The mandate system authorized a member nation of the League of Nations to govern a former German or Turkish colonial area after the conclusion of World War I. There were mandate territories in Africa and Asia, as well as the Middle East. As an example, the former Turkish provinces of Syria, Iraq and Palestine in the Middle East were divided into a French mandate territory and British mandate territory. The British mandate rule over Palestine has much to do with the history of the development of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
I think they chose that to begin and start there paper that way because it was important to state to the colonists that they were being heard and valued, just as well as everybody else did.
