New Formulae at San Francisco
The San Francisco Conference has -been gradually feeling its way towards agreement on some of the major questions before it. The most important advance made during the last week has been in regard to regional pacts, and the right of member-States, individually or in groups, to act in self-defence apart from the World Security Organisation. The difficulty has been to maintain_ the inalienable right of a country or group of countries to act in self-defence with- out infringing the supreme authority of the World Organisation. A formula has at last been worked out and accepted by the Big Five which recognises this " inherent right of self-defence" against armed aggression, but adds " until the Security Council takes the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security." On the question of trustee areas, it is Great Britain who has had to be the protagonist in objecting to the Russian proposal that " independence " should be set as the goal for all dependent areas —colonies as well as trustee areas—a goal which is not consistent with that of Dominion status more generally desired within the British Empire. The probable solution is the insertion of the words "independence or self-government " into the formula. The question of the " right of veto' by one of the Big Powers still awaits definitive decision. Here the main dividing lines in the Conference are not so much within the circle of the Big Five as between the great Powers on the one side and the middle and lesser Powers on the other. But progress towards an arrangement whereby no veto would be exercised till the point of economic or military action had been reached is reported.
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