Erik Andreas Colban (18 October 1876 – 28 March 1956) was a Norwegian diplomat. Colban had many important roles in Norwegian diplomacy; especially being named to the post of Norwegian Ambassador in London before and during the Second World War. Colban also worked with the League of Nations and the United Nations where Norwegian Trygve Lie served as the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Overview
Personal life Colban was a son of Captain Erik Andreas Colban (1841–1900) who was a captain of the Norwegian army. His grandfather Erik Andreas Colban (1760–1828) had been a dean in the districts of Lofoten and Vesterålen.Colban (Store norske leksikon)
In 1911, Colban was married to Karen Marie Holter. The couple's son, Erik Andreas Colban, entered the diplomatic service and was ambassador as was his father. In 1952, Colban published his memoirs about his career as a diplomat in the book Femti år (Oslo: Aschehoug).
Career Colban took his final exams in 1895 and then began studying law. He completed his law degree in 1899.
Colban entered the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1905. In 1918, Colban took the position as a director of the Minorities Section at the League of Nations. In 1930, Colban went back to the Norwegian foreign service. Special Session of the Assembly (League of Nations Archives)
Colban served a Norwegian ambassador to Great Britain (1942–1946) representing the Norwegian government during World War II and the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. He led the Norwegian delegation that participated in the preparations for the establishment of the United Nations and participated as a Norwegian delegate in the first general meeting. Erik Andreas Colban (Norsk biografisk leksikon)
He was also one of four Norwegian members of the United Nations War Crimes Commission, together with Jacob Aars Rynning, Finn Palmstrøm and Terje Wold.
Honors Colban was appointed Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav in 1912, promoted to Commander with Star in 1931 and awarded the Grand Cross in 1946. Additionally, Colban received a number of awards from foreign governments including Commander of the Order of Dannebrog, Commander of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star, holder of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) and was a Grand Officier of the French Legion of Honor.
Early life Erik Colban was born in Kristiania on 18 October 1876. As the son of Erik Andreas Colban (1841–1900) who was a captain in the Army and Caroline Emilie Biermann he was part of a long line of clergy and military men and officials dating back to the pre-1814 Danish-Norwegian Kingdom. In 1911 Erik Colban married Karen Marie Holter and the couple had a son, Erik Andreas Colban, who also entered the diplomatic service and became an ambassador like his father.
In 1899 Erik finished his law degree and soon after he became a solicitor for the chief administrative officer in Romsdal. In 1901 Erik was employed as a lawyer for Garup Meidel in Oslo until March 1903 where he began working at the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade, Shipping and Industry(Departementet for udenrigske Sager, Handel, Sjøfart og Industri). One of his main areas of interest during this period was the dissolution of the Norwegian union with Sweden. The public discussion in Norway concerned whether or not the dissolution of the union was in line with Norwegian Constitutional Law. Despite his position as a civil servant, Erik publicly criticised the union as a matter of Constitutional Law and instead he claimed that the dissolution had been in violation of international law, and was later asked by Fridtjof Nansen to write an account of the issue.
In 1905 he went on to pursue an academic career and went to Paris on a scholarship. Upon his arrival in France he was quickly asked to serve at the Norwegian consulate in Le Havre where he moved in 1906. He returned to Oslo in the fall of 1906 as the head of office responsible for the consulate service. In 1908 he moved to Stockholm and was appointed chargé d'affaires. He carried out his responsibilities in Stockholm until he was offered to move to Rio de Janeiro where he was again appointed chargé d'affaires in 1911.
From 1916 to the end of the First World War he assisted Nils Claus Ihlen who was foreign minister of Norway, on how Norway should handle the war in Europe. He traveled back and forth to London where he met with Sir Cyril William Hurcomb and negotiated payment for the ships that Norway provided for Allied forces. During the war he was also very focused on Norway's contribution to foreign affairs in general.
Director of the League of Nation's Minorities Section. 1919–1927 Origins of the Minorities Section Colban was fundamental in the development of the League of Nations minorities section. As a consequence of the treaties of the 1919- Paris Peace Conference- the League of Nations found itself responsible for monitoring and defending minority groups across Europe. The irregularity of the League Council's meetings and a sense of minority issues being of minor importance, made these issues increasingly treated by the secretariat itself.
At the founding of the League of Nations in 1919, the role of the League Secretariat had been envisioned as purely advisory and administrative – a collection of experts aiding the workings of the council's delegate. However, the administrative personnel of the secretariat would increasingly have to redefine their own roles and responsibilities in the system.
Erik Colban, who became the director of the minorities section of the League of Nations and it's 'spiritual father' in 1919, found himself to be a member of an entirely new class of international bureaucrats. Thus, Colban proved to be an instrumental figure in creating and developing the policy on minorities. He created a system which 'was surprisingly able to keep myriad minority problems from tearing Europe apart far sooner.
Development of the Minorities Section Through personal interaction and administrative mastery, Colban helped to protect and develop the minorities system. As the League Council initially distanced itself from the responsibility of dealing with minority issues, it gave Colban the liberty to further develop the petition system (as seen below). The Minorities section attempted to develop a practical translation of the unworkable terms of article 12 of the League of Nations. Thus, Colban created a process where minority violations could be addressed through quiet and secret channels.
Colban established 1: A formal procedure for receiving and distributing minority petitions 2: A "committee-of-three" system, whereby every petition deemed receivable by the secretariat was examined by an ad hoc group of council members (the acting president + two selected governments) to determine whether a treaty violation had occurred and if it should or should not be reported to the council. The initial system had thrown the minority petitions onto public stage, with little action taken due to intense public scrutiny.
Colban's personal interaction with major governmental figures of minority states was an important instrument to the success of the minorities section. By the end of 1924, Colban and members of the Section had travelled to Belgrade, Sofia, Bucharest, Transylvania, Athens, Bulgaria, Budapest, Vienna, and Prague multiple times, and Colban personally spent around six months each year abroad.Fink (2006) pp. 282
Furthermore, Colban ensured that his Minorities Section undertook an increasing responsibility for the examination and action upon these petitions. Specifically, the Minorities Section employed detailed evaluation of the "receivability" of petitions. Colban and the Section became instrumental in the formation of and action regarding these petitions, he and his staff became the 'gatekeeper' of the petitions.
Challenges to the system from within the League Conflicts between the Minorities Section and the minority states eventually proved inevitable. Complaints from the minority states Poland and Czechoslovakia about floods of propagandistic petitionsFink, (2006) pp. 281 and accusations of the committees multiplying minority complaints, led to a challenge from several minority states within the League in 1923.
The challenging states attempted to wreck Colban's system of Committee-of-three by means of obstruction and proposals for "reform".Fink (2006) pp. 281 To avoid endangering League authority, Colban and the secretariat skilfully recalibrated the systems. In September 1923, the council adopted a series of resolutions tightening the rules of receivability of petitions, granting generous extensions to accused governments to prepare their observations and restricting the distribution of all materials to council members alone. Being a beneficial development for minority states and the great powers (putting less pressure in minority states and thus easing tensions in the league), but a decremental development for the minorities themselves, this is an example of the lengths to which Colban was willing to go in order to preserve the system. In spite of an inherent sympathy towards minorities, Colban proved to be a pragmatist by necessity – balancing concerns of the minorities with concerns over European peace required skilful political acrobatics.Fink (2006) pp. 281
Minority activists critique of the system As Colban and the League system was bound by the principle of state sovereignty, they not only guarded the minority states' interests and dismissed all but the most politically explosive complaints, they also blocked outside improvement proposals. This approach was severely criticised by minority activists such as professor Gilbert Murray, an Oxford classicist,Smejkal (2010) pp. 88 both for its favouring the interests of the minority states over those of the minorities, and for the secrecy involved in dealing with petitions, leading to suspicions of them disappearing in the swollen bureaucracy.Fink (2006) pp. 282
Colban, who defined his task as transforming 30 million individuals into "loyal citizens", was unmoved by this criticism.Fink (2006) pp.
The effect of Germany upon the Minorities Section On 25 October 1925, Germany supported financially the organization of a European Minorities Congress. The leaders of the Minority Groups from Eastern Europe met in Geneva. Colban did not want, that this gathering changed the functioning of the minority section of the League by reform proposals. As a consequence, he reinforced the publicity about their achievements.
James Eric Drummond, the secretary general of the League and Colban found another way of representing the minorities section, which excluded states, minorities and neighbouring states to participate in the decision making that could concern them in one way or the other. This was a compromise in order to gain support from the neighbouring states of Germany and the German government and was advised by Colban.
When Germany received its permanent seat at the council in 1926, Colban started tutoring Stresemann on how to attend to minority affairs. He even succeeded in convincing the German delegates to wait a year before participating in the minorities section, until they understood the situation completely. This manoeuvre kept Germany from presenting any questions regarding minorities to the general assembly until 1930. Working with the Germans, Colban managed to convince them that theLeague's system of secret compromise was effective and desirable.
No changes were made in the section while Colban was in office. It was only in regards to the petitioners that changes were made, but the changes of the internal structure could not gain approval.
When changes to the minorities section were laid for the general assembly later on, Chamberlain opposed the changes and argued it worked properly during Colban's leadership.
Late career