The discussions were chiefly along the lines of practicability, of policy, and of moral obligation.

The President's strong support of the mandatory system and his equally strong objection to the idea of _condominium_ showed that his mind was made up in favor of the issuance of mandates by the League.
Since it would have been highly improper for me to oppose openly a policy which the President had declared under his constitutional authority, there was no proper opportunity to present the legal difficulties of the system to the Council.
However, the seriousness of these difficulties and the possible troubles and controversies which might be anticipated from attempting to put the system into operation induced me, after one of the sessions of the Council of Ten, to state briefly to the President some of the serious objections to League mandates from the standpoint of international law and the philosophy of government.

President Wilson listened with his usual attentiveness to what I had to say, though the objections evidently did not appeal to him, as he characterized them as "mere technicalities" which could be cured or disregarded.

Impressed myself with the importance of these "technicalities" and their direct bearing on the policy of adopting the mandatory system, I later, on February 2, 1919, embodied them in a memorandum.

At the time I hoped and believed that the negotiation of the completed Covenant might be postponed and that there would be another opportunity to raise the question.