The Permanent Mandates Commission (PMC) was the commission of the League of Nations responsible for oversight of mandated territories. The commission was established on 1 December 1920 and was headquartered at Geneva. The existence of the Commission was stipulated in Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant: "A permanent Commission shall be constituted to receive and examine the annual reports of the Mandatories and to advise the Council on all matters relating to the observance of the mandates." Even though the PMC was composed of members from imperial and foreign policy establishments, the organization did act independently of states and established norms that constrained the behaviors of colonial powers. The PMC was the first instance that either France or Britain had been subjected to any kind of imperial oversight. The PMC played a key role in establishing that the mandates could not be annexed by the colonial powers. The PMC helped to establish that the mandates had a unique status under international law. Background The PMC was established by the victors of World War I to oversaw the former colonial possessions of the Ottoman Empire and German Empire. The British and French wanted to govern these possessions as colonies, whereas the United States opposed the French and British maneuvers. As a compromise, it was agreed that the former Ottoman and German colonial possessions would be administered as mandates by individual states whose administration would be subject to oversight by the PMC. These territories would ostensibly be governed for the benefit of the inhabitants. Composition The Commission had 10 and later, 11 members (or twelve, if Sweden and Norway, which shared their seat, represented first by Anna Bugge-Wicksell and later by Valentine Dannevig, are counted separately). Four of these members were Mandatory Powers, 7 were independent powers and one seat was held by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Members served without fixed term. William Rappard, Swiss lawyer and professor, served for the Commission's entire active life of 18 years as did , Italian Marquis Alberto Theodoli, first chairman, for 16 years, the Spaniard M. Palacios for 15 years, Lord Lugard and Van Rees for 13 each while Valentine Dannevig from Norway and the Portuguese Count Jose de Penha Garcia served for 11 years each. Upon joining the League of Nations in 1926, Germany immediately asked for a seat on the PMC but was initially rebuffed. The first German member of