important factor in this Conference which, nevertheless, is hardly ever mentioned, the geographic one. Yet we all know that just as earthquakes generally begin along the Mediterranean and occur in the Pacific, wars generally start in the Old World. Some day, when civilization is really advanced, we will know the psychological laws which lead to war, and when we have found them, we will be able to obviate all threats to the peace. Meanwhile, the powerful nations, who are the only ones who can be successful aggressors, will have to go on being the keepers of the peace. The smaller people who live in the war belt will have to look to them for generous protection and for ample defense.

There is, however, another group of nations more fortunate in their larger territories, in their wide open spaces, in their distances from the centers which generally lead to the disturbance of peace; those nations comprise the great republics of Latin America and the overseas dominions of the British Commonwealth, and they also have their share in international affairs, as shown in this Conference. And their special fear is to temper necessity with liberality. As such a country, Brazil, together with Canada, took a prominent share in the battle for the revision of the Charter. And since my country was one of the first and most ardent advocates of flexibility through the possibility of total revision, I now speak on behalf of the Brazilian Delegation as the delegate of the committee which covered the subject. This document is being written at a very critical and a very unusual time. Though the war in Europe is won and that in Asia is drawing to its close, the shadow of conflict still rests on a very weary and disillusioned world. By its very nature, and the circumstances attendant on its birth, the Charter is an admixture of a multiple treaty and of a document of international law of a constitutional nature, aiming toward a real union of nations. It is consequently amphibolous and will probably need considerable readjustment according to which trend ultimately prevails.

Very early in the Conference Brazil presented an amendment permitting periodical revision, and later it fused it with a Canadian amendment which called for a total revision within a given period of time. During all the debates in the subcommittee and the Committee it was the Brazilian and the Canadian proposals, and later the Brazilian-Canadian amendment, which were discussed. At a much later stage, the South African offered a new text which was acceptable to us since it also set a maximum period of years, ten, within which a revision of the Charter as a whole was to be done. It was only after the two amendments failed to receive a total majority of the two thirds required that the present text came before the Committee. We were very near attaining the required majority, which in this Conference has proved unusually difficult to get.

Our proposal, which was supported by New Zealand and Australia and favored by all South America and by Cuba, would have been victorious had two more South American countries been present when it was voted. The South African amendment was also within victory by two thirds and it also lacked two votes only, failing by a vote of two to secure the ample revision which Brazil felt necessary to give the Charter the necessary flexibility. We have been forced to accept the next best possibility, which is the present text. This makes revision possible just after the tenth year, but it is provided only if it is asked for. It also surrounds the revision with the restrictions prevalent

during the initial period, and I hardly like to call these restrictions by the name we have used, because, as Ambassador Pearson says, it has acquired a much more sinister meaning than it perhaps need have. Now, we greatly regret this, the more so, since even the League of Nations, which began to disintegrate after Japan's attitude on the Manchukuo question, delegated the suave diplomatic rule of unanimity when amendments were concerned, and it permitted explicitly withdrawal when the Covenant no longer merited approval of the nation concerned. But, as Chief Justice Cole said, revision of constitutional law is more a question of experience than of logic. It is possible that permanent unanimity will prove feasible and that it will prove even wise. Should it not do so, there will be two trends open to the Charter in the course of its evolution. It may gradually work towards a fivepower pact with the sentiment of the small nations, especially of Europe, for being directly threatened by war, will accept whatever protection is available to them; or, the veto will prove itself unpracticable. Should that be so, it will be found necessary to convoke a special conference for revision.

Now, it is no use to try to foreshadow the shape of things to come. When they are upon us, and then only, shall we be able to decide. I pray that when the time comes, the right decision will be made. However, as two great jurists and statesmen present at this Conference said to me on different occasions, it is not necessarily those who make the Charter who will have to supervise it in action. Once a legal institution is created it acquires a life of its own. Given sufficient time, the Organization will reveal the virtues and the defects of its structure, and indicate what adjustments are necessary to make survival possible and to bring about peace and justice.

PRESIDENT (speaking in French; English version as delivered by interpreter follows): I shall now call on the last speaker, Professor Payssé of Uruguay. Professor Payssé asked to be recognized after the vote has taken place. We have, therefore, exhausted the list of speakers, and after the very long and very difficult debates which took place in the Committee, I suppose this is rather a sign of wisdom than of weariness. As was said by the Delegate of Brazil, now that we have settled this question of amendments to the Charter as best we could, we must still do all we can that the clauses we are now adopting should be applied in the very spirit in which we have adopted them and for the best of the Organization which we are setting up.

If there is no other remark I shall treat the last two paragraphs of Chapter XI as adopted. Adopted.

Before adjourning the meeting I shall call on Professor Payssé of Uruguay.

Mr. PAYSSÉ (speaking in Spanish; English version as delivered by interpreter follows): Mr. President, Fellow Delegates, this afternoon the President of the Commission, Senator Henri Rolin, did justice by expressing a tribute to the chairmen of the committees of this Commission, to the Rapporteur, to the Secretaries and other personnel that have cooperated with the Commission. We wish to associate ourselves with those remarks addressed to these persons, because we feel that they are justly deserved.

We share without reservation his tribute and we also desire to extend to the interpreters our appreciation and commendation for their remarkable work. But we would be committing a serious omission if we did not register this evening in this great assembly a very cordial word

of praise and appreciation for the distinguished way in which Senator Rolin himself has been carrying out his duties. He has been the pivot and pilot of our work, and I believe I interpret the unanimous sentiments of all when I render this homage and tribute to his exceptional mental capacity and to the zeal with which he has carried on to full achievement the work entrusted to the Commission.

PRESIDENT (speaking in French; English version as delivered by interpreter follows): The words which we have heard are far too complimentary, as far as I am concerned, but perhaps the reason is that the speaker, like myself, is a professor of law in a university, and we are, therefore, inclined to much mutual indulgence. But your applause confirmed what I had said about the spirit of cordiality which obtained between us all the more certainly at the end of our work, and I wish to thank you all for having made my own work so easy and so pleasant.

We shall have one more session of this Commission. I don't know exactly when that will be, but at that last session we shall have to consider in their final form the draft reports and the texts as they will come back from the Coordination Committee and to approve them for submission to the Conference.

The meeting stands adjourned.

Verbatim Minutes of Fifth Meeting of Commission I, June 23

Doc. 1187, June 24

PRESIDENT (Mr. Rolin, Belgium): The meeting is opened. The first Commission is the only one that will hold another meeting, this present meeting. You may wonder why we have this privilege, if we may deem it as such. The reason is that the reports which were submitted to us by the various committees had not been approved by the committees. They were prepared by the rapporteurs of those various committees in consultation with the chairmen and some of the members, but they did not get formal approval, and we must have some report which is formally approved by our Commission, which is not an individual report but which may be considered later as authoritative with regard to the possible interpretation of the text which we are now approving. For that reason I asked the Rapporteur of the Commission to prepare a report which is now before you and to which the reports submitted by the rapporteurs of the various committees will be annexed. I shall now call on the Rapporteur who will read his report.

RAPPORTEUR (Francisco A. Delgado, Philippine Commonwealth): [Here follows the Report of the Rapporteur of Commission I to the Plenary Session; See Doc. 1179, post, p. 592.21]

And now, Mr. President, with your permission, I shall take advantage of this, possibly the last opportunity that we may have to appear before our fellow delegates, to make of record the deep gratitude and appreciation of the Philippine Delegation to this Conference and its

"The rapporteurs, in reading the reports of the committees to the commissions, sometimes departed slightly from the texts as approved by the committees and circulated to the members of the commissions. The versions read at the commission meetings have not been reprinted here.

officials for the great honor conferred upon the Commonwealth of the Philippines in having one of the members of our Delegation serve as Rapporteur for this Committee.

We also wish to record our thanks to all the other Delegations who have ever been so kind and courteous even when you have denied what we have wanted. You have made us feel under obligation to you because of your unfailing courtesy and friendliness. If for nothing else than this friendly spirit developed in this Conference, I certainly feel that this Conference is a great step forward in the progress of peace and friendly relations among the nations in the world.

DELEGATE OF AUSTRALIA (Mr. Evatt): Hear! Hear!

RAPPORTEUR: To you, Mr. President, for your tact, ability, impartiality, and unfailing courtesy, a word of thanks is also due to you, and to all the members of this Commission. Likewise, I wish to express our appreciation for the continuous and kind courtesies extended to us by all the presidents of the different commissions and the different officials. And certainly I want to thank the Secretary-General and the employees of the Secretariat who have carried, in my opinion, the worst part of the burden of this Conference. A word of thanks is due. They have made the success of this Conference possible. And to the peoples of the State of California, and the city of San Francisco, our gratitude, our eternal gratitude, is dedicated.

Lastly, but not the least, to the Government of the United States of America, and the great, good people of this country for its initiative in having this Conference held here, and in making it possible for the Philippine Commonwealth to participate. We wish to record our gratitude, to all and one, for your kindness, for your generosity. We wish to say thank you, and it has almost made us hate to part with you. God bless you all, and be kind to you.

PRESIDENT: Before I call on Dr. Evatt, I should like to thank the Rapporteur for his excellent report which was prepared in record time, and I am sure I shall have his agreement, if, in addition to his congratulations, I express ours for the staff of the Secretariat through whose help it was possible that the report could be circulated so rapidly.

I will call on Dr. Evatt, the Delegate of Australia.

Mr. EVATT: Mr. President, M. Rolin, first of all I would like to say how pleased we all were with the charming speech of the Rapporteur, and how much we desire to thank him for his work. You, Mr. President, have helped our labors not only in this Commission but in so many committees of the Conference that the debt of the Conference to Belgium and you, as one of its distinguished representatives, is very great indeed.

Mr. President, there are one or two matters of form, of words, that might be pointed out in this report, but towards the close of our heavy labors we should not spend further time on any matter of wording or of form.

The deepest meaning of San Francisco will rest upon the eternal memory of those who died for us in this war, and in the last. Even today, as we assemble here, soldiers and sailors and airmen are selflessly pouring out their life's blood for an ideal. That ideal is that we should join together to make an end of war altogether, and to make life itself worth living for all.

It is true, Mr. President, to say, as this report does, that the Charter is not quite what any of us wished it to be. In some respects, it is the

result of a struggle between opposing views, but it is also the result of give-and-take, and it is the kind of give-and-take that makes for unity.

It will be wrong, therefore, to underestimate several weaknesses of the Charter, but it will be far worse to overestimate those weaknesses. Without a shadow of a doubt, the Charter makes a great step forward, and it contains within itself the possibilities of banishing war and banishing poverty from the sight of man. Will these possibilities be realized? That depends upon something far more important than the words of the Charter, upon the good-will and leadership of many governments. And, Mr. President, it depends far more upon something else; it depends upon the soldiers and the workers and the peoples whom we represent and to whom we are responsible.

It has been well said that this is the century of the common man. That is true. The people's war against Hitlerism and Fascism has been half completed--half completed. We must form this Organization to consolidate the victory of the peoples and to make sure, to make certain, that the resurgence of Fascism will not be tolerated anywhere in the world.

And now, Mr. President, I know you feel too, because of your association in your very early youth with the League of Nations, everyone must thrill, everyone with any imagination must thrill, at the thought of the opportunity that this Charter will provide for men of good-will, if they are sufficiently daring and courageous, if we really mean to carry into effect the great objectives of the Atlantic Charter. If we really mean to do that we shall succeed, and then the words will not matter; the spirit will give life.

And finally, Mr. President, as I stand here I feel almost overwhelmed at the thought of what two great men have done as pioneers of the cause for which we have struggled here at San Francisco. They were pioneers. Their memory abides with us forevermore. One of them inspired the hopes of all those who, in the last great war, fought for a decent world, and the other, so recently vanished from our sight, builded faithfully and well. Our sense of deep personal loss at his death cannot be described, and at this moment it is fitting to acknowledge the debt, not only of us, but of all mankind, to these two supreme leaders, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

PRESIDENT (speaking in French; English version as delivered by interpreter follows): No other speaker has asked to be recognized, but I feel I cannot close this meeting without paying a personal tribute to that veteran of all committees and all commissions at this Conference, Dr. Evatt, who has shown a very keen and eager interest in every question and has shown himself equally competent in all questions under discussion, and I therefore greatly appreciated the very kind words which he said about me.

If there is no other further remark, I shall consider the report and its annexes as adopted

No further remark? The reports are adopted.

This is the final session to be held in this hall of our commissions and the speakers who have succeeded each other at this rostrum, speaking many languages, will no longer have an opportunity of addressing this audience. The interpreters, to whose efforts I should like to pay special tribute, will no longer have to explain what the speakers say in languages which are only understood by part of the audience.