opinions", which arose from Article 14 of the Covenant creating the Court, which provided, "The Court may also give an advisory opinion upon any dispute referred to it by the Council or Assembly". Goodrich interprets that as indicating that the drafters intended a purely advisory capacity for the Court, not a binding one. Manley Ottmer Hudson (who sat as a judge) said that an advisory opinion "was what it purported to be. It is advisory. It is not in any sense a judgement... hence it is not in any way binding on any state", but Charles De Visscher argued that in certain situations, an advisory opinion could be binding on the League of Nations Council and, under certain circumstances, some states; M. Politis agreed, saying that the Court's advisory opinions were equivalent to a binding judgment. In 1927, the Court appointed a committee to look at this issue, and it reported that "where there are in fact contending parties, the difference between contentious cases and advisory cases is only nominal... so the view that advisory opinions are not binding is more theoretical than real". In practice, advisory opinions were usually followed, mostly due to the fear that if this "revolutionary" international court's decisions were not followed, it would undermine its authority. The court retained the discretion to avoid giving an advisory opinion, which it used on occasion. Registrar and Registry Other than the judges, the Court also included a Registrar and his Secretariat, the Registry. When the Court met for its initial session, opened on 30 January 1922 to allow for the establishment of procedure and the appointment of Court officials, the Secretary-General of the League of Nations passed an emergency resolution through the Assembly, which designated an official of the League and his staff as the Registrar and Registry respectively, with the first Registrar being Åke Hammarskjöld. The Registrar, required to reside within The Hague, was initially tasked with drawing up a plan to create an efficient Secretariat, using the smallest number of staff possible and costing as little as possible. As a result, he decided to have each member of the Secretariat as the head of a particular Department, so the numbers of actual employees could be increased or decreased as necessary without impacting on the actual Registry. In 1927, the post of Deputy-Registrar was created, tasked with dealing with legal research for the Court and answering all