Pueblo chieftain., 1921-05-09
BY Frederic ]. Haskin

BY Frederic j. Haskin
Washington, d. c., May 6.-What is
a mandate, and what is the relation
cf the United States to the various
mandates that have been handed out
| by the League of Nations to Its mem
bers?
The mandate is asserted by interna-
| tional lawyers to be new principle
| in international relations. We are
going to hear a great deal about man
| dates in the next few years. and 1t is
very likely that some of us are going
to be called upon to fight about them.
Therefore, let us see, ii possible, what
| a mandate is.
In theory, a mandate is an order
from a league of the civilized nations
OF the world to one of those nations,
making it responsible for the welfare
of certain nation or piece of territory
considered to be less civilized. The
ideal of the mandate is that the civil
| lized nations, instead of exploiting
, the backward ones, each as it can,
should care for them tenderly and be
responsible to the whole world for
| the results.
In practice. 4 mandate is permfs-
sion, given by the powers which won
| the late war to one OF those powers,
| to supervise the affairs of some back
| ward country. The mandatory nation
| enjoys certain advantages in that ter
ritory, but 1t also has certain respon-
sibilities to the league of nations,
which, IL enforced, would raise the
development of backward countries to
a higher level both from the economic
and the humanitarian point of view.
OF course, in this matter, everything
really depends upon what the council
I of the league wants to do and is able
to do.
The mandate also seeks to keep one
nation from exploiting exclusively a
backward territory, and to give the
other members of the league certain
1 rights in it. But it does not do as
! much for the nations which are not
members of the league. And that is
the chief interest of the mandate for
the United States. By reason of our
failure TO join the league, we have
not. in the opinion of the members
of tho league, the same rights in
mandatory territory that they have,
although we bore full share in the
war.
The Three Kinds
The council of the league of ma
tions acknowledges three chief kinds
of mandates The class mandates
cover former Turkish possessions in
cluding Mesopotamia- The b class
mandates cover Islands of the Pacific,
south of the Equator, and the G class
mandates cover islands in the Pacific.
mandate is in n sense fourth kind
D 1t is often said that A, in manda-
tory language. stands for oil, and Z
stands for cables. In the administra-
4 tion of the Z class mandate, there
fore. IL anywhere, we Will see cNcrn-
plified that high international aliru-
ism which Is supposed TO be the mo-
tive OF the mandate.
According to the terms OF this man
date, Samoa Is to be administered by
New Zealand; Nauru pheasant lsland)
in the Pacific Ocean, a short distance
south OF the Equator. by Great Brit
ain: German Southwest Africa, by the
Union of South Africa; and former
German possessions in the Pacihe
south OF the Equator tother than Sa-
mao and Nauru). by Australia
These mandates of class +. provide
for the promotion and material we'll
being of the territories under ma.nda-
tory power. They prohibit slave traf-
nc and forced labor in these terri
tories except for tho essential pubic
works for which adequate remunern-
ton is paid. Those mandates do not
affect the Individual ownership of land
in the territories under mandatory
rule The taxes and general policy
arc moro or less affected by such a
change OF government In accord !
ance with the Treaty OF Versailles. all
of tho former German possessions will
be so affected.
Mandates prohibit traffic in arms
and ammunition between the natives
of the mandatory territories and other
countries. Intoxicnnts for the natives
are prohibited and military training
Cf tho natives forbidden except for
police and local defense forces neces-
tary to keep peace on the cthcr
hand. the power holding the rnandn-
tory right is not allowed to build mill
;ary or naval bases or 10 establish any