The San Francisco Conference: Old Worlds for New?

THE SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE: OLD WORLDS FOR NEW~ \ ' J. E. HODGETTS VOLTAIRE'S injunction, "let us take care of ~ur gardens," appears to have been uppermost in the minds of the delegates representing the leading nations at the San Francisco Conference, for, scarcely a week after' the opening ceremonies, the most important delegates returned home to cultivate and fence their own political plots. ,The exit of the most colourful characters from the stage (use of the San Francisco Opera Housejustifies this analogy) partly explains the decline of public interest in the proceedings. Moreover, public opinion which has accustomed itself to blitz tactics in war and has been recently satiated with amply illustrated atrocity-stories is far too jaded to retain a continuous and lively interest in the ambling gait of a diplomatic conference. Opinions of the masses] united by the positive, glqwing symbols of-war, tend to disintegrate when the insipid and often conflicting symbols of peace are substituted. These factors help to explain the pessimism and outright apathy with which many have viewed the proceedings at San Francisco. The early departure of Molotoff, 'Eden, T. V. Soong, and Mackenzie King may symbolize to pessimistic spirits the exodus of real authority from the new United Nations organization. One has the impression ·that the powers of the organization have been so emas~ulated by the emphasis on regional and often.bilateral settlement of disputes--=----as, for example, through the Act of Chapultepec or the non-aggression pact between France and Russia-that the larger nations felt safe in leaving .their subordinates to erect an imposing fa~ade for a powerless international organization. Another pessimi~tic interpretation of the early departure of the import~nt delegates is that the Big Three, partic1:llarly Russia, having insisted as a sine qua non that they retain the veto power, could with impunity lea·ve the stage~hands of the Small Powers to. paint in the background against . which this power would be paraded. We have been told that the details of world organization have been disregarded at San Francisco in favour of certain· broad principles which may serve as the foundation of a new world-order. However, urgent. problems of power-politics in Poland, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere have tended to distract attention froni these principles. At the same time, with twelve committees discussing separate aspects of the organization and with the sketchy press accounts of their work (much of which was done in camera), the main problems have tended to be obscured. It may be useful, therefore, to attempt to clarify some of these problems and examine the solutions (if any) provided at San Francisco. 431 432 THE UNIVERSITY 'OF TORONTO QUARTERLY ' (1) The Problem oj Flexibility and Peaceful Change. No international organization can succeed in this dynamic world unless p~ovision is made for flexibility and peaceful change. Human institutions tend to become in-grown and conservative, to look upon themselves, as Burke looked upon the British constitution, as ends rather than means, fixed and unalterable for all time. On the other hand, the physical sciences continue to upset our institutional patterns by producing new machines and new products which in turn create complex social, economic, and political problems. The inven tiveness of the social scientist lags behind that of the physical scientist, . so that the former is always trying to master the problems created by the latter. His inability to fill this gap is measured by the ,amount of social friction which is generated; if institutions lag too far behind, this friction I produces the spark to set the world aflame in war. In the past, the human and material costs of the failure of the social scientists to fill this gap were negligible; for war was regarded as a brief interruption of normal relationships , and left .few scars. Modern 'wars have shown us, however, that we cannot afford such luxuries even jf, as some would have us believe, they bring full employment,: the problem of employment is irrelevant if civllization is wiped out! Therefore, it is clear that our present effort to build an international organization is the response to the scientific developments which ha~e "shrunk" the world to such...