The Seat of U.N.O.
The Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Organisation having decided that the seat of the Organisation is to be in America, there is little to be gained by canvassing the merits of the decision afresh or dwelling on considerations tending to emphasise the weight authority attaching to the minority vote and detract from that of the majority. For better or worse, the decision is taken. The arguments in fiVour of Europe were powerful, but they have been overborne. The contention that the Organisation should not be planted on the soil of "a Great Power was convincing, but that has been overborne too. The plea that public opinion in the United States would be alienated if the Organisation did not come to the United States was thoroughly bad, and no suggestion of that came from inside the Preparatory Commission. From the decision certain consequences follow. The appointment of an American citizen as Secretary-General is virtually excluded, which is unfortunate, since one or two of the strongest candidates were American. Secondly, the removal of the international organisation from the continent which has always been the home of the League of Nations, will unquestionably give an impetus to the creation in Europe, or part of it, of that regional organisation for which the Charter of U.N.O. makes full provision. Europe has problems peculiarly its own, and some of them can better be settled by a continental than by a world organisation. The geographical distribution of some of the subsidiary organs of U.N.O. has still to be determined. The Food and Agriculture Organisation is settled at Washington, but the Court of International Justice remains at The Hague, and the International Labour Organisation will almost certainly return to Geneva. There will be plenty of internationalism still in Europe.
