With the Covenant of the League of Nations more or less complete, the next business of the Conference was the setting up of the Treaty proper. The method for this work was roughly as follows: About the first of February there was appointed a large number of special Commissions, made up of members of the various delegations. These Commissions, which were each to treat of separate topics, having arrived at a solution of the special subject, were then to draft their reports in such language that they could readily be embodied in the final Treaty of Peace itself. Thus, for instance, there was appointed a Commission on Reparations, a Commission on Economic Phases of the Treaty, a Commission on Finance, a Commission on Boundaries, a Commission on Military and Naval Armament, a Commission on German Colonies, a Commission on the Saar Basin Coal Fields, a Commission on Inland Waterways, and so on to the number of perhaps twenty. These Commissions immediately organized, and if the subject were particularly complex and many-sided, resolved themselves into sub-commissions. These sub-commissions in turn organized, each with its chairman and vice-chairman, its secretariat, and its interpreters, together with experts called into attendance. DELAYS TO THE TREATY The sittings of all these Commissions began, as I say, about February 1st, and at that time the plan was that the work of the Commissions should be concluded in the form of a report to the Supreme Council six weeks later, or about March 15th. The plan, further, was for the Supreme Council to pass upon these various reports, amend them if need be, and then have them drafted in such form as together would go to make up the Treaty, which, under this scheme, would be presented to the Germans on or about April 1st. The Germans would presumably sign within a fortnight, and we should all be going home about April 15th. As a matter of fact, the Germans signed the Treaty at Versailles at three o'clock on the afternoon of June 28th, two and one-half months later than the time originally planned.