1. The war Powers with equal interests, comprising Great Britain, France, the United States, Italy, and Japan, each of which was to take part in all meetings and commissions both general and particular.

2. The war Powers with particular interest, consisting of Belgium, Roumania, Serbia, Brazil, China and the British Dominions. These were to take part in all sittings at which questions concerning their particular interests were discussed.

3. The states which had severed diplomatic relations with the Central Powers, which were to participate in all meetings in which questions concerning them were discussed.

4. The neutral Powers and those in process of formation, which were to present arguments orally or in writing to the first group of Powers when necessary.

The representatives were fixed as follows: each of the Powers of the first group were to have five representatives; Belgium, Brazil and Serbia, three each; China, Greece, Hedjaz, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, Siam and the Czecho-Slovak Republic, one each; Cuba, Guatemala, Hayti, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua and Panama, one each; Bolivia, Equador, Peru, and Uruguay, one each. The British Dominions and India had two delegates each for Australia, Canada, South Africa and the whole of India, and one delegate for New Zealand.

Each delegation was accompanied by technical advisers and two stenographers, and the delegates were given preference according to alphabetical order in French of the Powers. For purposes of organization the Conference was called to order by the President of the French Republic, and the President of the French Council of Ministers was given the chair. The credentials of all the delegates were examined by a committee of the five Powers of the first class, soon to be known as the "Big Five." At the first meeting the President of the French Council of Ministers, Clemenceau, was made permanent chairman of the Conference and four vice-presidents were chosen from the other four Great Powers in alphabetical order. The President of the Conference appointed the secretariat or council of secretaries, which consisted of one member, apart from the delegates, from each of the five Great Powers, and this group was approved by the Conference.

The Conference, after some disagreement and hesitation, admitted representatives of the press; but all news of the conference was closely censored by the council of secretaries. Rules of procedure were drawn up to be distributed to the members. President Clemenceau announced that members might send memoranda to the council of secretaries with regard to any question which they wished to have

discussed, suggesting that commissions would be appointed to discuss them.

The commissions of the Conference consisted of the following: 1. The Committee of the Great Powers consisting of two members from each of the Powers of the first group.

2. The Supreme War Council, consisting of the Armistice commission acting as a working group with the Committee of the Great Powers.

3. The Commission on the Formation of a League of Nations, of which President Wilson was Chairman.

4. The Commission on the Responsibility of the War.

5. The Commission on Reparation for Damages.

6. The Commission on International Labor Legislation.

7. The Commission on International Control over Ports, Waterways and Railways.

8. The Economic Drafting Commission.

9. The Financial Drafting Commission.

10. The Inter-allied Supreme Economic Council.

In addition, there were special commissions to consider territorial problems, and independently of the Conference, yet acting in connection with it, were a group of National Propaganda committees organized to further national projects. The groups comprised in these committees represented the Aland Islands, Albania, Armenia, Dalmatia, Denmark, the Jewish people, Montenegro, Persia and Russia. It is seen by this perusal of the organization of the Peace Conference that although the practical working of the Conference was in the hands of the five Great Powers, yet the other states were given enough participation at least to impart their point of view. In addition all the states interested were given a hearing before decisions were reached in the committees which considered questions and reported to the Conference. The Peace Conference was accused of being practically a Conference of the five Great Powers, though a sane consideration of the problems discussed and decided upon will hardly carry out this accusation. However unsatisfactory the organization of the Conference, it still remains the sanest and perhaps the first attempt to organize a Conference in the interests of the whole world rather than in the interests of the successful nations at war. In his inaugural speech before the Conference, President Clemenceau announced that the method of procedure would be to take up three questions in order, namely: the responsibility for the war, penalties for crimes committed during the war, and international legislation in regard to labor. He asked that all the

The League of Nations.

delegations set themselves the task of studying these questions and sending in their conclusions in written memoranda to the council of secretaries. He then announced that the next general or plenary session would take up the problem of the Society of Nations, and declared the sitting at an end. Thus simply and briefly the Conference began the greatest piece of work that any group of men have ever attempted: to reconstitute the world after a world war and to provide measures that would make impossible a recurrence of such a struggle.

For a long time private societies had been at work trying to evolve plans to keep the nations from war and the nations had seconded these efforts by holding a series of conferences at the Hague in Holland to discuss and adopt measures intended to strengthen peace interests. During the war the suggestion was made by leading men in America and Europe that a Peace League should accompany the making of peace at the end of the war. The idea grew in favor and when the Conference met there was a great amount of material available looking toward plans for a Peace League. Nevertheless, there was considerable surprise though very great satisfaction when it became evident that the Conference intended to consider seriously the task of creating a Peace League which should be an integral part of the Treaty of Peace with the Central Powers.

Opposition appeared at once in all countries, based primarily upon the idea that such a task would retard the work of the Conference, would strengthen the revolutionary propaganda which was already dangerous, and would keep in suspension the work of reconstruction which was generally recognized as necessary in all the countries which had been engaged in the war as well as in those which had remained neutral. These arguments the Conference dismissed on the ground that a League of Nations could be organized and worked out in detail before the terms of peace were settled and while the nations recognized the need of coöperation to secure peace terms.

At the second general session, held on January 25, the Conference accepted the proposals for the creation of the League of Nations and established the committee to work out the details of the constitution and the functions of the League. The resolutions adopted by the Conference declared that the League of Nations was "essential to the maintenance of the world settlement", that "this League should be treated as an integral part of the general Treaty of Peace, and should be open to every civilized nation which can be relied on to promote its objects"; and that "the members of the League should periodically meet in international conference and should have a permanent organ.

ization and secretaries to carry on the business of the League in the intervals between the Conferences".

The League of Nations Commission as finally constituted was made up of two representatives from each of the five Great Powers, and one each from five of the smaller states. Upon the presentation of a request from other of the smaller and newly formed states, the Commission was enlarged by the appointment of four additional members representing four of these states.1

The Commission met continuously from February 3 to 13 and in that time worked out a tentative plan for presentation to the general session on the 14th. The two problems which presented the greatest difficulty were, first, the establishment of an international military force to execute the will of the League, and, second, the recognition of racial equality among the peoples of the League. The first question was strongly insisted upon by France, which feared an attack from Germany before the machinery of the League could be put into operation, but it was finally discarded by an almost unanimous vote, only France and Czecho-Slovakia voting for the article. The second question, presented by Japan, the recognition of race equality by the Congress, and the League, was withdrawn as presenting a problem too complicated for the Commission to work out during the Peace Congress.

On the 14th of February the general session heard and adopted the report of the Commission which was presented by President Wilson and it was ordered printed and presented to the nations for examination and discussion. President Wilson immediately started home to attend to pressing public business and to answer objections to the League that were raised in America. From February 14 to March 14, President Wilson remained away from the Conference. The members of the League of Nations Commission gave their attention to other matters and permitted full discussion of the proposed draft of a League.

In America the Senate presented some very serious objections to the proposed League and the public press gave much attention to the problem. On the eve of the President's return to the Conference, the Republican leaders in the Senate circulated a resolution written by Mr. Lodge, which demanded that the League of Nations' constitution be revised and that the League constitution be delayed until after the peace terms with Germany were concluded. The resolution pro

1 See International Reconstruction Pamphlet June, 1919, No. 139, p. 830831 for list of members.