The future alone will disclose whether we have builded wisely and well, but it is the hope, and, I believe, the conviction, of the Commission that the labors of these Committees viewed in the perspective of time will represent a historic contribution to the future peace of all mankind. LORD HALIFAX: Ladies and Gentlemen, I have no doubt that we are all grateful to the Rapporteur for his statement, as we are to the officers and members of the Third Commission, who have handled subjects so important with such wisdom and have helped the Conference in so large a degree. May I ask whether any delegate has any comment or objection to the Report laid before us of the Third Commission? There being none, I declare the Report of the Rapporteur of the Third Commission approved. We come now, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Fourth Commission, dealing with judicial organization, and I will ask the President of the Commission, Dr. ParraPerez, of Venezuela, the Assistant Secretary-General, Mr. Emmanuel Abraham of Ethiopia, and the Executive Officer, Mr. Norman Padelford, to come to the rostrum. The Report of the work of Commission IV will be delivered by the President of the Commission, Dr. ParraPerez, whom the Chair is now happy to recognize. Report of the Fourth Commission RAPPORTEUR (Mr. Parra-Perez): The enormous and 'complex task of studying all the aspects of the judiciary organization of the United Nations devolved on the Fourth Commission, of which I had the honor of acting as chairman. In order to facilitate the work the Fourth Commission was subdivided into two Committees. The First Committee was charged with drafting the text of Chapter X of the Charter, which contains the general principles relative to the International Court of Justice, and a proposed text of the Statute of the Court, which should be an integral part of the Charter. The Second Committee was charged with preparing the juridical provisions relative to the functioning of the Organization which had not been provided for in the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals and which are to be inserted in the Charter. These provisions relate to the registration and publication of treaties; obligations imposed by the treaties which would be inconsistent with the Charter; entry into force of the Charter; juridical Statute of the Organization, and privileges and immunities granted to the Organization and its officials. I consider it unnecessary to repeat here what I have already stated at the meetings of the Fourth Commission on the importance of the work entrusted to it and the outstanding manner in which the two Committees fulfilled their tasks. Honor is due to the Chairmen and Rapporteurs of these Committees, to all their members as well as to the personnel and their secretariats. I shall only mention here my firm conviction that the International Court of Justice resulting from our discussions in San Francisco will faithfully carry on the heritage of noble traditions established by the World Court at The Hague, which has functioned with such excellent results for more than twenty years, and that the just and impartial decisions which it will hand down will indicate a continued progress in the evolution of a judicial structure for the peaceful settlement of international disputes. Allow me to reaffirm here my faith in the triumph of right as the criterion of international relations of which the Court will be both the symbol and the expounder, and the hope that its powers shall extend progressively and unrestrictedly to all the members of the Organization and to the states which may be permitted in the future to adhere to the statute. The fact that the questions dealt with by our two Committees are essentially different appears to be a sufficient explanation of the reason why there was no rapporteur of the Fourth Commission, and it is to this that I owe the privilege of coming before you to request the Assembly to be good enough to adopt the following texts, which have been approved by the Commission at the meetings held on June 15 and 23, 1945. (1) Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter (4) The texts of various juridical provisions concern- The texts mentioned above are included in the reports of the Committees which have been approved by the Commission and distributed to the delegations. LORD HALIFAX: Thank you very much, Dr. Parra-Perez, for what you have just said in explanation of your report, and may I at the same time on behalf of the Conference convey to you and to your colleagues the thanks of the Conference for the care and the wisdom and the diligence with which you and they have guided the Conference through its many legal problems. You have had, Ladies and Gentlemen, before you the Report of Commission IV and the various attachments to it referred to in the Report. Is there any comment or objection? There being no comment or objection, I declare the Report approved. You have now heard, Ladies and Gentlemen, and approved the reports of the four Commissions of the Conference covering the Charter of the United Nations and the Statute of the International Court. The next item of business on our agenda is to hear the report from the Rapporteur of the Steering Committee, and the Chair will be happy to recognize Ambassador Belt of Cuba, the Rapporteur. Ninth Plenary Session . . . Report of the Steering Committee RAPPORTEUR (Mr. Belt): Mr. Chairman, Fellow Delegates, the Steering Committee at its tenth meeting on June 21, 1945, approved a document providing for the establishment of a Preparatory Commission of the United Nations. This document, entitled "Interim Arrangements Concluded by the Governments Represented at the United Nations Conference on International Organization," had been submitted to the Steering Committee on June 17 by the Executive Committee, whose members had previously approved in principle a preliminary draft prepared by the Secretariat. The text as adopted by the Steering Committee was revised, in respect of language and style only, on June 22 by the Co-ordination Committee and by the Advisory Committee of Jurists. This revised text was placed before the Steering Committee at its final meeting on June 23. There remains only consideration and approval of this document by the Conference in plenary session, after which the document will be open for signature. The Preparatory Commission, it is proposed, will consist of one representative from each government signatory to the Charter. When the Commission is not in session its powers and functions will be exercised by an Executive Committee composed of the representatives of those governments now represented on the Executive Committee of this Conference, namely, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czechoslovakia, France, Iran, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yugoslavia. If the report of the Steering Committee is approved, the Preparatory Commission will hold its first meeting in San Francisco Wednesday morning, June 27, and will remain in existence until the election of the SecretaryGeneral of the Organization. Its headquarters will be in London. The Executive Committee will call the full Commission into session as soon as possible after the Charter of the Organization comes into effect and thereafter whenever it considers such a session to be desirable. The Commission will have a number of different research and administrative functions. It is proposed that the Commission should: (A) convoke the General Assembly in its first session; (B) prepare the provisional agenda for the first sessions of the principal organs of the Organization, and prepare documents and recommendations relating to all matters on these agenda; (C) formulate recommendations concerning the possible transfer of certain functions, activities, and assets of the League of Nations which it may be considered desirable for the new Organization to take over on terms to be arranged; (D) examine the problems involved in the establishment of the relationship between specialized intergovernmental organizations and agencies and the Organization; (E) issue invitations for the nomination of candidates for the International Court of Justice in accordance with the provisions of the Statute of the Court; (F) prepare recommendations concerning arrangements for the Secretariat of the Organization; and (G) make studies and prepare recommendations concerning the location of the permanent headquarters of the Organization. At its eleventh meeting on June 23, 1945, the Steering Committee approved unanimously the text of the Charter of the United Nations as submitted by the Co-ordination Committee and by the Advisory Committee of Jurists. The substance of the Charter of the United Nations has already been reported to the Conference by the presidents of the four Commissions. The text as revised by the Co-ordination Committee and the Advisory Committee of Jurists includes only stylistic changes designed to put into Charter form the work of the twelve technical committees and the four Commissions. Whenever the texts transmitted by the technical committees appeared to be unclear or to be in conflict, the Co-ordination Committee consulted the officers of the technical committees or Commissions concerned or, if necessary, referred the point at issue to the appropriate technical committee for consideration. In adopting the revised text presented by the Coordination Committee on June 23, the Steering Committee authorized the Co-ordination Committee to make such further changes in language and grammar as might be necessary to put the document into final form. The few minor changes made by the Co-ordination Committee under this authorization have already been communicated to all delegations. The Steering Committee recommends that the Conference in plenary session adopt the Charter of the United Nations as now submitted to it. The Statute of the International Court of Justice, which is to form an integral part of the Charter, was not formally considered by the Steering Committee since it had been thoroughly discussed by the United Nations Committee of Jurists, which met in Washington before this Conference, by Technical Committee 1 of Commission IV, by Commission IV, and by the Co-ordination Committee and the Advisory Committee of Jurists. The Steering Committee had before it on June 23 a statement of the drafting changes made in the Statutes by the Co-ordination Committee and the Advisory Committee of Jurists. These changes were designed merely to clarify certain passages in the Statute as adopted by Commission IV and to bring the Statute as a whole into complete accord with the Charter. Mr. President, I could not adequately complete the report of the Steering Committee without referring to the other important action taken at our dramatic final meeting last Saturday. The Delegate of Australia, the Right Honorable Francis Michael Forde, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Army of Australia, amidst enthusiastic applause, paid tribute to the able guidance of the chairman of the Steering Committee and the President of the Conference charged with the responsibility for the conduct of its business, the Honorable Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. I have here with me, and I shall complete my duties as Rapporteur of the Steering Committee by delivering to Mr. Stettinius the resolution which Mr. Forde prepared and which has been signed by the heads of all delegations. Will Mr. Stettinius, our very distinguished President, please come to the platform? I have the great honor to present to Mr. Stettinius, in behalf of the Steering Committee, this document. MR. STETTINIUS: Lord Halifax, Dr. Belt, all I can say is that any success that I have had as the chairman of the Steering Committee or as the President of this Conference was because of the support that has been given to me by the fifty delegations here represented. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. RAPPORTEUR (Mr. Belt): I myself had the honor of proposing at the final meeting of the Steering Committee that the Committee also pay tribute to the able leadership of the other three Presidents of the Conference, including the presiding officer of this plenary session, the Earl of Halifax. Dr. Wellington Koo, one of the Presidents of the Conference, very kindly proposed similar recognition of my own services as Rapporteur of the Committee and of the services of the extremely able Mr. Alger Hiss, Secretary of the Committee and Secretary-General of the Confer ence. Dr. Gallagher, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Delegation of Peru, proposed a motion which was unanimously adopted with warm applause in recognition of the great contribution of Dr. Herbert Vere Evatt, Attorney General and Minister for External Affairs of Australia. Our Committee concluded its important labors by rising for a minute of silence in memory of the late Ninth Plenary Session . . . Franklin Delano Roosevelt, upon a motion of Mr. John Sofianopoulos, Minister for Foreign Affairs and chairman of the delegation of Greece. LORD HALIFAX: Fellow Delegates, Dr. Belt, the Rapporteur of the Steering Committee, has given us a most comprehensive report for which I am sure you wish me to thank him, and in doing so he has reported more particularly on the agreement approved by the Steering Committee regarding the establishment of a Preparatory Commission and has informed you of the Committee's approval of the Charter of the United Nations. Has any Delegate any comment or objection to make concerning the Rapporteur's report? I hear no objection; I declare the report of the Rapporteur of the Steering Committee approved. Approval of Documents Now, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conference, we come to the final action of this, the penultimate plenary session. The rapporteurs of the four Commissions and of the Steering Committee have reported on the work of those bodies in the formulation of the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, including the Statute of the International Court and the Agreement on Interim Arrangements, providing for the establishment of the Preparatory Commission. These texts have, I think, been distributed to the delegates and it is now my duty, my honor, and my privilege in the Chair, to call for a vote on the approval of the Charter of the United Nations, including the Statute of the International Court, and also of the Agreement on Interim Arrangements. I feel, Ladies and Gentlemen, that in view of the world importance of this vote that we are collectively about to give, it would be appropriate to depart from the usual method of signifying our feeling by holding up one hand. If you are in agreement with me, I will ask the leaders of delegations to rise in their places in order to record their vote on an issue that I think is likely to be as important as any of us in our lifetime are ever likely to vote upon. If I have your pleasure, may I invite the leaders of delegations who are in favor of the approval of the Charter and the Statute and the Agreement on Interim Arrangements, to rise in their places and be good enough to remain standing while they are counted. (vote taken.) Thank you. Are there any against? The Charter and the other documents are unanimously approved. (At this point the delegates and the entire audience rose and cheered.) I think, Ladies and Gentlemen, we may all feel that we have taken part, as we may hope, in one of the great moments of history. I will ask Mr. Hiss, if he would, to make a brief announcement in regard to the possible arrangements for the signature that our vote has just authorized. SECRETARY-GENERAL (Mr. Hiss): Because of the status of the printing at the moment, and various technical problems connected with printing the Charter in all five official languages, it is not possible to state with absolute certainty exactly when the signing can begin tomorrow morning, but I think it will begin as we had originally planned, at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. That is the latest report I have. The Secretariat will keep in touch with the delegations tomorrow morning, and the delegation liaison officers will keep the delegations fully informed about the arrangements and the specific hour for signing. LORD HALIFAX: I am asked to announce, Ladies and Gentlemen, that the final plenary session will be held tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. Before I declare this meeting adjourned, may I say on behalf, as I am sure I may, of the President of the Conference, Mr. Stettinius, who received so well-deserved a tribute from our common friend, Dr. Belt, a few minutes ago, and on behalf of my friends, Ambassador Gromyko, and Dr. Koo-to all of whom, if I may respectfully say so, I think the Conference owes much may I say, on their behalf, that we all feel that such contribution as any of us may have been able to make in a humble capacity to the Conference has been possible because of the co-operation that all delegations have been willing to give to every other so that in a true sense we were able to feel that we were a band of brothers, laboring in a common cause. I feel also that I speak in this sense not only for the Presidents of the Conference but for all delegates. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, if there is no more business it is my duty to declare that the Ninth Plenary Session is adjourned. (Meeting adjourned at 11:15 P.M.) It is with a full heart that I address this final plenary session of the United Nations Conference on International Organization. Two months ago the delegates here assembled met for the first time. We came from many parts of the earth, across continents and oceans. We came as the representatives of fifty different nations. But we came here first of all as the representatives of humanity and as the bearers of a common mandate to write the Charter of a World Organization to maintain peace for all nations and to promote the welfare of all men. Every nation represented here has had a part in the making of the Charter. Sentence by sentence, article by article, it has been hammered out around the conference tables. We have spoken freely with each other. Often we have disagreed. When we disagreed we tried again, and then again, until we ended by reconciling the differences among us. This is the way of friendship and of peace. This is the only way that nations of free men can make a Charter for peace and the only way that they can live at peace with one another. The San Francisco Conference has fulfilled its mandate. The Charter of a permanent United Nations has now been written. Today we meet together for the last time at this Conference. Tomorrow we shall separate and return home, each to his own country. But in this Charter we will carry to our governments and to our peoples an identical message of purpose and an identical instrument for the fulfillment of that purpose. Final Plenary Session . . . We shall bring this Charter to a world that is still racked by war and by war's aftermath. A few days ago I talked with some young Americans just back from the battle front. They lay-wounded and in pain in the beds of an army hospital. As I talked with them I thought of the many millions who have risked all and sacrificed future and life itself to give the world this chance. I thought of all those men and women and children of the nations represented in this meeting place today whom tyranny with bomb and bayonet, starvation, fire and torture, could kill but never conquer. And I thought of all the cities now in ruins and all the land laid waste. The terrible trial is not yet over. The fighting continues. The reconstruction has only just begun. This Charter is a compact born of suffering and of war. With it now rests our hope for good and lasting peace. The words upon its parchment chart the course by which a world in agony can be restored and peace maintained and human rights and freedoms can be advanced. It is a course which I believe to be within the will and the capacity of the nations at this period of world history to follow. To the governments and peoples of the fifty nations whose representatives have labored here the Charter is now committed. May Almighty God, from this day on, and in the months and years to come, sustain us in the unalterable purpose that its promise be fulfilled. Address by V. K. Wellington Koo CHAIRMAN, THE CHINESE DELEGATION The United Nations Conference on International Organization has concluded its vitally important mission of writing a Charter. This instrument will, I believe, prove itself to be an epoch-making document and will rank in its contribution to international justice and peace with the Magna Charta and the Constitution of the United States in their contribution to political liberty and repre sentative government. As we look back upon the eight weeks we have spent on this stupendous task, we cannot fail to recall with even greater appreciation the fullness of the discussion, the earnestness in the debates, the hard work of the technical committees, and the spirit of conciliation, all of which factors have helped to make the Charter an instrument of high ideal and practical wis dom. None of the delegations may find all that they wished to see embodied in it, but they will agree, I am sure, that it contains the essential features for the building of a world organization to promote international justice, peace and prosperity. Without the valuable contribution however, of all the participating delegations, we could not have achieved this splendid result. The idea of establishing at the earliest praticable date a general international organization, based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving states, and open to membership by all such states, large and small, for the maintainance of international peace and security, was first conceived by that pre-eminent leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the late President of the United States, and the veteran statesman, Cordell Hull, when he was Secretary of State. It was consecrated in the Four-Power Declaration of Moscow and implemented by a set of concrete proposals at Dumbarton Oaks. These proposals have now been further elaborated and improved at San Francisco. Mere mention of the fact that twenty-nine amendments were jointly submitted to the Conference by the four sponsoring powers and literally hundreds of other amendments by the other participating delegations gives an indication of the common desire and determination to complete and perfect the Dumbarton Oaks plan of a permanent Charter. We are glad to see in the completed instrument today many new features. Provisions have been added which emphasize that the adjustment or settlement of international disputes should be in conformity with the principles of justice and international law; which aim to promote and encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, language, religion or sex; which expressly recognize the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense in the event of an armed attack; which stress the importance of cooperation in the solution of international economic, social, cultural and other humanitarian problems; which empower the Economic and Social Council to set up commissions in these diverse fields of activity in order to achieve positive results; and which, lastly but far from being of the least importance, provide a comprehensive and liberal system of international trusteeship, stipulating independence and selfgovernment among its fundamental objectives. These are only illustrations but they are sufficient, I hope, to show Final Plenary Session . . . the broad scope, the high principles and the noble purposes of the new Charter. The constitution of the Organization of the United Nations is now written and signed, and will in due course be ratified by the Governments represented at this Conference. It remains for us to continue to foster mutual trust and friendly collaboration in order to make this, the greatest of international experiments, a great success in fact. We of the Chinese delegation came to San Francisco to cooperate and we have been glad to find cooperation the happy keynote of the whole Conference. We are confident that, with faith in the future and with the same spirit of cooperation as had guided us in our deliberations here in the Golden City, lasting peace and continued prosperity will be within the gift of the new Organization to the whole world. This is not an utopian dream. We believe it to be a legitimate aspiration, a reasonable hope, and indeed, when fully realized, it will be a just reward for our exertions in the arduous common struggle which has cost us all, and will cost us more still untold sacrifice of life, blood and treasure. The genius of man has devised the plan and completed the instrument, and we fervently hope that the spirit of cooperation will always guide its operation in order to achieve its lofty aims. We have stayed two months here in San Francisco. The excellent arrangements made by the Government of the United States have made our sojourn here both pleasant and fruitful. As the representatives of one of the sponsoring powers, we of the Chinese delegation feel especially grateful to the host nation. We wish also to express our deep appreciation of the hospitalities of the city and people of San Francisco. But I cannot conclude my remarks without acknowledging also the splendid and most valuable work of the Honorable Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Secretary of State and Chairman of the American delegation, who, in his various high capacities in the Conference and with the assistance of an efficient secretariat, has made a unique contribution to the success of the Conference. To him as also to his able and distinguished colleagues on his delegation, we owe an immense debt of gratitude, and to them all we wish to extend our thanks and our admiration. I sincerely believe that these sentiments are not ours alone but are fully shared by the other delegations to the Conference. Address by A. A. Gromyko ACTING CHAIRMAN, THE SOVIET DELEGATION Today we sum up the results of the historic conference of the United Nations, gathered to work out the Charter of the Organization on the maintenance of peace and security. The foundation of this International Organization was laid down even at the time when the war was raging in Europe, when the enemy, though having suffered a serious defeat, resisted furiously. These foundations, as it is known, were laid at the Moscow Conference of the ministers for foreign affairs of the United States of America, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference and at the historic Crimea Conference. The peace-loving nations who suffered countless sacrifices in this war naturally rest their hopes on the establishment, by collective efforts, of an international instrument which could prevent the repetition of a new tragedy for humanity. In accordance with the decisions adopted at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, Marshal Stalin said: "To win the war against Germany means to carry out a great historical deed. But to win the war still does not mean the insurance of lasting peace and security for the people in the future. The task is not only to win the war but also to make impossible the occurrence of a new aggression and a new war, if not forever, then at least for a long period of time." When asked whether there is some means for preventing German aggression, to nip it in the bud if war breaks out, and keep it from developing into a big war, Marshal Stalin gave the following answer: "To achieve this, there is only one means besides the complete disarmament of the aggressor nations: to establish a special organization for defense of peace and insurance of security, from among the representatives of the peace-loving nations; to place at the disposal of the steering body of this Or |