ABSTRACT
This chapter argues while the mandates system aimed at legitimating and prolonging imperial rule, its processes and component parts especially the Mandates Commission proved less docile and more disruptive than its framers intended. If a mandatory power was strongly invested in the League or sensitive to international opinion, however, such oversight could have a significant effect, with the mandatory power adjusting policy to court approval or limit criticism. The mandatory powers held administrative authority, and the small Permanent Mandates Commission (PMC) established to review their reports and consider written petitions or appeals was allowed neither to hear petitioners nor to conduct fact-finding missions to territories. To the government's distress, the PMC's report followed the 'Zionists' lead in laying responsibility for the very outbreak of the riots on the 'hesitant' policy of the Palestine administration itself. As in 1929, the conflict quickly internationalized, with the League, various European states, and Palestine's independent Arab neighbours all claiming locus standi in the matter.
