Declaration of the Dublin, N.H., Conference
Special to The New York Times


 

DUBLIN, N.H., Oct 16 [1945]- Following is the majority report of the Dublin Conference on World Peace:


A conference of some fifty men and women, interested in world peace and world organization, met at Dublin, N.H., from Oct. 11 to 16, 1945 to consider the question of how best to remedy the weaknesses of the United Nations Organization. The conference was called on the invitation of Hon. Owen J. Roberts, who recently resigned as Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; Hon. Robert P. Baas, former Governor of New Hampshire; Grenville Clark, lawyer, of New York, and Thomas H. Mahony, lawyer, of Boston and chairman of Massachusetts Committee for World Federation. Judge Roberts presided at the conference.

 

Whatever may have been the efficacy of the United Nations Organization for the maintenance of international peace before Aug. 6, 1945, the events of that day tragically revealed the inadequacy of that organization thereafter so to do.


The application of the atomic energy to welfare and impressive scientific evidence as to the consequences thereof have made the people of the world realize that the institution of war among nations must be abolished if civilization is to continue. The necessity of immediate action is urgent. There is not a moment to lose.


P r o b l em of W o r l d -- W i d e S c o p e
The menace of total war is one of world-wide proportions, particularly in view of the present and future international tensions. The means of preventing war; of protection against it and of control of the major weapons by which it will be waged must also be of world-wide scope if our God-given human freedom and individual liberties are to be preserved and to be promoted.


It is almost axiomatic that there can be no peace without order and no order without law. There can be no world peace until there is a world order based upon principles of the limitation and pooling of national external sovereignty by all nations for the common good of mankind. The only effective means to create such a world order is to establish a world government and to delegate to it a limited but definite authority to prevent war and preserve peace.


Such a government should be based upon a constitution under which all peoples and nations will participate upon a basis of balanced representation which will take account of the natural and industrial resources and other factors as well as population. It cannot be based upon treaties establishing leagues of sovereign states in which the states retain unlimited sovergnity and act and vote as states -- as in the United Nations Organization.


Since the moral law applies to nations as well as to men , and justice dictates the necessity of seeking the greatest good for the greatest number, such a world government must be a world federal government providing a minimum of centralized control in the world government and a maximum of self-government in the separate nations. This means unity of action in those things necessary to survival and freedom of action to the separate nations in all other matters.


Believing that the mounting waves of distrust and fear that threaten mankind may engulf us in a war which, in this atomic age, would destroy civilization and possibly mankind itself; and being convinced that the United Nations Organization is wholly inadequate to prevent war., a large majority of the conference proposes.


That a world federal government be created, with closely defined and limited power adequate to prevent war and designed to restore and strengthen the freedoms that are the inalienable right of man. The specific measures proposed to attain this goal were embodied in the following resolutions:


First: That the implications of the atomic bomb are appalling; that upon the basis of evidence before this conference there is no presently known adequate defense against the bomb; and that there is no time to lose in creating effective international institutions to prevent war by exclusive control of the bomb and other major weapons.


Second: That the United Nations Charter, despite the hopes millions of people placed in it, is inadequate and behind the times as a means to promote peace and world order.


Third: that in place of the present United Nations Organization there must be a substituted a world federal government with limited but definite and adequate powers to prevent war, including power to control the atomic bomb and other major weapons and to maintain world inspection and police forces.
Fourth: that a principal instrument of the world federal government must be a world legislative assembly, whose members shall be chosen on the principle of weighted representation, taking account of natural and industrial resources and other relevant factors as well as population.


Fifth: that the world federal government should have an executive body, which should be responsible to the world legislative assembly.


Sixth: that the legislative assembly should be empowered to enact laws within the scope of the limited powers conferred on the world federal government, to establish adequate tribunals and to provide means to enforce the judgements of such tribunals.


Seventh: that in order to make certain the constitutional capacity of the United States to join such a world federal government steps should be taken promptly to obtain a constitutional amendment definitely permitting such action.
Eighth: that the American people should urge their government to promote the formation of the world federal government, after consultation with the other members of the United Nations, either by proposing drastic amendments of the present United Nations Charter or by calling a new world constitutional convention.

 

S I G N E R S O F S T A T E M E N T
The signers were:
Frank Altschul, New York, banker, director of Council on Foreign Relations.
Douglas Arant, Birmingham, Ala., Lawyer, formerly president of Alabama Bar Association and chairman of Committee on Bill of Rights of American Bar Association.
Hon. Robert P. Baas, Peterborough, N.H., former Governor of New Hampshire.
Henry B Cabot, Boston, Lawyer, chairman of "Committee of 1,000" on international organization.
Miss Marie J Carroll, Boston, research director, World Peace Foundation.
Grenville Clark, New York, lawyer, author of pamphlets and articles on world organization, secretary of the Dublin Conference.
Rev. Edward A Conway, Washington.
Norman Cousins, New York, editor of Saturday Review of Literature. [later became the third President of United World Federalists]
Edward W. Eames, headmaster, Governor Drummer Academy; president, New England Association of College and Schools.
Thomas K. Finletter, New York, lawyer, author, director of Americans United for World Organization [later became Secretary of the Navy].
Mrs. Richard T. Fisher, Boston, director Massachusetts Committee for World Federation.
Tom O. Griessemer, New York, executive secretary of Federal World Government, Inc. [later was a founder of the World Movement for World Federal Government (now W.F.M.)]
Conrad Hobbs, Boston, director Massachusetts Committee for World Federation.
Palmer Hutcheson, Houston, Texas, lawyer, member, American Bar Association, Committee on World Organization.
Thomas H. Mahony, Boston, lawyer, consultant at San Francisco, chairman of Massachusetts Committee for World Federation
J.A. Migel, New York, merchant, treasurer and director of Americans United for World Organization.
Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Washington, war correspondent and author.
Herbert F. Rudd, Durham, N.H., professor of philosophy, University of New Hampshire.
Richard B Scandrett Jr, New York, lawyer, writer and editor, member American Mission on German Reparations, 1945.
Louis B. Sohn, Harvard Law School.
Foster Stearns, Hancock, N.H., former member Congress, former member of United States Diplomatic Service.
Robert Wheelwright, Wilmington, Del., landscape architect, member executive board of Federal World Government, Inc.
Major Perkin Bass, AAF, Peterborough, N.H., lawyer
Lieut. Charles G. Bolte, New York, writer, veteran of British Army, chairman of American Veterans Committee.
Lieut. Kingman Brewster Jr. USNR, Cambridge, Mass. [later President, Yale University]
Sgt. Alan Cranston, AUS, Washington, D.C., foreign correspondent, author, "The Killing of the Peace." [later became the second President of United World Federalists]
Lieut. Marshall Field Jr., USNR, Peterborough, N.H., lawyer
Lieut. Cord Meyer Jr., USMCR, Cambridge, Mass., writer on world organization, aide to Comdr. (now Captain) Harold Stassen at San Francisco. [later became the first President of United World Federalists]
Lieut. Michael Straight, AAF, San Antonio, Texas, writer.
Lieut. Gray Thorn, AUS, New York, lawyer.


There were also present conferees in the uniform of the United States who, by reason of the fact alone, did not participate in the conclusions of the conference.


These resolutions and a full report of the conference are to be sent to the President, the Cabinet, all members of Congress and Governors of the forty-eight States and to the officials and the members of the United Nations Assembly.


While there was complete agreement upon on the necessity for world government, there was a small minority, which differed from the majority upon the matter of procedure and the timing of any steps to be taken. They reported as follows:


We do not join in the statement for these reasons:
1. We agree with the object and, with some reservations, with the structure of the organization envisaged in the resolutions. We think, however, that simultaneously with efforts to attain a world federal government, the United States should explore the possibilities of forming a nuclear union with nations where individual liberty exists, as a step toward the projected world government.
Owen J. Roberts
A.J.G Priest
Michael Williams
Stringfellow Barr
Clarence K. Streit


In addition to those signing the majority and minority reports the following were present at some of the sessions:
Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, member of Foreign Relations Committee.
Louis Fischer, New York, writer and lecturer.
Charles W. Ferguson, Pleasantville, New York, editor, Readers Digest. [which later presented a digest of Emery Reves's The Anatomy of Peace over three issues]
John K. Jessup, New York, editor of Life and Fortune.
Lieut. Edward F. Mahony, AUS, Boston.
Donovan Richardson, Boston, managing editor, Christian Science Monitor.
Emery Reves, New York, publisher and author.
Winfield W. Riefler, Princeton, N.J., economist, professor at Institute for Advanced Study.
Beardsley Ruml, New York, chairman, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Henry D. Smyth, Princeton, N.J., Professor of Physics, Princeton University, author of official report "Atomic Energy for Military Purposes," 1945
Capt. Wayne D. Williams, AUS, Washington, lawyer, winner of 1944 Ross Medal of American Bar Association for essay on world organization.
William B. Ziff, Washington, publisher and author


It is expected many other invited to the conference, but unable to be present, will adhere to the majority report.


--THE NEW YORK TIMES, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1945

 


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