international organization to maintain international peace and security and to promote the general welfare. Then followed the Yalta Conference in February, 1945. There the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals were completed by agreement on voting procedure in the Security Council agreed upon by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, and subsequently China. Shortly thereafter the meeting of the United Nations was called, and in a nine-week conference at San Francisco beginning April 25, 1945, unanimous agreement was reached upon the Charter of the United Nations, which was signed on June 26 and immediately submitted for ratification. During the succeeding summer and autumn, a Preparatory Commission and its Executive Committee translated the terms of the Charter into detailed recommendations for the establishment of the various organs of the Organization. With the Charter in effect October 24, and ratified by all 51 Members by December 27, the General Assembly was called for January 10 to take final action to bring the Organization into being. The United States representation at this First Part of the First Session of the General Assembly in London continued, as at San Francisco, to be broadly representative and non-partisan. It contained members both of the Senate and House of Representatives and officials of the various Executive Departments concerned, as well as important persons in the two principal political parties. The Delegation, appointed by you with the consent of the Senate, was headed by me as Senior Representative until my departure on January 25, and thereafter by the Honorable Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., the Representative of the United States at the seat of the United Nations, who also represented the United States on the Security Council. Senator Tom Connally, Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt also served as Representatives. The five alternate Representatives were Representative Sol Bloom, who served as a Representative on the Delegation after January 25, Representative Charles A. Eaton, Mr. Frank Walker, former Senator John G. Townsend, Jr., and Mr. John Foster Dulles. The United States was represented on the Economic and Social Council by the Honorable John G. Winant, Ambassador to the United Kingdom, who was appointed to serve during the organizing meetings of this Council in London. The Representatives were assisted by five Senior Advisers, Mr. Benjamin V. Cohen, Mr. James Clement Dunn, Mr. Green H. Hackworth, Mr. Leo Pasvolsky, and Mr. Adlai E. Stevenson, by a principal adviser, Mr. Alger Hiss, and by a number of highly qualified general and special advisers and assistants from the Departments of State, War and the Navy, and other parts of the Government. It was the constant effort of each of the members of the Delegation to carry out your general instruction to demonstrate the wholehearted United Nations Organization. The devotion of all to the full discharge of the responsibilities of the Delegation is commended more adequately by the record of accomplishment than it could be by words here. I particularly wish, also, to voice the deep appreciation of the entire Delegation for the exceptional efforts made by the British Government and people, despite the shortage of supplies and housing created by the war, to provide every possible comfort and convenience for the great assemblage of Delegates from many lands and to extend to us the hospitality and welcome for which the British Isles are famous. The First Part of the First Session in London was intended to be primarily organizational. Its main purpose was to set up the various organs of continuing collaboration provided for in the Charter; it was not anticipated that many matters of substance would be considered at the same time as the work of establishment was being undertaken. It was felt that substantive problems could be handled in a more orderly and effective way, after careful preparation, in the Second Part of the First Session. However, the profound dislocations which the war has caused throughout human society permitted no such systematic development. The Organization was confronted even before it was organized by problems of two types: first, broad problems of concern to many States or to the whole world, such as the food crisis, the control of atomic energy, trade and employment, health, and refugees; and second, specific problems such as Spain and the country problems dealt with by the Security Council concerning Iran, Greece, Indonesia, and Syria and Lebanon. Constructive practical actions had to be considered and agreed upon. These circumstances demonstrated in fact how thoroughly justified had been the long-held feeling that it was imperatively urgent to establish the United Nations Organization at the earliest possible moment. It is difficult and even hazardous to attempt an immediate assessment of such a large undertaking which inevitably covered many subjects and touched upon wide and complicated considerations. I believe, however, and I think my views are widely shared, that these unexpectedly hard tests encountered even before organizing problems could be solved were met with courage, with success, and with hope for the future. The Organization was effectively established and substantive problems were faced with frankness and resolution. The participating nations demonstrated by their firmness of expression in the discussion, the weight they attach to the Organization and to the decisions reached. We have taken a constructive step on the long road to peace and all that peace can bring to Man. That step, though a modest one, has been strong and sure. The next one can take us further. How well January 14, upon the support given the United Nations by the governments and peoples which compose it. Their support should be forthcoming because their common interests far outweigh any conflict in interest that might divide them. The United Nations is now a going concern. Its principal organs and their working bodies have begun to function. The general area of its home site in the United States has been fixed, and its permanent staff is even now arriving on our shores to establish the temporary headquarters in New York City and to plan for the permanent headquarters in the area of Westchester and Fairfield Counties. The rhythm of regular activities and meetings is beginning. During the meetings in London, the following organs and suborgans provided for in the Charter were duly established: THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, the meeting at least annually of all Member States, elected its officers, approved its Provisional Rules of Procedure, and in 33 public plenary sessions served both as a constituent body to call into being the other organs and as a deliberative body to discuss matters of general policy and interest. THE SECURITY COUNCIL, the organ composed of eleven members, with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and so organized as to function continuously, was confronted almost immediately with problems concerning Iran, Greece, Indonesia, Syria and Lebanon, and dealt with them as well as with certain organizational matters in 23 meetings. THE MILITARY STAFF COMMITTEE, the military body consisting of the Chiefs of Staff of the five permanent members of the Security Council or their representatives, which is to advise the Security Council on all military matters, took the necessary steps to organize itself and is ready to proceed to substantive work as directed by the Council. THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL, a principal organ composed of 18 members offering great possibilities for the advancement of human well-being, established in 13 meetings a number of important commissions and committees and began its first substantive work with decisions to call two world conferences to establish permanent international organizations in the vital fields of health and trade. THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, composed of fifteen Judges duly elected by the General Assembly and the Security Council, with its permanent seat at The Hague, is scheduled to convene on April 3rd next. THE SECRETARIAT, the permanent international staff of the Organization, with its provisional structure, regulations and budget approved by the General Assembly, is already in process of building its organization under the first SECRETARY-GENERAL. possible to set up at this First Part of the First Session was the TRUSTEESHIP COUNCIL. This was due not to lack of desire but to the fact that, although necessary negotiating steps by the states directly concerned are under way relative to certain mandated territories, these negotiations have not yet reached the point where the terms of the Charter for the establishment of the Council can be fulfilled. There is reason to expect, however, that this can soon be done. Furthermore, the General Assembly has shown active interest in information to be received in the meantime from all states administering non-self-governing territories relating to the economic, social and educational conditions in such of these territories as are not trust territories. Although not named in the Charter as a principal organ-the atomic age had not been entered when the Charter was prepared-the COMMISSION ON ATOMIC ENERGY calls for special mention. It is with a feeling of gratification, indeed with a feeling that a great step forward has been achieved, that I can say that the proposal agreed upon in the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union at Moscow in December 1945, for a special Commission to deal with this awesome problem, was accepted unanimously by the United Nations Assembly, and that the carrying out of the great responsibilities of the Commission. will now begin as soon as the Commission can meet in the United States. Many other decisions essential to the orderly working of the new organization or important in specific fields of interest were taken during the five-weeks session. The views expressed by the United States. Delegation, as well as the positions to which the United States was elected in the Organization, will be found with a minimum of detail in the following pages of this Report relating to the General Assembly, in the separate reports to be transmitted later by the United States Representatives on the Security Council and on the Economic and Social Council, and, with full details, in the publications of the United Nations. We are entitled to feel encouraged by this constituent meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Though inevitably no nation was fully content with everything done, all seemed to feel that substantial progress had been made toward orderly human relations and peace amongst nations. Despite all the difficulties, differences and sometimes irritations in so large a gathering where representatives of most of the world's nations met in almost constant session all day and many evenings throughout five weeks, the net result of this initial session has been to provide for the peace-loving nations a working center of cooperation. heavy, and will demand a wide range of participation by the United States. The Security Council is expected to resume its meetings about March 21 at the temporary site in New York City; the Military Staff Committee will meet at the same time and place; the Economic and Social Council will meet May 25; the International Court of Justice will convene April 3; the Commission on Atomic Energy will meet at an early date; the International Health Conference will convene not later than June 20; the International Trade and Employment Conference will be called during the year; and the Second Part of the First Session of the General Assembly will open September 3, while a number of the commissions and committees of the Assembly and of the Economic and Social Council, on which the United States is represented, will be at work throughout the coming months. Not only will many of the above-mentioned meetings and activities take place in the United States but, in particular, there will be established here the permanent home of the United Nations. This represents an unprecedented honor for a country which only yesterday, as history is written, was virgin territory unknown to the rest of the world. It also throws upon the American people a great responsibility, which will require us to live up to the best and finest in the American tradition. It will be a new experience for us not only to be a part of, but still more to be the host to, a permanent Organization of world-wide cooperation. We will want to be generous in our hospitality and understanding in our relations. May the thought and action of each and all of us match this responsibility in order that we may make our fullest contribution toward assuring that the peoples of the world may have the peace and well-being which they so desperately crave after history's most terrible war. Respectfully submitted, Enclosure: Report THE PRESIDENT The White House JAMES F. BYRNES |