We have received a copy of the Rhodes lecture delivered
by Mr. D. Campbell Lee, an American and also an English barrister, at University College on May 23rd, on The Mandate for Meso- potamia and the Principle of Trusteeship in English Law. Mr. Campbell Lee shows very clearly that the word "mandate," used on the Continent for a contract of agency, was ill-chosen
to describe a system of government which is really a trust. "I am convinced," he says, "that if the term Government by Trustee had been adopted instead of Government by Man- datory, one-half of the objections and more than one-half of the popular suspicions prevalent in America and England against the whole system would have been avoided." He shows that Article 22 of the Peace Treaty, regulating mandates, embodies all, pr nearly all, the duties of a trustee in English law. He commends in enthusiastic terms the draft mandate for Mesopotamia. "Where can you find another Declaration of Independence with a loftier moral purpose " Mr. Campbell Lee concludes by affirming that the British Government have so far fulfilled their duties as trustees with the most scrupulous honesty, in the face of many difficulties.
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