excluded from the League, they would enter into a League of
their own, and the world would then be divided into two rival camps, in
the same way as before the war the Triple Alliance was faced by the
Entente. _The world would be proved not ripe for a new League of Nations
if peace were concluded with an undefeated Germany; and the League would
miss its purpose if to a defeated and repenting Germany entrance into it
were refused._

VIII. In the second instance, the entrance of the great number of minor
transoceanic States into the League is deprecated because these States
would claim an equal vote with the European Powers and thereby obstruct
progress within the League.

It is asserted that some of the minor transatlantic States made the
discussions at the Hague Conferences futile by their claim to an equal
vote. Now it is true that some of these States have to a certain extent
impeded the work of the Hague Conferences, but some of the minor States
of Europe, and even some of the Great Powers, have done likewise. The
Community of States consisting of sovereign States does not possess any
means of compelling a minority of States to fall in with the views of
the majority, but I shall show you very soon, when I approach the
problem of International Legislation, that International Legislation of
a kind is possible in spite of this fact. And so much is certain that
the minimum of organisation of the new League which is now necessary,
cannot be considered to be endangered by the admittance of the minor
transoceanic States into the League. Progress will in any case be slow,
and perfect unanimity among the Powers will in any and every case only
be possible where the _international_ interests of all the Powers compel
them to put aside their real or imaginary particular _national_
interests.

IX. For these reasons I take it for granted that the organisation of a
new League of Nations should start from the beginning made by the Hague
Peace Conferences. Therefore the following seven principles ought to be
accepted:

First principle: The League of Nations is composed of all civilised
States which recognise one another's external and internal
independence and absolute equality before International Law.

Second principle: The chief organ of the League is the Peace
Conference at the Hague. The Peace Conferences meet
periodically--say every two or three years--without being convened
by any special Power.