moting harmony between the countries in this hemisphere, so the Assembly is a sort of PanWorld Congress to bring about harmony between all the nations of the earth. Under these circumstances, objections based on the number of delegates or their distribution are wholly beside the mark.

Disraeli once said that Parliament was the great inquest of the nation. The Assembly of the League may well become the great inquest of the world; the body where plans for the betterment of mankind are advocated, and where codes of international law are prepared and debated.

It may be observed that although each member of the League is entitled to send three representatives to the Assembly the voting is by states. Some people have desired a great parliament of the peoples of the earth, but as yet that is utopian. The organization of the modern world is built upon nationality, and whatever a remote future may bring forth, at present peace and order, justice, progress and liberty must be based upon a concert of free nations.

(Letter No. 9)

ARTICLE V

The Council is the principal organ of the League; for while its functions are almost entirely confined to supervision and the making of recommendations, the sphere in which it can do this is large.

Now the responsibility for carrying out the objects of the League rests mainly upon the five large nations. On their co-operation its effectiveness depends. Without them it would be powerless. They must be kept constantly in close touch with one another, and hence in the small body which meets most frequently and in which the most intimate conference takes place, they must always be present. But although that body possesses no legal authority to direct the action of the members, yet, if it were composed exclusively of the representatives of the five largest nations, those five could, if they agreed to

gether, exert such an influence as practically to rule the League, and in fact the whole world. It is important, therefore, that the smaller states should be represented on the Council, and that the states having seats there should not always be the same. To accomplish this result the Assembly is empowered to select from time to time the states that shall be represented; and since in the Assembly the small states will far outnumber the large ones, and each state has one vote, the states to have seats will practically be selected by the smaller members of the League. In order, moreover, that important action affecting any smaller state may not be taken in its absence it is further provided that in such a case the state shall be specially invited to attend. Thus effectiveness by the presence of the larger states is combined with fair consideration for the smaller ones.

It is noteworthy that in revising the draft of the Covenant the name of the Executive Council was changed to Council, because it is not in fact entrusted with executive power. Apart from matters relating to the organiza

tion of the League-such as the appointment of the Secretary General, and of permanent commissions, and the naming, with the approval of the Assembly, of additional members of the Council,-its functions are almost wholly advisory or supervisory. Thus it is to formulate plans for reducing armaments; to give advice on restricting the private manufacture of arms, and on the means of resisting aggression upon the integrity of a member of the League; to propose steps to give effect to an arbitral award; to formulate plans for a permanent court of justice; to endeavour to effect the settlement of disputes between two members of the League; to conduct inquiries in such cases; to publish facts and recommendations if it fails to reach an effective decision of a dispute; to recommend military contingents in case of an attack upon a member of the League; to make recommendations to prevent hostilities between non-members; and finally to supervise the prohibition of trade in white slaves, opium, etc., and the administration of international bureaus.

The only cases in which the Council has

power to take action that has a binding effect of any kind upon the members of the League are three. First, if a plan for a reduction of armaments is voluntarily accepted by the members, no one of them can exceed it during the period for which it has been adopted without the consent of the Council. Second, if in case of an inquiry into a dispute the Council makes a recommendation which is unanimous (except for the parties thereto) no members of the League can attack another member that complies with it. And third, if a member chooses to accept a mandate over a backward territory it must do so on the terms agreed upon by the members of the League, or fixed by the Council. In two other cases the Council has power to take action that has a binding effect, but not on the members of the League. It can determine conditions on which an outside power may join the League, either for the purpose of settling a particular dispute, or permanently, and in this last case it can regulate the military equipment the new member may possess.

We may observe that only in matters of