It has been my privilege during the past few months to conduct on behalfof the Government of the United States negotiations having for their object the promotion of the great ideal of world peace. Popular and governmental interest in the realization of this ideal has never been greater than at the present time. Ever since the World War, which spelled death to so many millions of men, spread desolation over so much of the Continent of Europe and shocked and imperiled neutral as well as belligerent nations, the minds of statesmen and of their peoples have been more and more concerned with plans for preventing the recurrence of such a calamity.

The United Nations Security Council in a resolution passed on August 9, 1960, reaffirmed that “the United Nations force in the Congo will not be a party to or in any way intervene in or be used to influence the outcome of any internal conflict. …” A Commonwealth state, Ceylon, was a cosponsor of this precedent-making resolution. A few weeks earlier the Government of Malaya had announced a boycott on South African goods in protest against South Africa’s racial policy, another dispute involving a domestic jurisdiction plea. Commonwealth members have been parties to approximately half of the disputes in League of Nations or United Nations history that are fairly classifiable as involving pleas of domestic jurisdiction. These recent actions of Ceylon and Malaya suggest that the newer members of the Commonwealth will be no less active in shaping the domestic jurisdiction concept than the older members have been.

Statesmen, politicians, political scientists, journalists, and radio commentators seem to agree on one thing about the United Nations: success or failure depends upon the spirit animating its members. As Eagleton says, “The system [embodied in the United Nations Charter] does not automatically guarantee security to anyone, and whether it will provide peace and human advancement will depend entirely upon the willingness of its Members to coöperate toward these ends.”