During the discussions that led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George raised the possibility of a Boundary Commission as a way of breaking the deadlock. The Irish delegation, led by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, reluctantly acquiesced to the idea, on the basis that the resulting boundary line based on population at the finely granular District Electoral Division (DED) level would likely be highly advantageous to the Irish Free State, creating a small and weak Northern Irish polity which would likely be unviable in the long run. However the final Treaty included the statement that economic and geographical factors were also to be taken into account, and Lloyd George assured James Craig that "mere rectifications of the Boundary are involved, with give and take on both sides." Boundary scholar Kieran J Rankin states "the manner in which the Boundary Commission clause was drafted in the final document was only explicit in its ambiguity."