e of his Fourteen Points, on the understanding that the
British would give their support to the League? At all events, the League
of Nations was given an important place on the programme of
deliberations, and at the second of the plenary sessions of the
Conference, held on January 25, 1919, the principle of a League was
approved without a dissentient voice; it was also decided that the
League should be made an integral part of the Treaty. Wilson, in addition
to acquiring British support had won that of the Italians, to whom he had
promised his aid in securing the Brenner frontier in the Tyrol.
Clemenceau, according to an American delegate, "had climbed on the
band-wagon."

The President's victory was emphasized when he also won the Europeans and
the representatives of the British overseas Dominions to acceptance of
the principle of "mandatories," according to which the German colonies
were not to be distributed as spoils amongst the victors, but to become
the property of the League and to be administered by the mandatory
states, not for their own benefit but for that of the colonies. The
victory was not complete, since Wilson's first intention had been that
the mandatory states should not be the great powers, but such states as
Holland or one of the Scandinavian nations. He was compelled to admit the
right of the British and French to take over the colonies as mandatories.
Even so, the struggle over the issue was intense, Premier Hughes of
Australia leading the demand that the German colonies should be given
outright to the Allies and the British self-governing Dominions. Again
the support of Lloyd George brought success to the American policy.

In order to assure his victory in the foundation of a League of Nations,
it was necessary that before returning home Wilson should see some
definite scheme elaborated. Until the 14th of February he labored with
the special committee appointed to draft a specific plan, which included
much of the best political talent of the world: Lord Robert Cecil,
General Smuts, Venizelos, Leon Bourgeois. In order to avoid the criticism
that consideration of a League was delaying the preparation of peace
terms, the commission met in the evenings so as not to interrupt the
regular meetings of the Council of Ten. It was a _tour de force_, this
elaboration of a charter for the new international order, in less than
three weeks. At times the task seemed hopeless as one deadlock after
another develo