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which would enable them to submit their reports on each of the treaties to the Plenary Conference by, at latest, 5 October; that the Plenary Conference should consider the reports of Commissions from 5 October and take a vote on all questions submitted to it by 15 October; and that, if necessary, the length and number of speeches should be curtailed and the rule of closure should be allowed to be applied to the discussion of any question. With the authority of the Conference the General Secretariat implemented these decisions by ruling, first, that no delegation might make more than two speeches upon any question, one of ten minutes and one of five minutes ; second, that speeches on procedural questions should be limited to three minutes ; and, third, that the Chairman had power to close a debate and call for a vote whenever it appeared that a Commission was falling behind its schedule. Any delegation which was unable to make its case within the allotted fifteen minutes was to be permitted to include additional observations in the written records. These rules naturally prevented adequate discussion of, or search for, compromise solutions before many of the important questions which were dealt with by the Commissions after 26 September were put summarily to the vote. On 6 October the Plenary Conference approved the rules of procedure to govern the final Plenary Sessions. The treaties were to be considered in turn, each as a whole, and after general speeches (no delegation was to be allowed more than thirty minutes on each treaty) the Conference was to proceed to vote clause by clause upon the treaty under consideration. No further amendments were to be tabled and no delegation was to be permitted during the voting to explain the reasons for its vote. Under these rules the final discussion and voting on the treaties took place as follows : Italy, on 7, 8, and 9 October ; Roumania, on 10 October; Bulgaria, on 11 October ; Hungary, on 12 October ; and Finland, on 13 October. New Zealand spoke only on the Italian treaty (Mr Mason's speech of 9 October appears as Appendix 2). The Conference of Paris concluded with a formal Plenary Session of 15 October, when the members of the Council of Foreign Ministers made valedictory speeches. The Yugoslav delegation did not attend this final session, in protest against the refusal of the Conference to recognize Yogoslavia's claims to Trieste. 11. THE NATURE AND PROCEDURE OF THE CONFERENCE For at least two years before the Paris Conference the allied States had expressed divergent views upon the composition of the peacemaking body. These views persisted at the Conference. The most influential group argued that the peace treaties should be made by the Four Great Powers, because they furnished the main mass of men and war material and because they are the real upholders of