CLOSING SCENES IN SAN FRANCISCO

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 151, 28 June 1945, Page 5

CLOSING SCENES IN SAN FRANCISCO

SIGNING OF CHARTER

Leaders Envisage Peace And Reconstruction Official News Service SAN FRANCISCO, June 27. Witnessed by few but broadcast to millions and preserved for posterity by a score of cameras, the historic ceremony of the provisional

signing of the Charter of the United

Nations was taking place almost all day yesterday in the auditorium of the Veterans' Building.

One after another the delegations entered the circular setting of the United Nations' flags and blue walls, blue carpet and blue-topped table. There each delegate signed the Charter and document providing for the setting up of the interim commission in London and the chairman of each delegation made a brief declaration. The Prime Minister of New Zealand made the following statement, which was broadcast: "This Charter should mark the beginning of a new epoch in the development of manKind. It sets forth the principles on which will be based the machinery for preserving peace and preventing future wars. Its success depends on the moral resolution of all those who sign the Charter to adhere to these principles, and above all, to stand by their pledged word. Here is the way to permanent peace. Let us earnestly hope and pray that the lessons of the present war will never be forgotten and that the nations will all march forward united in minds and hearts towards the goal set in this great Charter."

Hope Based on Reality M. Paul Boncour (Prance) said: "The great and obvious reality on which the hope of peace is now based is the unquestionable superiority which the sum total of the strength of the United Nations, their formidable resources in men and material, together with their productive capacity, will give them over an aggressor rising alone in rebellion. And the certainty of defeat will most probably discourage any aggressor from starting a fight." Senor Pedro Velloso (Brazil): "The Charter may have the faults inherent in anything made by man. But it can never be said that it was not created by capable men, moved by sincere, good faith." M. Jan Masaryk (Czechoslovakia): "Let us please stop talking of the next world war. The language one hears in certain places is lamentably unconstructive, it arouses suspicions at the moment when mutual confidence is all important. Not one of us in this room wants another war. None of us wants children of ours to die in another war in another generation. We want them to live and work for their respective countries in peace and security in a socially just and safe world," Prince Faisal (Saudi-Arabia): "This Charter does not represent perfection as visualised by the small States. Nevertheless it is doubtless the best ever produced by people representing fifty States/' Smuts' Tribute to Dominions Field-Marshal Smuts (South Africa): "Looking for precautions and remedies against war beyond the war machine itself, the Charter envisages a social and economic organisation of the peoples intended to raise the levels and standards of life and work for all and, by thus removing social unrest and injustice, to strike at the very roots of war. Men and women everywhere, including dependent peoples who are still unable to look after themselves, are thus drawn into the vast plan to prevent war not only by direct force but also by promoting justice and freedom and social peace among the peoples. No such far-reaching and ambitious plan for war and peace has ever been conceived before and no effort has been spared to broaden it into an effective machine both for security against war arid for human advance. "To this happy result," Field-Mar-shal Smuts added, "the delegates, in particular of the United Kingdom, as the greatest colonial world Power, and the delegates of the Dominions, especially Australia, New Zealand and India, have made outstanding contributions, for which I gladly pay my warm tribute." Field-Marshal Smuts, who was the last of the selected speakers, was loudly cheered when he paid tribute to the work of the British Dominions.

RATIFICATION URGED SUMNER WELLES' COMMENT British Official Wireless Rec. 2 p.m. RUGBY, June 27. The signing of the United Nations' Charter has brought from American newspapers demands that the Senate should ratify it without delay. The former Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Sumner Welles, .writing in the New York Herald-Tribune, says: "The sooner the United States makes it plain to the other nations of the world by ratification that it is determined to play a full part in making the Charter a success the more likely it will be that the Charter will live up to the hopes placed in it."