The United Nations Organization

The Allies settled all the questions which the end of the war had posed without breaking off relations, though not without increasingly bitter feelings. Unlike the winning nations in the First World War, they assigned the task of keeping the peace in future to a new League of Nations, which, unlike the old one, did not owe its existence to a peace treaty. Roosevelt was the chief architect. In January 1942 the Department of State drafted a United Nations Declaration. Under it the powers fighting against the Axis would undertake to remain united after the war. Soviet Russia signalled her assent at Teheran, and a studv group was formed at Washington. In September 1944, the Four Great Powers - the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain and China, but not France - met again at Dumbarton Oakes in America to settle the general outline of the United Nations Organization. It would comprise two central institutions, a General Assembly and a Security Council, in which the Five Great Allies (including France) would be permanent members. The proposals were finally adopted at the Yalta Conference. Stalin and Churchill did not envisage the same future for the United Nations as Roosevelt. Stalin's primary concern was to ensure against a resurgence of German imperialism. Churchill wanted to preserve British power. Both wanted to cane up the world into spheres of influence. Roosevelt disagreed. He maintained that international relations should be ruled by international law; the powerful should respect the rights and the autonomy of the weak. It was agreed that all the states which had fought in the Allied camp would become members of the General Assembly on equal footing. The English secured places for their dominions and Soviet Russia created places for Bielorussia and the Ukraine. Although the New United Nations was to be granted greater scope for independent action than the old League <>l Nations, the notion ol creating a super-state to which the members would delegate part of their sovereignty was not considered. 1,) Peace would last only as long as the Great Powers wanted. Responsibility for keeping peace was given to the Security Council; but since its decisions had to be unanimous, it was condemned to impotence whenever one of the Great Powers deemed its special interests to be at stake. The United Nations convened at San Francisco between 25 April and 25 June 1945. A number of other international institutions which had been set up to deal with specific problems during the war were preserved. The U.N.R.R.A. (the United Nations Reliefand Rehabilitation Agency) was set up in February 1943 to distribute food supplies to countries impoverished by the war. The International Labour Organization was set up in October 1944. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund were founded at Bretton Woods in July 1944. UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization) was founded at London in 1943.