva, to put his case before the
sold it around 20 years ago. The purchaser, a lady League’s Assembly of which his country was
from Lausanne, had since died and she had no a sovereign member. In reply, the credentials
idea of the whereabouts of the work. committee of the League . . . stated that, as there
was no longer such a thing as the “sovereign
state of Ethiopia”, the Negus did not represent
anybody and therefore could not be permitted
to speak before the Assembly . . . [Haile
Selassie] succeeded in mobilizing small nations
against this infamous decision. . . . He made
his address in a language nobody understood
[Amharic], and yet everybody understood it. .
. . pandemonium broke out. A group of Italian
journalists began to whistle, shout, roar, and
rattle . . . The demonstration had been ordered
by the Duce.’

Kelen described the tragic scene that occurred
three days later:
‘a Jewish refugee by the name of Lux, had
deliberately walked onto the floor and shot
himself. After his body had been removed,
President Van Zeeland did what Emil Combes of
France had done in the French parliament when
someone threw a bomb from the gallery. He
uttered the classic words: “La séance continue” .
. .’

In fact, a physician in the Canadian delegation
hurried forward to help Lux in response to van
Zeeland’s call for a doctor. Kelen recounts that he
saw one of three copies of a testament that Lux
left behind, one sentence of which stayed with

Figure 2. Honoré Daumier, ‘Assaut de la
tribune’, lithograph; excerpt of sheet 37x25 cm,
from Physionomie de l’Assemblée. Paris: Le
Charivari, Aubert, 1849.
Boston Public Library, Public domain, via
Wikimedia Commons

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