Belgium, Brazil, Greece, and Spain shall be members, and, third, that the powers to be represented on the Council of the League of Nations are requested to name representatives who shall form a committee of nine to prepare plans for the organization of the League and for the establishment of the seat of the League and to make arrangements and to prepare the agenda for the first meeting of the assembly, this committee to report both to the Council and the Assembly of the League.1 The organization committee did not meet until May 5, but in the meantime informal conferences were held, at which the work of the committee was mapped out. These plans included the organization of temporary headquarters in London during the summer of 1919, preparations for the first meeting of the League which was to have been called by President Wilson to meet in Washington in October, 1919, and the establishment of the permanent headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland. The committee itself at its first meeting in Paris, May 5, was attended by the following: Stephen Pichon, France; Col. E. M. House, United States; Lord Robert Cecil, Great Britain; Marquis Imperiali, Italy; Viscount Chinda, Japan; Rolin Jacquemyns, Belgium; Eleutherios Venizelos, Greece; Guinones de Leon, Spain; and Antonio O. de Magalhaes, Brazil. On motion of Col. House, M. Pichon was elected chairman. Meanwhile, the stage was being set for the Versailles Peace Congress of 1919. On May 1 the German delegates presented their credentials, and received those of the Allies, and on May 7, the anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania, the Treaty of Peace was presented to them. Part I consists of the League of Nations Covenant, while there are references to the Covenant in many of the other sections. The Treaty is the longest ever drafted. It contains about 87,000 words, divided into fifteen parts, with 440 Articles, not including numerous Annexes. It was produced by over 1,000 experts working continuously for three and a half months. It is printed in parallel pages of English and French, both texts having equal validity. It does not deal with questions affecting Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey except in so far as it binds 'Current History, 10:506, June, 1919. Germany to accept any agreements reached with her former allies. The signatures of the High Contracting Parties were affixed in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, at 3:15 P.M., Paris time, on June 28, 1919. Article 440 of the Treaty makes arrangements for its ratification. "The deposit of ratification," it says, "shall be made at Paris as soon as possible. Powers of which the seat of the government is outside Europe will be entitled merely to inform the government of the French Republic through their diplomatic representatives at Paris that their ratification has been given; in that case they must transmit the instrument of ratification as soon as possible. A first procès-verbal of the deposit of ratifications will be drawn up as soon as the Treaty has been ratified by Germany on the one hand and by three of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers on the other. From the date of this first procès-verbal the Treaty will come into force between the High Contracting Parties who have ratified it. For the determination of all periods of time provided for in the present Treaty this date. will be the date of the coming into force of the Treaty. "In all other respects the treaty will enter into force for each power at the date of the deposit of its ratification." These plans for the ratification of the Treaty and the institution of the League were not destined to be carried out as rapidly as had been anticipated; and after ratification by Germany and three of the Principal Allied Powers, the deposit of the ratification documents in Paris and the issuance of the procès-verbal of the deposit were delayed in the hope that the League might come into being with the United States as one of its original members. Eventually, it became necessary to proceed without the United States, and therefore Germany and fourteen Allied Powers exchanged ratifications and finished signing the procès-verbal in the Clock Hall of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, at 4:11 P. M., on January 10, 1920. Immediately thereafter, Premier Clemenceau announced "The protocol between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany has been signed. The ratifications of the treaty with Germany have been deposited. From this moment the treaty enters into effect. It will be enforced in all its terms." The original members of the League of Nations were therefore the fourteen Allied Powers who had ratified the Treaty, together with the British Dominions and India, viz., British Empire, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Poland, Siam, Czechoslovakia, and Uruguay. Other states mentioned in the Annex to the Covenant, in rapid succession, either ratified the treaty or acceded to the Covenant. During the period between the signing and the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty, the prospective Secretary-General of the League and the Committee on organization of the League were at work in London and elsewhere. The Supreme Council of the Peace Conference having set the date, President Wilson in accordance with Article 5 of the Covenant, on January 12 issued the summons for the first meeting of the League Council to be held in Paris on January 16, 1920, at 10:30 A. M. at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The meeting was held in the Clock Hall, the following representatives being present: Bourgeois (France), Curzon (British Empire), Matsui (Japan), da Cunha (Brazil), Venizelos (Greece), Ferraris (Italy), de Leon (Spain), and Hymans (Belgium). The first action of the Council was the election of M. Bourgeois as permanent chairman, who immediately formally installed Sir Eric Drummond as Secretary-General. The second meeting of the Council was held in London in the Picture Gallery of St. James Palace, February 11 to 13. Thus was the League of Nations born, and thus did it begin its work without the participation of the United States. REFERENCES FOR CHAPTER III THE WAR CABINET. Report for 1917. THE SUPREME WAR COUNCIL. (Current History, 7: pt. 1, p. 434-346, December, 1917.) INTERALLIED CONFERENCE AT PARIS. (Current History, 7: pt. 2, p. 89-91, January, 1918.) FENWICK, C. G. Organization and Procedure of the Peace Conference. (American Political Science Review, 13:199-212, May, 1919.) MUNRO, H. F. The Berlin Congress. Washington, 1918. DUGGAN. The League of Nations, p. 50-63 (Chapter by J. P. Cotton and D. W. Morrow). CHAPTER IV SALIENT FEATURES OF THE LEAGUE COVENANT THAT the Covenant of the League of Nations is an epochmaking document is now a commonplace. Gladstone's phrase so often quoted concerning the Constitution of the United States, that it is "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," must now be applied to the League Covenant, if it be worthy of the great purposes which drew it forth. With such purposes and such a document, one can approach the task of describing it only with trepidation. Many years will pass before any one can form a true estimate of its character, its functions, its practicability, and its wisdom. But it is the duty of everyone to make the attempt lest its good features be made of no avail through ignorance, and its bad features be perpetuated through inertia. At best it is an experiment worthy of a fair trial; and at worst, it can prove only a failure from which fruitful lessons may be drawn. It may be that ardent advocates of the League are doomed to disappointment because too much is expected of an agreement not well understood; and on the contrary, the practical working of the League may win over its most positive opponents. Whether the plan set forth in the Covenant be good or bad, one thing is certain: its success or failure depends on the wisdom, ability, and character of the men and women in whose hands the functioning of the League is placed. Even a poor plan may be made to work well, if wisely administered; and likewise the best-laid plans may fail for want of master minds. Never in the political history of the world has so much depended on the right choice of representatives by the respective states. They must be persons who know the history, national characteristics, and aspirations of their own states, but who have vision to look into |