ALBERTO LLERAS, Director General

WILLIAM MANGER, Assistant Director

THE PAN AMERICAN UNION, now 57 years old, is an international organization created and maintained by the twenty-one American Republics: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Originally known as the International Bureau of the American Republics, it was established in 1890 in accordance with a resolution passed April 14 of that year by the First International Conference of American States, which convened at Washington in October 1889. April 14 is celebrated annually throughout the Americas as Pan American Day.

The work of the Union was greatly expanded by resolutions of the Second Conference, held at Mexico City in 1901-2; the Third, at Rio de Janeiro in 1906; the Fourth, at Buenos Aires in 1910; the Fifth, at Santiago, Chile, in 1923; the Sixth, at Habana in 1928; the Seventh, at Montevideo in 1933; the Eighth, at Lima in 1938; and by other inter-American conferences. The creation of machinery for the orderly settlement of inter-American disputes is one of the outstanding achievements of the Pan American system, but more important still is the continental public opinion that demanded such procedure.

PURPOSE AND ORGANIZATION

The purpose of the Pan American Union is to promote friendship and close relations among the Republics of the American Continent and peace and security within their borders by fostering constructive cooperation among them. The Union is supported by annual contributions

from all the countries, in amounts proportional to population, and its services are freely available to officials and private citizens alike. Its affairs are administered by a Director General and an Assistant Director, elected by and responsible to a Governing Board composed of one member from each American Republic.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS

The administrative divisions of the Pan American Union are organized to carry out the purposes for which it was created. There are special divisions dealing with foreign trade, statistics, economics, intellectual cooperation, music, juridical matters, agricultural cooperation, travel, and labor and social information. All these divisions maintain close relations with official and unofficial bodies in the countries members of the Union. The Columbus Memorial Library contains 138,500 volumes and 2,400 maps. The BULLETIN of the Pan American Union, published monthly in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, is the official organ of the institution. For a list of other publications of the Union, see the inside back cover.

PAN AMERICAN CONFERENCES

The Pan American Union also serves as the permanent organ of the International Conferences of American States, usually referred to as the Pan American Conferences. In addition to preparing the programs and regulations, the Union gives effect to the conclusions of the Conferences by conducting special inquiries and investigations and by convening or arranging for special or technical conferences in the intervals between the International Conferences.

PERHAPS America has before it no more weighty question than how to assure, without clash or antagonism, either moral or ideological, the preservation of the Pan American System within the framework of the United Nations. Such a clash, such antagonism, would not last long. As soon as they arose, if they should arise, they would be eliminated automatically, but we should be obliged to choose between the two systems. The mere hypothesis makes the conflict appear extremely serious; in order to bring out the necessity that the two systems should live in harmony, one has only to say that if America, after an irreparable disagreement with the United Nations, should determine to preserve Pan Americanism, the United Nations could not continue to exist. And that, if Pan Americanism were to be Address delivered by Dr. Lleras when the National University of Colombia conferred on him the degree of Doctor honoris causa. (El Tiempo, Bogotá, April 27, 1947.)

eliminated as incompatible with the United Nations, humanity would lose an essential factor in international peace and security, and above all, a stage in the gradual development of international law would be destroyed, causing an abrupt reversion to the Napoleonic era.

It is well known, and therefore it is not indiscreet to recall it, that a considerable part of the European nations and many great internationalists of the Old World do not give as much importance as we do to the remarkable development of American international law. Furthermore, there have always been those high in the realm of learning or politics who scorn our achievements and consider impertinent the statement, which we Americans believe we can honestly make, that in no other part of the world, and at no other period in history, has a group of nations been governed by more lofty precepts, by more righteous principles, or by more effective