Permanent Mandates Commission > Mandates system

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As a rule, the conclusions of the Council coincide with those of the
Mandates Commission. The Council usually decides to communicate
the observations of the Commission regarding the various territories
to the Mandatory Powers concerned, requesting them to take the action
asked for by the Commission. In its resolution, the Council sometimes
lays stress on some particular question which has been raised or on
some particular recommendation made by the Commission, or it may
define its attitude with regard to some problem dealt with in the Com¬
mission’s report, expressly approve the latter’s views, or invite it to
consider some new question which has arisen in connection with the
discharge of a mandate, etc.
Such are the powers and duties of the organs of the League and the
general lines of the procedure followed by them in the supervision of
the mandates.
3. Sources of Information — Means of Supervision
In accordance with the Council’s decision of August 5th, 1920
(see pages 33-34), the Mandates Commission examines the whole of the
administration of the various territories in the light of the principles
laid down in the Covenant and of the provisions contained in the
Mandates themselves. It does not therefore limit itself to the more or
less negative role which would consist in verifying that the Mandatories
have not overstepped the powers conferred upon them; it likewise
ascertains whether these powers have been put to good use and whether
the administration has been in accordance with the interests of the native
populations.
This twofold object of its supervision leads the Commission to go
thoroughly into every aspect and all the details of the mandatory
administration.
The chief source of information at its disposal consists in the annual
reports of the mandatory Powers. From the outset, the Commission
applied itself to facilitating the preparation of these reports and to the
improvement of their system by drafting, for the use of the mandatory
Powers, questionnaires of different types corresponding to the “A”,
“B ” and “C ” Mandates. The reports and their annexes which, in
general, are prepared on the lines of these questionnaires, cover the
whole field of activity of the various branches of the administration.
The mandatory Powers, in fact, have continually sought to render their
annual reports more comprehensive, and to include in them all relevant
information concerning the points of special interest to the members
of the Commission. Many of these reports also contain very valuable
scientific information — on geographical, geological, linguistic, ethno¬
graphical, etc., subjects — which it would be difficult to find elsewhere.
The texts of laws and administrative regulations, which the manda¬
tory Powers are under an obligation to communicate to the League of