This plan, however, did not meet with the approval of President Wilson, and his open opposition to it became an obstacle which prevented its consideration in the form in which it was proposed.  It is a matter of speculation what reasons appealed to the President and caused him to oppose the plan, although the principle of primacy found application in a different and less radical form in his own plan of organization.  Possibly he felt that the British statesman’s proposal too frankly declared the coalition and oligarchy of the Five Powers, and that there should be at least the appearance of cooperation on the part of the lesser nations.  Of course, in view of the perpetual majority of the Five Powers on the Executive Council, as provided in the President’s plan, the primacy of the Five was weakened little if at all by the minority membership of the small nations.  The rule of unanimity gave to each nation a veto power, but no one believed that one of the lesser states represented on the Council would dare to exercise it if the Great Powers were unanimous in support of a proposition.  In theory unanimity was a just and satisfactory rule; in practice it would amount to nothing.  The President may also have considered the council proposed by Lord Robert to be inexpedient in view of the political organization of the United States.  The American Government had no actual premier except the President, and it seemed out of the question for him to attend an annual meeting of the proposed council.  It would result in the President sending a personal representative who would unavoidably be in a subordinate position when sitting with the European premiers.  I think this latter reason was a very valid one, but that the first one, which seemed to appeal especially to the President, had little real merit.

In addition to his objection to the Cecil plan of administration, another was doubtless of even greater weight to Mr. Wilson and that was the entire omission in the Cecil proposal of the mutual guaranty of political independence and territorial integrity.  The method of preventing wars which was proposed by Lord Robert was for the nations to enter into a covenant to submit disputes to international investigation and to obtain a report before engaging in hostilities and also a covenant not to make war on a disputant nation which accepted a report which had been unanimously adopted.  He further proposed that the members of the League should undertake to regard themselves as ipso facto at war with a member violating these covenants and “to take, jointly and severally, appropriate military, economic, and other measures against the recalcitrant State,” thus following closely the idea of the League to Enforce Peace.