Colonel House to Woodrow Wilson

I have spent yesterday and today in formulating a draft of a Convention for a League of Nations.

I will not send it to you until Monday or Tuesday for I would like a day or two to lapse before reading it over and making any corrections which seem pertinent. A memorandum will also be attached explaining the reason for each article where it is not obvious.

The draft was written without reference to the British Covenant which you sent. When finished the two were compared and several of the Articles of the British were incorporated as a whole. In my opinion the British document would not at all meet the requirements of the situation. The reason I wrote the draft without reference to the British was to keep from getting entangled with their plan.

If you approve of the draft I believe it would be wise for you to take some means of giving it to the world and as quickly as possible in order to let thought crystalize around your plan instead of some other. It would be better, I think, to do this without consultation with any foreign government and so state in your announcement. If you take it up with the British or French there will be heart-burnings if the others are not brought into it.

It is written with a view of not hurting the sensibilities of any nation either in the Entente or the Central Powers. It is also written with a view that the League might be confined to the Great Powers, giving the smaller powers every benefit that may be derived therefrom. If the smaller nations are taken in, the question of equal voting power is an almost insurmountable obstacle. Several of the smaller nations have indicated a willingness to come into a League of Nations only upon condition that the voting power of each country shall be the same---- notably Switzerland.

If this were agreed upon, Mexico and the Central American States could out-vote Germany, England, France, Italy, Japan and the United States and yet in the enforcement of peace, or of any of the decrees of the League of Nations, they would not only be impotent but unwilling to share the responsibilities.

These smaller nations might become neutralized as Belgium and Switzerland were, with representation without voting power, just as our Territories have had representation in Congress without votes.

I believe you will find the draft a basis of a practical working arrangement.

Affectionately yours,