Lord Robert Cecil, who is understood to be the chief
author of the draft Covenant of the League of Nations, stated in an interview this week that the French amendments were set aside as impracticable. The French had proposed that the League should have inspectors to prevent any country from accumulating armaments secretly. They had also suggested that the League should have a General Staff to devise plans for making its military intervention effective. Lord Robert Cecil also said that the amendment specially recognizing the Monroe Doctrine moat not be thought to have weakened the general purpose of the Covenant, as far as America was concerned. " It would be a real misfortune if America had accepted the Covenant with a large proportion of her people secretly against it." The question is, however, whether even the amended Covenant commands the whole-hearted approval of a large majority of Americans.
