21 DECEMBER 1945, Page 4

Now that it has been decided that the seat of

the United Nations Organisation is to be in the United States, the further question— where in the United States?—remains to be determined. As many cities as claimed the birthplace of Homer seem to be eager to welcome the nursling U.N.O. Of all the various invitations one catches the imagination much more than any other. It comes from a joint group of Americans and Canadians anxious to see the Organisation installed on an island, Navy Island, in the Niagara River, on the actual frontier between the two countries and virtually equidistant from each. On the face of it, there is everything to commend this claim. An island lends itself ideally to treatment as a genuinely internationalised territory. The establishment of U.N.O. on the famous frontier which for 13o years has remained completely unfortifiect would be peculiarly and suggestively appropriate. Buffalo, with all the resources of a great city and itself a highly important traffic-centre, is close by. The island itself is unbuilt-on, so that the architect of the new structure would have free scope. Al the same time, since access could be gained only by a bridge or bridges, its seclusion would be complete, and entry to the Organisation's domain would be under complete control. Much more might he said of the possibilities. All that need be added here is that Navy Island (whose size is about a mile by three-quarter mile) otlep: attractions that ro rival claimant, except perhaps Hyde Park, Presidmt Roosevelt's old home on the Hudson, can equal. * * * *