took place, I cannot say. In the memorandum of Messrs. Miller
and Auchincloss no suggestion of a Court of International Justice
appears, which seems to indicate that the provision in the revised draft
did not originate with them or with Colonel House. In fact on more than
one occasion I had mentioned arbitration to the Colonel and found his
views on the subject extremely vague, though I concluded that he had
almost as poor an opinion of The Hague Tribunal as did the President.
The probability is that the change was suggested to Mr. Wilson by one of
the foreign statesmen in a personal interview during January and that
upon sounding others he found that they were practically unanimous in
favor of a Permanent Court of Justice. As a matter of policy it seemed
wise to forestall amendment by providing for its future establishment.
If this is the true explanation, Article 12 was not of American origin,
though it appears in the President's revised draft.

To be entirely frank in stating my views in regard to Mr. Wilson's
attitude toward international arbitration and its importance in a plan
of world organization, I have always been and still am skeptical of the
sincerity of the apparent willingness of the President to accept the
change which was inserted in his revised draft. It is difficult to avoid
the belief that Article V of the original draft indicated his true
opinion of the application of legal principles to controversies between
nations. That article, by depriving an arbitral award of finality and
conferring the power of review on a political body with authority to
order a rehearing, shows that the President believed that more complete
justice would be rendered if the precepts and rules of international law
were in a measure subordinated to political expediency and if the judges
were not permitted to view the questions solely from the standpoint of
legal justice. There is nothing that occurred, to my knowledge, between
the printing of the original draft of the Covenant and the printing of
the revised draft, which indicated a change of opinion by the President.
It may be that this is a misinterpretation of Mr. Wilson's attitude, and
that the change toward international arbitration was due to conviction
rather than to expediency; but my belief is that expediency was the
sole cause.

CHAPTER XII

REPORT OF COMMISSION ON LEAGUE OF NATIONS

The Commission on the League of Nations, over which President Wilson
pres