procedure and appointment, and in publishing facts and recommendations in a dispute where it cannot make a report with any binding effects, can the Council act by majority. In all other cases, even where it only gives advice, its vote must be unanimous. The only exception is that in deciding a dispute the votes of the parties thereto are not counted. The United States might thus be prevented by act of the Council from attacking a member of the League when all the other members of the Council thought we were in the wrong. Save in that case, no action of the Council, even the making of recommendations, can take place unless the United States concurs. The fear, therefore, of a super-sovereign, of a loss of our national sovereignty, or of a Council that rules the world, is the result of inattentive reading of the documents or of an overheated imagination.

(Letter No. 10)

ARTICLES V, VI and VII

Procedure and the appointment of committees in the Assembly and the Council are to be decided by a majority vote; almost all other matters require unanimity. The function of these bodies being mainly discussion, the requirement of a unanimous vote on questions of procedure would enable one member to prevent any subject from being debated; and if it were required for the appointment of committees one member could prevent gathering the information needed for intelligent discussion.

The object of demanding unanimity for other matters was really to still the alarm of people who did not understand that the organs of the League are given no substantial power to direct the conduct of the members. But the provision is by no means inconsistent with the principle on which the League is

based-that of automatic action by the members on matters specifically set forth in the Covenant itself, and beyond this conferences with a view to voluntary concerted action by all the members. For the last purpose a unanimous vote is not inappropriate.

It may be well to explain here more precisely what is meant by automatic action on the part of a member of the League. It denotes action that is automatic so far as the League or its organs are concerned, not in regard to the constitutional branches of its own government. Under Article XVI, for example, if one nation resorts to war against another in disregard of its covenants the other members of the League agree immediately to subject it to the severance of all trade and financial relations, and to prohibit all intercourse between their citizens and its citizens. This is automatic in the sense that it is a direct and immediate obligation, wholly independent of any action by any organ of the League. It is not automatic in the sense that the severance of relations takes place automatically without any action by the governments of the several members of the

League. Nor does it determine what branch of a national government has power to put it into effect. That depends upon the constitution of the nation. With us it would require legislation, and therefore action by Congress; but Congress is under a moral obligation, like that imposed by every treaty which pledges the good faith of the nation, to enact the legislation required.

The League will obviously need a considerable body of men to carry on a voluminous correspondence among the members, to record the proceedings of the different organs, to collect such information as they may require, and to assist the various committees and standing commissions. In fact, the convenience of the representatives, and the ease of working the organization, will be greatly promoted by the efficiency of such a secretariat and its chief. This is especially true because in popular governments—and no others are expected to be members of the League the men who hold the high offices of state change frequently, and hence the representatives in the Council and Assembly are not likely to remain long enough to be

thoroughly familiar with the details of previous transactions, but must depend for much information upon the secretariat.

In order, therefore, to render efficient service the Secretary General and his subordinates should be permanent, fully conversant with the history and condition of international relations, but not themselves political persons. Their duty is to serve the League, not to direct it; and in view of the large influence that any permanent expert, with the details of all matters at his fingers' ends, can exert over a changing body of political superiors, it is of the utmost importance that the secretariat should be as free from bias and from political motives as possible. Their object should be the success of the League as an institution, not the special interest of any particular country. If rightly administered the secretariat may well become one of the most important and beneficial organs of the League.

Article VII needs little comment. It confers upon the delegates to the Council and Assembly, to their commissions, to the secretaries and to the buildings they occupy,