Abstract
The chapter discusses the administrative culture(s) of the League of Nations Secretariat in the foundational years and asks what constituted the original administrative culture(s) of the League’s international civil service. The main argument is that decisions in the formative years of the League’s Secretariat led to an internationalised Western bureaucratic model, balancing autonomy and legitimacy concerns. While efficiency was essential, acquiring an international character for the secretariat seemed rather more desirable than mandatory. These factors had a decisive impact on the administrative culture in the League’s early years (and beyond).