
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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