Article XXII. The high contracting parties agree to place under control of the League all international bureaus already established if the parties to such treaties consent. All such international bureaus in the future shall be placed under the League.
Article XXIII. Every treaty or international engagement entered into by any member of the League shall be registered with the secretary general and published by him. No treaty or international engagement shall be binding until so registered.
Article XXIV. The body of delegates shall have the right to advise the reconsideration by states members of the League of treaties which have become inapplicable, and of international conditions of which the continuance may endanger world peace.
Article XXV. The high contracting parties agree to abrogate all obligations inconsistent with the terms of the covenant, and will not hereafter enter into any engagements inconsistent with those terms. Powers signatory hereto, or subsequently admitted to the League, who have undertaken any obligations inconsistent with the terms of this convenant shall take steps to secure release from such obligations.
Article XXVI is concerned with amendments to the covenant. These are to take effect when ratified by the states whose representatives compose the executive council, and by three-fourths of the states whose representatives compose the body of delegates.
At the conclusion of his reading of the draft of the constitution of the League, President Wilson said in part:
"It is not a vehicle of power, but a vehicle in which power may be varied at the discretion of those who exercise it, and in accordance with the changing circumstances of the time. And yet, while it is elastic, while it is general in its terms, it is definite in the one thing that we were called upon to make definite. It is a definite guaranty of peace. It is a definite guaranty by word against aggression. It is a definite guaranty against the things which have just come near bringing the whole structure of civilization into ruin.
"Its purposes do not for a moment lie vague. Its purposes are declared and its powers are unmistakable. It is not in contemplation that this should be merely a league to secure the peace of the world. It is a league which can be used for cooperation in any international matter. That is the significance of the provision introduced concerning labor. There are many ameliorations of labor conditions which can be effected by conference and discussion. I anticipate that there will be a very great usefulness in the bureau of labor which it is contemplated shall be set up by the League. Men, women, and children who work have been in the background through long ages, and sometimes seemed to be forgotten.... Now these people will be drawn into the field of international consultation and help and will be the wards of the combined governments of the world.
"As you will notice there is an imperative article concerning the publicity of all international agreements. Henceforth no member of the League can claim any agreement valid which it has not registered with the secretary general.... And the duty is laid upon the secretary general to publish every document of that sort, at the earliest possible time....
"Then there is a feature about this covenant which to my mind is one of the greatest and most satisfactory advances that have been made. We are done with annexations of helpless peoples, meant in some instances by some Powers to be used merely for exploitation. We recognize in the most solemn manner that the helpless and undeveloped peoples of the world ... put an obligation upon us to look after their interests primarily before we use them for our interests and that in all cases of this sort hereafter it shall be the duty of the League to see that the nations who are assigned as the tutors and advisers and directors of these peoples shall look to their interests and their development before they look to the interests and desires of the mandatory nation itself....