THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



59 



REPRESENTATIVES OP A NEWLY FREED PEOPLE: MESOPOTAMIA 



The veiled girl at the left is a betrothed Jewess. She is accompanied by her mother and the 

 . two younger daughters of the family. 



The executive council will have the 

 duty of enforcing the judgments of the 

 League where they are defied, and of 

 considering what action should be taken 

 in respect to recommendations of com- 

 promise by the Council of Conciliation 

 in which one of the parties does not ac- 

 quiesce. The executive council should 

 be composed, therefore, of those nations 

 who are willing to assume the responsi- 

 bility of furnishing armies to the League 

 when necessity arises. These, in the na- 

 ture of things, will be the Great Powers, 

 or the charter members of the League. 



Under such an arrangement a League 

 could be made to work. The fact that 

 the smaller nations are not represented in 

 the executive council would not work to 

 their disadvantage, because they could be 

 confident that the greater nations would 

 not unite against them. The inevitable 

 diversity of interests between the greater 

 nations would be their security. 



OBJECTIONS TO A LEAGUE OE NATIONS 



What are the objections to a League 

 of Nations developed in this way and 

 thus constituted? The first and chief 

 objection is that the United States ought 

 not to bind itself to make war upon the 

 decree of an executive council in which 

 it has but one vote out of four or five. 



What authority and duty does the ex- 

 ecutive council have in the League? It 

 will be its duty to see that judgments 

 are executed. 



Why should we object if called upon 

 to declare war and make our contribution 

 to the police force to maintain peace by 

 enforcing a judgment of an impartial 

 court? Such a judgment is not the re- 

 sult of the vote of other powers than our 

 own. It is merely a decision on princi- 

 ples of international law as between two 

 contending nations. 



We have heard a great deal during 

 this campaign of international justice. 



