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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 Coordination 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 Secretary-General 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 Coordination 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 4 commissions. The text as revised by the Coordination Committee and the Advisory Committee of Jurists includes only stylistic changes designed to put into Charter form the work of the 12 technical committees and the 4 commissions. Whenever the texts transmitted by the technical committees appeared to be unclear or to be in conflict, the Coordination Committee consulted the officers of the tech

nical 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 Coordination 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 Coordination 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 Coordination 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 Statute by the Coordination 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 50 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 Conference.

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 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, upon a motion of Mr. John Sofianopoulos, Minister for Foreign Af fairs 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.

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 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.

Mr. Hiss (Secretary-General): 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 cooperation 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.

Verbatim Minutes of the Closing Plenary Session,

Doc. 1209, June 27

June 26

Mr. STETTINIUS: Mr. President, Fellow Delegates, the Final Plenary Session of the United Nations Conference on International Organization is now convened. We shall open this final session by standing in silence for one minute in tribute to all the men and women of the United Nations armed forces, living and dead, whose courage and sacrifice have made this Conference possible. Please arise.

Mr. President, Fellow Delegates, it is with a full heart that I address this final plenary session.

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 humanity, 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 this Charter. Sentence by sentence, article by article, it has been hammered out around the Conference tables. We have spoken freely with each other, and often we have disagreed. When we disagreed we tried again, and then again, until we ended in reconciling the differences among us.

This is the way of friendship and this is the way of peace, and 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 fulfilment of that purpose.

We shall bring this Charter to a world that is still wracked by war and by war's aftermath.

A few days ago I talked with some young Americans just back from the battlefront. 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, and starvation, and fire and torture, could kill but could never conquer. I thought of all the cities now in ruins and all the lands laid waste.

The terrible trial is not yet over. The fighting continues and the reconstruction has just commenced.

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 within the capacity of the nations at this period of world history to follow.

To the governments and peoples of the 50 nations here represented this Charter is now committed and may Almighty God from this day on and in the months and years to come sustain us in the unalterable purpose that its promise may be fulfilled.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honor to recognize the Chairman of the Delegation of China.

Mr. Koo: Mr. Chairman, Mr. President, Fellow Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are greatly honored today by the presence of the President of the United States. The United Nations Conference at San Francisco is the first international conference to recognize Chinese as one of its official languages. We of the Chinese Delegation deem this recognition as a signal honor for China. I, therefore, take great pleasure in addressing you today, Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, Ladies and Gentlemen, in the language of my country and hope to count upon the indulgence and good-will of those of you who do not understand my address to follow it with the English translation which the able Secretariat of our Conference has supplied to you all.

Mr. Koo (speaking in Chinese; translation follows): 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

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