As I write, the Peace Conference has just completed its first month's work, the first draft of the constitution of the League of Nations has been laid before the assembled delegates, President Wilson has set sail for America with a copy of this draft in his pocket, Mr. George has returned to England, and Signor Orlando to Italy. This is, therefore, a good opportunity for stock-taking, for seeing how the Conference has done its work, the difficulties it has overcome, and the difficulties which lie ahead.

The machinery of the Conference is in appearance complicated and cumbrous. Demands for speeding up its work have been incessant, but none of the critics have put forward any practical or constructive proposal for the improvement of the machinery, and under the prevailing conditions it is not very easy to see how it can be improved. The Plenary Conference, which meets in the great Clock Hall of the French Foreign Office, is composed of sixty-six delegates from thirty States. Its proceedings are necessarily bi-lingual, every speech made in English being translated into French and every French speech into English. Obviously such a body is singularly illadapted for the rapid transaction of business. Therefore, it meets but seldom, and its proceedings are almost wholly formal. The first task of the representatives of the five Great Powers who have constituted themselves a Committee of Management of the Conference was to reorganize its procedure in such a way as to reduce the necessity for debate and discussion

at the Quai d'Orsay to a minimum, and to obtain general agreement on any particular question before it is presented to the Plenary Session. The real work of the Conference is, therefore, being done outside the Clock Hall. Twelve separate international committees have been constituted to deal with such matters as the Society of Nations, responsibility for the war, international labor legislation, international waterways, reparation for war damage, international economic problems, and a variety of territorial questions. These committees are at work simultaneously, and report to an International Secretariat of the Conference, which prepares the business for the Plenary Session. All these committees were not created at once. The Plenary Session authorized the creation of eight at its meeting of January 25, and the remaining four have been added since, while it is extremely probable that yet more will be needed. Having arranged for the committees to get to work, the representatives of the five Great Powers, who have become known as the 'Council of Ten,' undertook themselves, in order to expedite the dispatch of business, those less complicated questions which did not require reference to a special commission. These ques-. tions included the fate of the German colonies, the disposal of the territories conquered from Turkey, and preliminary investigation of the claims for the readjustment of their frontiers put forward by some of the smaller Powers, such as Greece, Serbia, Rumania, and Belgium. Belgium. During the course of the

month the Supreme War Council, commonly known as the 'Versailles Council,' has met to deal with matters arising directly out of the operations of war by land and sea, such as the renewal of the armistice, the fulfillment of the terms of the armistice by our enemies, and the situation in Russia. It is obviously convenient that the Versailles Council, which through its permanent Secretariat has all the strings in its hands and is acquainted with the history of the events with which it deals, should continue this work rather than transfer its functions to the Peace Conference or to some new body created by it.

We have, then, at work in Paris at various times, as matters become ripe for consideration by the suitable authority, firstly, the Plenary Conference; secondly, the committees of the Plenary Conference; thirdly, the Council of Ten; and lastly, the Supreme War Council. The Council of Ten would have avoided much criticism and made their task easier if they had explained their methods. At an early stage the waters were ruffled by a breeze, when the smaller powers complained that the Council of Ten were arrogating to themselves too much authority. This arose from the discovery by the representatives of the smaller Powers that a seat at the table in the Clock Hall, to which great importance had been attached when the preliminaries of the Conference were being arranged, was more honorific than useful, and that a place in the committee rooms was of much greater value. The difficulty was amicably settled by allowing the smaller Powers increased representation in committee and by getting them to settle among themselves how representation should be distributed.

The second attack upon the Ten was originated by the opponents of the League of Nations, who, while pre

pared to accept the league as a harmless ideal, desired a prompt settlement with Germany on the traditional lines which the victors of the past have followed in dealing with the vanquished. The popular sentiment in favor of 'getting on with the peace,' and the natural desire of all who have suffered in or by the war to see the chief criminal brought to prompt punishment, the public impatience for definite results, and the difficulty of following the daily work of the various commissions and committees, which appeared to jump from Europe to Asia and thence to Africa, without rhyme or reason, were all skillfully used by these gentlemen, and for some time, particularly in France, the Conference had a bad press. These are forces which are still at work, and it is more than probable that the cry of 'Get on with the peace' will again be raised in the same quarter before the Conference concludes its work. It is for this reason that I have been at some pains to explain how the Conference is organized. This organization, if not perfect, is at least honestly designed to facilitate the effective establishment of a League of Nations; and all the arguments and discussions which it has aroused bring us back sooner or later to the one vital question is the league to be the foundation of or an appendage to the peace? If it is to be the foundation, then the settlement with Germany must await the acceptance of its principles.

The events which preceded the assembly of the Conference were not of the best augury. M. Clemenceau made a speech which appeared to favor a reëstablishment of the Balance of Power, and stated plainly his doubt. whether France would in any other way get the security which was vital to her. In America, President Wilson had suffered an electoral reverse, and his plans for the League of Nations

were freely criticized as vague and impracticable. In Italy, where there had been a wave of chauvinism, Signor Bissolati, the most able and influential of the Italian champions of the league, had been hooted in Milan. Only in Great Britain were President Wilson's ideals supported by any great weight of public opinion, and this support had been weakened by doubts and anxieties as to what he meant by 'the Freedom of the Seas.' It is important to remember this, if we are to appreciate how much has been accomplished in the first four weeks. I attribute the change of tone which became apparent very soon after the delegates had assembled, first, to the influence of President Wilson's tour of Europe; secondly, to the unity of Anglo-Saxon opinion; and thirdly, to the general atmosphere of good-will and to the readiness of all in authority to make concessions for the common good. The immediate acceptance by the people of every country which President Wilson visited of the fact that he represented a new order of ideas, and the conviction, to which his visits gave stimulus and expression, that a new order of ideas must go to the repairing of the old world, had great effect in Paris. This effect was enhanced by the early realization by the American contingent, delegates, officials, and journalists, of our sincerity of purpose, of our real will to make sacrifices in the interests of the world's peace. The consequence of this was the formation of a solid block of AngloAmerican opinion, which, naturally, commands great respect. In what I have already said, and in what I have yet to say, there are and will be references to differences of view. These differences should be recognized and met in time, for unless the peace which is to be, and the league which is in the making, are supported by an enthusiastic and unanimous public opinion

in the countries of the Allied and Associated Powers, neither will give us the solution for which the world is craving. I do not, however, wish to exaggerate these differences, which are more apparent outside than within the Council Chambers. If neglected they may become formidable, but up to the present time the most striking and satisfactory feature in the work of the Conference has been the ease with which difficulties have been overcome, when once those whose views are not wholly in agreement have been brought together.

For all these reasons the Conference opened on January 18 in a much more promising atmosphere than had at one time seemed probable. The week which followed was the most critical in the development of the League of Nations. Those who were eager for an immediate settlement with Germany did not in the least object to the league receiving a general benison from the Conference. They hoped that it would then be referred to a committee, from which it would emerge at a later stage after what they regarded as the real business had been settled. During this week President Wilson established his name in Europe as a man of affairs. Those who had regarded him as an amiable and high-minded philosopher now found to their surprise that his unshakable faith in his principles, his skill in applying those principles to specific problems, his unfailing good humor and tact in reconciling opposite views, his power of getting complicated business through committee, marked him as an administrator and a man of affairs of the first rank. Before the second Plenary Session he had, with the cordial support of our delegates, won his point. The League of Nations was to be the foundation of the peace, and January 25 may be marked as its birthday.

On that day the full Conference passed the three following resolutions:

1. It is essential to the maintenance of the world settlement which the Associated Nations are now to establish, that a League of Nations should be established to promote international coöperation, to insure the fulfillment of international obligations, and to provide safeguards against war.

2. This league should be created as an integral part of the general Treaty of Peace, and should be open to every civilized nation which can be relied upon to promote its objects.

3. The members of the league should meet periodically, and should have a permanent organization and secretariat to carry on the business of the league in the intervals between the conferences.

The spirit of these resolutions was immediately reflected in the establishment of a number of committees which the Conference authorized the same day, to examine and report upon international problems. The more important of these committees will continue the processes of removing and smoothing over the difficulties of international administration for a common purpose which have been gradually built up by the Allied and associated Powers during the war. Their object in the future will be less the removal of a common danger and more the promotion of a common good. They will, if they are effective, and there is no reason for supposing that they will not be effective, of themselves obviate most of the causes of friction and the clash of interests which have sown the seeds of past wars; they will take the place of much of the old cumbrous machinery of diplomacy, and will bring into direct touch those who in each country are charged with like problems of administration. These decisions have the effect of clearing wide roads for international communication, which has hitherto been confined to the narrow and tortuous channels of the Foreign Offices of Europe.

The resolutions of January 25, then, marked a vital stage in the efforts to remove the causes of war, but they deal in the main with the future, and to-day most of the peoples of the Old World are concerned with very present and practical difficulties. The Allied armies in Europe and in Asia are in occupation of large stretches of conquered territory, and territory means much to a generation which has been brought up to regard the annexation of provinces as the hall-mark of victory, and to watch anxiously and suspiciously for designs in each nation upon its neighbors' landmarks. It was broadly hinted that noble aspirations and vague generalities might have no specific application, but that the occupation by Great Britain of the majority of the German colonies and of a great part of Asiatic Turkey was a reality, as was also the fact that the frontiers of the Balkan Powers and of the new republics of Eastern and Southeastern Europe were undefined, and that each wanted something which was in the hands of a neighbor. If the principles of the League of Nations were to be applied to the resettlement of the world, it was necessary to give a prompt example of their application to some particular problem. The chance arose when the disposal of the German colonies, which was taken in hand by the Council of Ten during the last week of January, came to be considered.

We may be proud of the fact that it was our delegation, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, which set the example. After some opposition from Mr. Hughes, which was magnified quite unwarrantably into a definite and serious conflict of opinion, the application of the mandatory principle to the German colonies was unanimously accepted. French opinion was at first far from cordial in its reception of this news, mainly because the conception

of a mandate for the administration of territory was new and its meaning was not understood. Our French friends, with bitter recollections of difficulties in Egypt, in the Congo, and in Morocco, were very naturally and rightly hostile to the suggestion that the League of Nations, or some supranational authority, should undertake the business of government. Nothing of the kind was ever intended. The proposal is that territories which have been conquered from the enemy, and are inhabited by peoples who are not yet able to govern themselves efficiently, shall be administered in every case by one power, selected by the league as best fitted, by reason of its resources, experience, and geographical position, to receive its mandate to govern the territory in the interests of the inhabitants. For all the more backward territories, the league will draw up rules for the guidance of its mandatories, so as to insure uniformity of administration in such matters as freedom of conscience or religion, the prevention of such abuses as the slave trade, the arms and liquor traffic, the prohibition of the creation of naval or military bases or of native military forces, except such as are necessary for police purposes. In all territories held under the mandate of the league, there will be equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of all its members; none of them may be exploited in the interest of the mandatory power.

While it may be taken as certain that the mandatory principle will be applied without exception to all the German colonies, its application to the territories conquered from Turkey has yet to be settled, and here there are still difficulties to be overcome. The mandate for most of the German colonies will naturally fall to us and to our Dominions, and our responsibilities are already likely to be so great that there

is no desire to increase them. France, Italy, and Greece have claims and interests in Asia Minor, while France has historic and commercial associations with Syria. The position is further complicated by the existence of various secret treaties and agreements, made during the course of the war with little or no regard for the wishes and aspirations of the peoples concerned, while these wishes are sometimes conflicting. The Arabs, for example, are not friendly to the idea of a French administration of Damascus, and would prefer our tutelage; but this would unquestionably arouse the suspicion and jealousy of the French, whom the inhabitants of Beyrout and of the Lebanon desire to have as their tutors. The acceptance of the mandatory principle does not, therefore, cut the Gordian knot, and the problem of Asiatic Turkey still requires tactful and careful handling. The difficulties will be much eased and possible causes of friction avoided, if America can be induced to accept a mandate and to employ a part of her vast resources in the cause of civilization outside the American continent. The Old World is on the verge of bankruptcy, and without America's practical help the new methods of government will not start under favorable conditions. Unless they have adequate financial backing, the trustees will not be in a position to develop the estates they administer in the interest of their wards. This is a proposal which has not so far been very warmly received in the United States, where there is a natural aversion to anything savoring of interference with the politics of the Old World, and to undertaking an experiment in administration for which there is neither precedent nor experience. Much, therefore, remains to be done before even the extra-European territorial problems are resolved; yet the acceptance of the