The story of the United Nations conference on international organization, 1945.

Fifty Nations Attend

The four sponsoring nations--China, the United Kingdom, the United States and the USSR--invited to the Conference those nations which had entered into a state of war against one or more of the Axis powers and which adhered to the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942, embodying the principles for whch all must stand. As a result 42 nations accepted the invitations. Subsequently, after the Conference had begun, Argentina, the Byelorussian SSR, Denmark, and the Ukrainian SSR were admitted, bringing the number of participating nations to 50, as follows: Argentina Australia Belgium Bolivia Brazil Byelorussian Soviet Socialst Republic Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Czechoslovakia Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Ethiopia France Greece guatemala Haiti Honduras India Iran Iraq Lebanon Liberia Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippine Commonwealth Saudi Arabia Syria Turkey Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Union of South Africa Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Kingdom United States of America Uruguay Venezuela Yugoslavia

The only one of the United Nations not present at the Conference was Poland, although it was one of the original signatories of the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942. With regard to that country, a resolution was adopted at the second plenary session expressing the hope that "the constitution of a Polish government, recognized as such by the sponsoring nations, will make it possible for Polish delegates to come and take part as soon as possible". Towards the end of the Conference, it was agreed that space should be reserved on the document of the Charter so that, in due course, Poland could sign as one of the originating members. This brought to 51 the number of states entitled to sign.

Extensive Preparations Made

The Conference at San Francisco was one of the largest international assemblies ever held up to that time. Arrangements had to be made to bring the majority of delegates and their staffs many thousands of miles--by sea, air and rail. Accommodation, both living and office quarters, had to be found in San Francisco for them all, and for an international secretariat to serve the Conference.

Over 3,500 persons--staff of delegations and of the Conference Secretariat--were brought to San Francisco. Approximately 80 planes were furnished by the United States Air Transport Command and the Soviet and British Governments. The latter two arranged for the transport of their own officials in their own planes. In addition, nine special trains were assembled to carry officials across the American continent.

In San Francisco itself the facilities of some 30 hotels and three clubs were drawn upon to house delegations and provide offices. Two large buildings in the Civic Center--the Veterans Building and the Opera House--were taken over for the central activities of the Conference.

As it was not possible to accommodate all delegations in a few buildings close together, they had to be located in various parts of the city, and a critical transport problem arose as to how to get people together for meetings. To meet this, an Army-Navy local transportation group was set up with a fleet of 215 sedan cars, 48 privately-owned limousines, 25 Army jeeps, and 50 Navy buses.

Reporting Proceedings to the World

The world anxiously followed the reports on the progress of the Conference. More than 2,500 persons representing press, radio and newsreels, were accredited to the Conference. An average of more than 150,000 words per day were sent out by the press correspondents, via telegraph and cable, reporting Conference proceedings.

Special Secretariat Created

To serve the needs of the Conference, a special international secretariat had to be created--many of the staff working on shifts, both night and day. The Secretariat consisted of 1,058 persons, not including United States military personnel and voluntary workers. It had two main tasks: to prepare agendas and working papers for discussion, minutes and records of meetings; and to provide the vast network of other services needed at any international conference.

The Conference recognized five official languages--Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish--although only English and French were used as working languages of the Conference, all documents being issued in both. The final Charter was produced in all five official languages of the Conference.

Translating documents and interpreting in discussion, some 120 interpreters worked in shifts day and night for the duration of the Conference. Speeches made in English were consecutively interpreted into French and vice-versa, and speeches in the other languages were interpreted into both French and English. This slowed down discussions and, to an observer, might have appeared tedious, but it was necessary in order to reduce to a minimum the possibility of misunderstanding. (Simultaneous interpretation later became the norm in United Nations meetings.)

How the Conference Worked

The Dumbarton Oaks proposals had been sent to the various United Nations Governments in advance of the Conference so that their delegates could come to San Francisco with considered views. This resulted in a second category of material for consideration by the Conference, namely, comments and suggestions for amendments to the Dumbarton Oaks proposals.

The amendments sent from 40 national delegations during the first week of the San Francisco meetings were made up into books of some 400 pages of text. In addition, the sponsoring Powers themselves presented 24 joint amendments, incorporating later developments of their original ideas.

The original plan had not included provision for a trusteeship system as part of the United Nations organizaion under which dependent areas could be administered, pending achievement of independence or self-government. Its desirability, however, was recognized, and during the early days of the proceedings, various Governments submitted proposals and the British and American delegations presented a draft for discussion, as a basis for an appropriate section of the Charter.

Also placed before the delegates at San Francisco were preliminary studies of arrangements for the establishment of an International Court of Justice.

The Conference divided the draft plan into four sections and appointed a commission to deal with each section, together with the relevant amendments.

Even dividing the Charter into four sections was still insufficient to quick and efficient discussion. The portions of the Charter alloted to each commission were, therefore, again subdivided for consideration by different technical committees of the commissions and by sub-committees.

After the committees and sub-committees dealt with detailed sections, their conclusions were drawn together as parts of the full reports of the commissions. Finally, the reports of the commissions were drawn together in the text of the Charter for submission to the Conference meeting in full session.

Many clauses and much of the phraseology of the Charter were interdependent. Decisions on one point affected other points; wording decided on for one section had to be brought into harmony with wording selected in another section. From time to time knotty problems arose as to which committee should discuss which point. To prevent duplication and ensure the development of a harmonious whole, the Conference set up a Steering Committee (and a smaller Executive Committee) and a Co-ordination Committee.

In view of the fact that there were four inviting Powers, it was agreed that the senior members of the delegations of China, United Kingdom, the United States and the USSR would preside in rotation over plenary sessions of the Conference. As a compliment to the host country, however, the chairman of the United States delegation--Secretary of State Edward Stettinius--was asked to preside over the Steering and Executive Committees.

One of the basic aims of the Conference was to give to every nation, as far as possible, a share in the responsibilities of guiding discussions and proceedings. Hence it was decided to divide between the delegations the offices of chairmen of commissions and committees, and also the offices of rapporteurs to the various commissions and committees. Almost every country was thus given some official post of responsibility and leadership in the machinery of the Conference.

The Conference began with eight plenary sessions of all delegates held in public in the Opera House. During these opening sessions, the chairmen of the delegations of the sponsoring Powers, and then the chairmen of the various other delegations, addressed the Conference in succession. Each chairman expressed the views of his Government on the general purposes of the Conference and many paid special tribute to President Roosevelt, who had died only two weeks earlier.

The commission and committees soon began to tackle their separate tasks.

For nearly six weeks the Charter was considered--paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence--in nearly 400 meetings of the various committees. Discussions were long and often tense; each nation had its own special problems, needs and views. As the days passed, these problems and differences were discussed and the wording of the Charter was adapted to resolve as many of them as possible. Finally, the task was completed and the reports of the various committees were drawn together by the commissions, and brought into harmony, one with the other, by the Co-ordination Committee.

One of the dramatic moments of the Conference came when the Co-ordination Committee sat all through the night and finally, at five o'clock on the following morning, completed its draft of the Charter as a whole. On 26 June 1945, after 62 days of consultation in San Francisco, delegates of 50 nations--representing nearly 1,800 million people, or more than 80 per cent of the world's total population at that time--reached agreement on the United Nations Charter for preserving peace and developing co-operation between nations for the good of all.

At the ninth plenary session of the Conference, the completed Charter was presented to the delegations and adopted by acclamation. Two further ceremonies followed to complete the historic proceedings. First, on the morning of 26 June, the delegations, in turn, starting with China--the first nation to be attacked in the Second World War--affixed their signatures. In all, during a ceremony lasting a full day, some 148 signatures were affixed to the Charter.

The second ceremony was the final closing session, addressed by President Harry S. Truman of the United States, the chairmen of the delegations of the sponsoring Powers, and chairmen of five other delegations, representing various geographical areas.

Charter: Hope and Faith of Nations

The Charter, as it emerged piece by piece from committee rooms, and finally appeared before the full Conference as one integrated plan, represented the joint work of many minds of many nations.

The fact that the Charter endows the General Assembly--the town meeting of the world--with broad powers was a contribution from the so-called smaller nations. They pressed the point that the General Assembly should receive and consider reports from the Security Council on measures adopted to safeguard international peace and security, and that they should receive and consider similar reports from other organs of the Organization, as well as from the international agencies brought into relationship with the general body.

Although four powerful nations drew up the basic draft of the Charter, 46 others joined in working out the final plan. The Charter could not have satisfied every nation on every point, but was a plan which all agreed to accept as the highest common denominator of the ideas of all.

As the curtain fell on the scene in San Francisco, machinery was set going to bring the Organization into being. As the representative of each nation sat at the table to affix his signature to the Charter, he immediately followed that act by signing a second document bringing into existence the Preparatory Commission which was to meet later in London to arrange the practical details for the formal birth of the Organization.

The significance of the Conference was summed up by President Truman when he said at the closing session: "The Charter of the United Nations...is a solid structure upon which we can build a better world... It was the hope of such a Charter that helped sustain the courage of stricken peoples through the dark days of the war. For it is a declaration of great faith by the nations of the earth--faith that war is not inevitable, faith that peace can be maintained. If we had had this Charter a few years ago--and above all, the will to use it--millions now dead would be alive. If we should falter in the future in our will to use it, millions now living will surely die".