AMENDMENTS AND WITHDRAWAL

The United States Delegation's attitude on the subject of possible withdrawal from the Organization has been described in the part of this report dealing with membership. Its general attitude had to be reviewed, however, in connection with the possibility that Members might find certain amendments unacceptable. The question, here as in the other case, was whether or not the Charter should contain an express provision on the subject. Some delegations preferred that it should. The view of the United States Delegation was that the general statement of the implicit right of withdrawal in case of the general frustration of the Charter could properly be amplified to take care of cases in which Members were asked to accept amendments to which they had serious objection or when amendments which they considered vital failed of ratification. This view prevailed, and the text of the Charter itself makes no reference to withdrawal.

The final discussions of these complicated matters took place in an atmosphere of mutual conciliation. Many delegates rose to state their opinion that the spirit of harmony which prevailed in the Committee, and afterwards extended to the sessions of the Commission where the actions of the Committee were duly ratified, was due in large part to the efforts of the United States Delegation to find a generally satisfactory solution of the problem of how and when to call a revisionary conference. The procedure adopted met the desires of the large number of delegations which wanted some assurance that there would be an opportunity to review the work done at San Francisco in the light of experience, and that this opportunity should not be delayed indefinitely in case a majority of the member nations felt that the moment was ripe.

RATIFICATION AND SIGNATURE

(Chapter XIX)

The final chapter of the Charter contains technical provisions concerning the ratification of the Charter and the time at which it comes into force. In its two articles there are a few points which warrant mention in this Report. No provisions on these points were drawn up at Dumbarton Oaks, since the Proposals framed there were not in final treaty form.

Paragraph 1 of Article 110 contains a provision analogous to that included in Article 108 dealing with amendments, namely, that ratification shall be effected in accordance with the constitutional processes of the signatory states. This is a self-explanatory but important specification.

Paragraph 2 of Article 110, in accordance with the usual diplomatic procedure, names the Government of the United States as the depositary of the ratifications. The United States is obligated to notify all the signatory States of each deposit as well as the Secretary-General when he has been elected. It was suggested during the debates that the ratifications might be deposited with the Preparatory Commission until the Secretary-General was elected and thereafter with him, but the Conference adopted the other procedure.

Paragraph 3 of Article 110 determines when the Charter shall come into force. The provision follows closely an amendment to the Dumbarton Oaks proposals which was introduced jointly by the Sponsoring Powers at San Francisco. In the case of multipartite treaties involving mutual rights and obligations, it is of great importance to determine which of the signatories and how many of them must give their approval before the treaty becomes binding. Otherwise, a small number of the signatories might find themselves bound by obligations which were drafted in the expectation that there would be many partners in the enterprise and which would be impossible of fulfillment in the absence of certain of the states which were also signatories to the treaty.

In the case of the Charter this difficulty would obviously arise unless a provision were inserted to guard against it. The whole discussion of the Charter in this Report reveals that the functioning of the United Nations as an organization depends upon the participation and

cooperation of the Five Powers which will have permanent seats in the Security Council and upon the cooperation with them of other states. Accordingly, Article 110 provides that the ratifications of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, and France, and of a majority of the other signatory states, must be deposited before the Charter takes effect. The Government of the United States is required to draw up a protocol or record of the fact that the required number of ratifications have been deposited and to communicate copies of the protocol to all the signatory states.

Article 111 contains the novel provision that the five texts of the Charter are equally authentic-Chinese, French, Russian, English, and Spanish. It has been quite usual to provide that texts in two different languages should be equally authentic, and many interAmerican treaties have been drawn up in the four languages of the Western Hemisphere-English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Charter is the first such document in five different tongues. The fact that two of the languages, Russian and Chinese, are not commonly understood in many of the other countries represented at San Francisco, presented a difficult mechanical problem of translation, but this was overcome by an elaborate organization in the Secretariat and by the establishment of "language panels" on which representatives of various governments were included. The United States was represented by a competent linguist on each one of these panels. Problems of reconciling the five texts may arise as they have arisen in the past when even two languages were equally authentic; they can be solved by comparison of the texts, by reference to the documentation of the Conference proceedings, and by other familiar procedures. There is significance in the fact that the Charter, which is the Charter of all the United Nations, is authoritatively written in languages which are spoken in every corner of the world.

THE PREPARATORY COMMISSION

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

The Preparatory Commission is designed to bridge the gap between the signing of the Charter at San Francisco and the convening of the first sessions of the principal organs of the United Nations.

When the League of Nations was established, interim arrangements were unnecessary because the first Secretary-General was named in the Annex to the Covenant, and Geneva had been selected as its permanent seat. The Secretary-General was authorized to start immediately the work of organizing the Secretariat and preparing for the first session of the Assembly. Since the San Francisco Conference did not select the first Secretary-General of the United Nations or determine the location of the seat of the Organization, it was necessary to provide some other kind of arrangement for initiating the necessary preparations incident to the establishment of the Organization.

The two principal tasks of the Commission are first, to study and make recommendations on certain questions which could not well be handled at San Francisco, and, second, to expedite the work of the new organization by thorough preparation for its initial meetings. Both tasks are of great importance but the second particularly so because of the extreme urgency of the many problems awaiting action by the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other organs.

In order to make it possible to set up the Commission immediately, the instrument creating it was put in the form of an informal interim arrangement, with the provision that it come into effect on the day on which it was signed. It was signed at the same time as the Charter.

In view of the importance of the work to be done, it was decided to make the Commission fully representative of the Governments signatory to the Charter. It consists of one representative of each signatory Government. An Executive Committee is provided to exercise the functions and powers of the Commission when it is not in session. This Committee is composed of the same states as those which made up the Executive Committee of the Conference, namely Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czechoslovakia, France, Iran,

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Mexico, Netherlands, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom, United States, and Yugoslavia.

The functions of the Commission fall into two groups, as mentioned above. The first includes: (1) formulation of recommendations concerning the possible transfer of certain functions, activities and assets of the League of Nations which it may be considered desirable for the United Nations to take over on terms to be arranged; (2) examination of problems involved in the establishment of the relationship between specialized intergovernmental organizations and agencies and the United Nations; and (3) preparation of studies and recommendations concerning the location of the permanent headquarters of the United Nations.

The second group of functions includes: (1) convening the first session of the General Assembly; (2) preparing the provisional agenda for the first session of the principal organs of the United Nations, and preparing documents and recommendations, relating to all matters on these agenda; (3) issuance of invitations for the nomination of candidates for the International Court of Justice in accordance with the provisions of the Statute of the Court; (4) preparation of recommendations concerning arrangements for the Secretariat of the United Nations.

It was decided to locate the Commission in London. The Secretariat of the Commission headed by an Executive Secretary will be established there. The staff of the Secretariat is to be composed so far as possible of officials appointed for the purpose, on invitation of the Executive Secretary, by the participating Governments.

The Commission was to hold its first session in San Francisco immediately after the closing session of the Conference in order to perfect its organization and make plans for the carrying on of its work by the Executive Committee which will meet in the near future in London. The Executive Committee will call the Preparatory Commission into session again as soon as possible after the Charter of the United Nations has come into effect. Further sessions would be held if desirable, but it is hoped that the first sessions of the principal organs can be convened shortly after the ratification of the Charter.

The Commission will cease to exist upon the election of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and its property and records will be transferred to the United Nations.