384 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

i.e., agreements on special topics, which Governments can pledge
themselves to observe. Usually the coming into force of a
Convention means the setting up of a body of officials to see that
it is carried out.

ACTIVITIES OF THE LEAGUE.

The machinery thus created deals with the following matters:—

1. Mandates. The nature and classification of Mandates has
been described in the previous chapter. In addition to those
mentioned, France administers Syria as a Class A Mandate,
France and Belgium have Class B Mandates in Africa, and Japan
had a Class C Mandate over former German possessions in the
Northern Pacific. The Council has set up a Permanent Mandates
Commission to receive the reports from Mandatory Powers;
the majority of the Commission's eleven members are subjects
of States which have no Mandates. The Commission, having
examined the reports and further questioned the Mandatory
Powers, sends its conclusions to the Council which draws the
attention of the Powers to whatever action may be necessary.
The matter is subject to further inquiry by the Assembly's
political committee.

Over Class C Mandates the League has not been able to
exercise much influence; and Japan, on leaving the League, took
her Mandates with her. In Class B Mandates, the specific abuses
have been prevented and the administration kept at a level which
compares favourably with that of most Imperial possessions.
The Mandatory Powers h^ve commonly enjoyed the bulj: of the
trade with the Mandated Territories, but serious discrimination
against other Powers has been checked. Britain has profited from
the Commission's advice over the problems of Palestine and Irak.

2. Minorities. The strip of Europe running from the Baltic
to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean has been the scene of
repeated conflicts. Frontiers have been diawn and altered by war.
Before the Great War, the Austrian, Russian, and, to a lesser
extent, the German Empire contained peoples who differed from