As noted earlier, the Post-War Programs Committee in April 1944 had reviewed the recommendations of the Special Committee on Shipping, which envisaged the possible formation of an international shipping organization, and a United Maritime Authority had been established as a wartime control agency in August 1944.18 Discussion of a permanent organization in this field, however, was not inaugurated until after the war.19

Recommendations on United States policy regarding international telecommunications, as formulated by the Special Committee on Communications, had also been reviewed by the Post-War Programs Committee. This Committee on October 20, 1944, approved a series of recommended principles to be supported by the United States at any international conference in this field. On the collateral question of a new international telecommunications organization, no position was taken at this time, the Special Committee having stated that it had "reached the conclusion that the preparatory work at present being undertaken had not progressed sufficiently to enable the committee to formulate a principle on this point." 20

The advisability of a specialized agency for telecommunications had been considered, beginning in 1942, by the Economic Subcommittees and by the political staff in connection with the comprehensive study of international organization. Subsequently the Special Committee on Communications and a small ad hoc group of that committee meeting in the Department of State considered at length the possible reorganization of the International Telecommunication Union with a view to strengthening it. While no definitive proposals in this field were developed before the end of the war, the Staff Committee, on April 25, 1945, approved a recommendation for the holding of a World Telecommunications Conference. This Conference convened two years later and resulted in the reorganization and strengthening of the International Telecommunication Union, reflecting substantially the plans developed under the aegis of the Special Committee on Communications.21

18 See p. 244.

10 In February 1946, a month before the wartime agency was due to go out of existence. No permanent organization has been established at the date of this writing, although a convention for an Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization is now awaiting ratification and a provisional commission is functioning.

20 An International Telecommunication Union, with a central bureau at Bern, had been established in 1932 to succeed the International Telegraph Union, in existence since 1865, but it had functioned somewhat ineffectually on an illdefined basis.

21 The Conference met at Atlantic City, N. J., July 1-Oct. 2, 1947. Department of State Bulletin, XVII, 1033-34, 1940-41.

The foreseeable difficulties concerning transport in Europe after the war were the subject of another development. The consultations on a possible European inland transport organization held in June 1944 22 between the United States and the United Kingdom, with the Soviet Union represented by an observer, led to joint Anglo-American proposals projecting such an organization, an interim commission, and a conference of interested Allied powers. The Post-War Programs Committee approved on July 14, 1944, United States participation in the organization and interim commission. The conference, in which twelve Allied countries took part, convened in London on October 10. It considered a draft agreement establishing a European Inland Transport Organization (EITO) to function for at least two years after the defeat of Germany. After several sessions, however, the conference recessed on October 27, 1944, without taking any action.

As the German surrender became imminent, the Staff Committee on April 30, 1945, authorized United States participation in a Provisional Organization for European Inland Transport to meet immediate needs, and this organization was set up on May 8, 1945, by the Governments of Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Staff Committee in its April 30 meeting also approved a draft agreement for a European Central Inland Transport Organization, which was subsequently established by the reconvened conference on September 27, 1945.23

The other specialized organizations in the economic and social fields, as developed since the close of the hostilities, had less direct roots in the wartime preparation on postwar problems. The most intensive work on a world health organization and on an international refugee organization was done after the close of hostilities.

The Special Subcommittee on International Organization in 194243 had envisaged some type of health agency within the general structure of future international organization and had explored such problems as the nature of such an agency, its relation to the projected general organization, and the method and timing of its establishment. The research staff elaborated the favorable views of the Subcommittee, and provided in its own draft "Charter of the United Nations" a technical organization for health. Following the publication of the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals, envisaging "international social and other humanitarian problems" within the competence of the new gen

2 See pp. 232, 243.

" This organization stemmed from the EITO considered in 1944. The other two "E" organizations, the Emergency Economic Committee for Europe and the European Coal Organization established in May 1945 and January 1946, respectively, were not specifically projected in the preparation and are therefore outside the scope of this volume.

eral organization, consultations on the question of an international health organization were initiated between the Department and the U.S. Public Health Service, and work was begun in the Department's Division of International Labor, Social and Health Affairs early in 1945 on a draft constitution for such an organization. Informal discussions were held with representatives of other interested governments. The product of these discussions found expression in the specific inclusion of international health among matters of concern to the United Nations and in the strong support given in the United Nations Conference at San Francisco to a joint Sino-Brazilian declaration that called for an international conference to form a health organization. The initiation of the future world health organization may be said to have stemmed from a long background of international interest covering almost the whole twentieth century, finding specific focus in the postwar preparations of this and other governments and in the joint declaration presented in the San Francisco Conference.24

The establishment of the International Refugee Organization was proposed only in the year after hostilities had ended. Extensive work, however, had been done in this field during the war. It was conducted through the Department's regular channels, in consultation with Myron C. Taylor, who continued until near the end of hostilities to serve as the United States Representative on the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees.26 The work in this instance was in appreciable measure international, being done in connection with the Anglo-American conference on the refugee problem held at Hamilton, Bermuda, April 19-29, 1943, and with the Intergovernmental Committee, as well as with the War Refugee Board which was established by the President on January 22, 1944, as a temporary United States agency in this field. This work was concerned primarily with the immediate aspects of an urgent wartime situation.

The long-range aspects of the refugee problem, however, had also received extensive consideration. They were studied early in the preparation in connection with the plans being developed for UNRRA, the immediate problems to be faced from the security standpoint at the

"The World Health Organization came into being Apr. 7, 1948. The United States became a member on June 21, 1948.

25 The proposal was advanced by the Special Committee on Refugees, of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, after the question of refugees and displaced persons had been considered by the General Assembly of the United Nations at its first session in January 1946. The International Refugee Organization came into existence Aug. 20, 1948. The United States had accepted membership in the organization on July 1, 1947.

26 See p. 137. On Mar. 15, 1945, it was announced that Earl G. Harrison had been appointed to succeed Mr. Taylor as the United States Representative on the Intergovernmental Committee. Department of State Bulletin, XII, 452.

close of hostilities, postwar boundary and minority problems, and the projected International Bill of Rights." The situation that would be faced as European areas were liberated and in the immediate postwar period became the primary concern of the Special Committee on Migration and Settlement created in 1943. This Special Committee prepared, at the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a series of forty-five documents in the form of directives and suggestions to the United States Army on the problem of displaced persons in Europe during the period of direct military government. A summary of the policy recommendations involved in these documents was approved by the Post-War Programs Committee on June 21, 1944.28 And on July 12, the Committee approved another series of documents prepared by the Special Committee, for the guidance of Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force, relative to displaced foreign nationals in Germany and displaced German nationals. These policy recommendations all related to the immediate post-hostilities period, and their implementation was therefore considered to be the responsibility of the military authorities, who might request assistance from appropriate agencies, such as UNRRA.

No new specialized organization was projected in the course of this preparation, although it was realized that some form of specialized international agency might eventually be required to take care of all residual aspects of the refugee problem, including nonrepatriable refugees. This latter aspect became one of grave difficulty under the circumstances that in fact prevailed at the close of hostilities, particularly in Eastern Europe, including the Baltic. The United States in general believed that the freedom of choice of refugees whether or not to return to their homelands should be respected, and the circumstances when the fighting ended led to a continuing problem concerning displaced persons who felt themselves unable to return to their countries of origin. The International Refugee Organization provided a single international body whose responsibility it was to secure the repatriation or resettlement of the million displaced persons remaining in Central Europe.

In the cultural field, the further preparatory work in the Department on the tentative draft agreement for a temporary United Nations Organization for Educational and Cultural Reconstruction considered by the Post-War Programs Committee in May 1944,29 moved slowly for some months during which the over-all purposes and relationships of such an organization were reconsidered in the light of developments concerning the general international organization. A revised text of

30

the draft agreement, dated May 30 and prepared in the Department, was communicated to the British, Soviet, and Chinese Governments in August 1944 to serve as the basis for an informal exchange of views. The Department's consideration of this revised draft was not resumed until November, and it soon resulted in a much more far-reaching proposal. The essential characteristics of this new proposal were that it looked to the establishment of a permanent organization for educational and cultural cooperation almost simultaneously with the general international organization, and shifted the emphasis from reconstruction to longer-range objectives. This proposal, which was formulated through the collaborative efforts of the Division of Cultural Cooperation, the Division of International Organization Affairs, and the Office of Special Political Affairs, reflected the influence of the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals, with their philosophy and provisions regarding development of conditions essential for international peace. The new proposal for a permanent organization in the educational and cultural field was approved in principle by the Staff Committee on February 2, 1945. The final draft of this proposal, dated March 8,31 was made available by authorization of the Department on April 17 to the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education in London for its own information and use. This draft formed the basis for the revised proposals drawn up by the latter for consideration at a general United Nations conference. The conference, which met in London after the close of hostilities, reached an agreement for the establishment of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to have its seat in Paris.82

30 See appendix 49.

31 See appendix 50.

32 The United Nations Conference for the Establishment of an Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization met Nov. 1-16, 1945. The organization came into being on Nov. 4, 1946. United States membership was authorized July 30, 1946.