becoming a party to this Covenant, have undertaken any treaty obligations which are inconsistent with the terms of this Covenant, it shall be the duty of such Power to take immediate steps to procure its release from such obligations.

SUPPLEMENTARY AGREEMENTS.

I. In respect of the peoples and territories which formerly belonged to Austria-Hungary, and to Turkey, and in respect of the colonies formerly under the dominion of the German Empire, the League of Nations shall be regarded as the residuary trustee with the right of oversight or administration in accordance with certain fundamental principles hereinafter set forth; and this reversion and control shall exclude all rights or privileges of annexation on the part of any Power.

These principles are, that there shall in no case be any annexation of any of these territories by any State either within the League or outside of it, and that in the future government of these peoples and territories the rule of self-determination, or the consent of the governed to their form of government, shall be fairly and reasonably applied, and all policies of administration or economic development be based primarily upon the well-considered interests of the people themselves.

II. Any authority, control, or administration which may be necessary in respect of these peoples or territories other than their own self-determined and self-organized autonomy shall be the exclusive functions of and shall be vested in the League of Nations, and exercised or undertaken by or on behalf of it.

It shall be lawful for the League of Nations to delegate its authority, control, or administration of any such people or territory to some single State or organized agency which it may designate and appoint as its agent or mandatory; but whenever or wherever possible or feasible the agent or mandatory so appointed shall be nominated or approved by the autonomous people or territory.

III. The degree of authority, control, or administra

tion to be exercised by the mandatory State or agency shall in each case be explicitly defined by the Executive Council in a special Act or Charter which shall reserve to the League complete power of supervision, and which shall also reserve to the people of any such territory or governmental unit the right to appeal to the League for the redress or correction of any breach of the mandate by the mandatory State or agency or for the substitution of some other State or agency, as mandatory.

The mandatory State or agency shall in all cases be bound and required to maintain the policy of the open door, or equal opportunity for all the signatories to this Covenant, in respect of the use and development of the economic resources of such people or territory.

The mandatory State or agency shall in no case form or maintain any military or naval force, native or other, in excess of definite standards laid down by the League itself for the purposes of internal police.

be put

Any expense the mandatory State or agency may to in the exercise of its functions under the mandate, so far as they cannot be borne by the resources of the people or territory under its charge upon a fair basis of assessment and charge, shall be borne by the several signatory Powers, their several contributions being assessed and determined by the Executive Council in proportion to their several national budgets, unless the mandatory State or agency is willing itself to bear the excess costs; and in all cases the expenditures of the mandatory Power or agency in the exercise of the mandate shall be subject to the audit and authorization of the League.

The object of all such tutelary oversight and administration on the part of the League of Nations shall be to build up in as short a time as possible out of the people or territory under its guardianship a political unit which can take charge of its own affairs, determine its own connections, and choose its own policies. The League may at any time release such a people or territory from tutelage and consent to its being set up as an independent unit. It shall also be the right and privilege of any people or territory to petition the League to take such action, and

upon such petition being made it shall be the duty of the League to take the petition under full and friendly consideration with a view to determining the best interests of the people or territory in question in view of all the circumstances of their situation and development.

IV. No new State shall be recognized by the League or admitted into its membership except on condition that its military and naval forces and armaments shall conform to standards prescribed by the League in respect of it from time to time.

The League of Nations is empowered, directly and without right of delegation, to watch over the relations inter se of all new independent States arising or created and shall assume and fulfil the duty of conciliating and composing differences between them with a view to the maintenance of settled order and the general peace.

V.-The Powers signatory or adherent to this Covenant agree that they will themselves seek to establish and maintain fair hours and humane conditions of labor for all those within their several jurisdictions who are engaged in manual labor and that they will exert their influence in favor of the adoption and maintenance of a similar policy and like safeguards wherever their industrial and commercial relations extend.

VI.-The League of Nations shall require all new States to bind themselves as a condition precedent to their recognition as independent or autonomous States and the Executive Council shall exact of all States seeking admission to the League of Nations the promise, to accord to all racial or national minorities within their several jurisdictions exactly the same treatment and security, both in law and in fact, that is accorded the racial or national majority of their people.

VII.-Recognizing religious persecution and intolerance as fertile sources of war, the Powers signatory hereto agree, and the League of Nations shall exact from all new States and all States seeking admission to it the promise that they will make no law prohibiting or interfering with the free exercise of religion, and that they will in no way discriminate, either in law or in fact, against those who practise

any particular creed, religion, or belief whose practices are not inconsistent with public order or public morals.

VIII. The rights of belligerents on the high seas outside territorial waters having been defined by international convention, it is hereby agreed and declared as a fundamental covenant that no Power or combinations of Powers shall have a right to overstep in any particular the clear meaning of the definitions thus established; but that it shall be the right of the League of Nations from time to time and on special occasion to close the seas in whole or in part against a particular Power or particular Powers for the purpose of enforcing the international covenants here entered into.

IX. It is hereby covenanted and agreed by the Powers signatory hereto that no treaty entered into by them, either singly or jointly, shall be regarded as valid, binding, or operative until it shall have been published and made known to all the other signatories.

X. It is further covenanted and agreed by the signatory Powers that in their fiscal and economic regulations and policy no discrimination shall be made between one nation and another among those with which they have commercial and financial dealings.

DOCUMENT 15.

British draft of Covenant for the League of
Nations (printed), dated January 20, 1919, with
letter of transmittal of the same date from Lord
Robert Cecil (autograph) to President Wilson.

Confidential. (Seal)

BRITISH DELEGATION, PARIS.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT

20 Jan: 1919.

I send you in accordance with my promise a copy of the Draft Convention prepared by the British League of Nations Section. It has not yet been considered by the Cabinet though in its general lines it has been approved by them. It would have reached you some days ago but for difficulties in printing.

Secret.
January 20, 1919.

Yours very sincerely,
[Signed] ROBERT CECIL.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

DRAFT CONVENTION.

CHAPTER I.

FUNCTIONS AND ORGANISATION OF THE LEAGUE.

1. IMPRESSED by the horrors of the late War, and convinced that another war of the same kind would be productive of still greater disasters to humanity and civilisation, the High Contracting Parties1 unite in constituting a League of Nations.

1Hereinafter referred to as the H.C.P.