 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific Story. Tonight's Pacific Story comes to you from San Francisco, scene of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, which opens here in three days. This is the story of a wounded mankind, groping for a better world. A real drama with real people. San Francisco, spring 1945. Looking down over the bay was the way things changed. A lot of things can happen in three years. I wondered why I had come up there. Jane and I used to come up there before we were married. She wanted to come with me this morning. She and Timmy. I didn't want her to come along. I don't know why. So I took the streetcar out Columbus Avenue to get as close to Telegraph Hill as I could. And then I hyped up like I used to when I was a kid. It was pretty rugged with a cane. But I didn't have much trouble. I stood there watching the ferry boats crossing the bay and the ships heading out to the Golden Gate. Out there across that water was Siphan. But I didn't think much about that. I thought about how things had changed. Me. San Francisco. The whole world. Inside me. Huh? No, no thanks. I'm all right. Glad to help you. No, thanks. I can walk all right. Okay. I went down to the ferry building. The crowds were coming off the ferry from the train across the bay. I stood there watching them for a while. Then I got on the cable car. Can I help you on? No, no thanks. I can get on all right. A lot of these people are coming here for the conference. A fellow next to me on the cable car started to talk. He looked at the button in my lapel. This conference is going to be quite a thing. I hadn't really thought much about the conference. He went on talking. I believe I got a good chance this time of finding a way to keep the peace. He looked down at my leg. I believe that nations can talk over the difficulties between them. Settle them without going to war. And this time we got to do it. If we don't, then we might as well go back and be savages. Go back and be savages. Like stipends? Except us. More of us. Fellows like you took the brunt of it. Hey conductor, I want to get off. Next corner. I didn't want to talk about it. I stood there on the corner for a minute. I didn't know where to go. A car drove up to an arterial stop right in front of me. And there sitting in the back seat was Anthony Eden. I recognized him right away. And the car went away. I got a funny feeling. If important men like Eden were coming here from all over the world to talk about peace, then maybe there was a chance. I walked over to the civic center. There was a lot of people sitting around. They were talking about the conference. I didn't pay much attention to them at first. I picked up a newspaper that somebody had left. The secretary of state, Statenius, would be here. And the Chinese, Dr. Sun, and a flock of others. A guy, Stassen, and maybe Claudel Ho. Ah, they're in a chance. One of the guys was popping off. Listen, it ain't in the cards. I belong to a liquor dealers association and I belong to a meek dealers association. Now I belong to a radio repair shop owner's association. You know what happens? We get together and agree that it'll help all of us to do this. And not that. We set up a way to regulate the business. We pass resolutions, unanimous. And as soon as some of the guys get out of the door, they start breaking the rules and that can worsen they did before. Would it always have to be a matter of dog-eat-dogs like Saipan? More power to them for calling a peace conference. But don't expect Russia and England to start giving them what they want. I walked away, but something inside me said, look, you can't get away from things. You did your part, sure. Lots of guys did. And the people who stayed home gave their blood and bought bonds and saved fats and paper and all that. But that's not enough. If you don't do more, then all you've done has been for nothing. Now I was beginning to get it. Things had changed. Not only the things you see, but the things you don't see. People were beginning to understand that somehow something's got to be done to see that we don't go through this again. That's what this San Francisco thing was all about. But what were all these people from all these countries going to do here? I decided to find out. I walked down to the NBC studios. Yes, I'm Elmer Peterson. I've heard you on the air, Mr. Peterson. What's this conference going to do about punishing the war criminals and about the Polish border? Well, actually, this conference... They're not going to change this unconditional surrender, are they? No one knows all the answers, but the purpose of the conference is clear. It's to establish an international security organization. It's not a peace conference. But what about unconditional surrender and the Polish border and the war criminals and all those things? And what about India? Well, some of those questions are related to the ending of the war, after all. They're already being considered by special commissions. This conference, you see, looks ahead beyond this war to the problems of the future. A good parallel would be, well, the constitutional convention of the colonies. Many of the delegates to that convention, you remember, after our Revolutionary War, came with problems similar to the ones you've mentioned. But that convention only considered those problems indirectly. What it did do was to draw up a constitution which provided for dealing with those problems. And that's what this convention is for, to draw up an international organization to tackle and solve international problems before they lead the war. It was beginning to get the idea. It's going to be a difficult thing to do. A lot of questions are bound to come up. Who's going to be represented? What the voting procedure should be? The question of the police force, whether that police force should be international or whether the armed forces of the individual nation should do the job. Things like that. And there'll be many points of view. And the only ones who can give you those points of view, after all, are the observers from those countries. Mr. Peterson took me to the big hotel where most of the Foreign Observers were stopping. These men had come here from all over the world to talk about peace. Maybe there was a chance. What would you say, Mr. Powell, is the British point of view? We were talking to people about peace, about peace, about peace, about peace, about peace, about peace, about peace, about peace, about peace, about peace. The British point of view, we were talking to Ph Powell of the London Star. The British point of view, Jack, is basically very much that of any other country, although most people don't think so. They believe we are out to grab the earth. We like our country and the way we run it, but it's a very vulnerable little country. And we know that we must rely on other people who stand for the same things and the people things that so nearly destroyed us. We want friendship along with that and we don't like being misunderstood any more than other people. And we are misunderstood rather a lot. We do have some special problems, but other people argue about them much more than we do. The British father or truck driver would be astonished to know to what extent Americans, for example, worry about the British Empire. And he would be rather disgusted to find out how wrong people are about so many things. Now, as I see it, this is something the conference may help to put right by making us all think again. To say, no, I may be wrong on this. Let's find out a bit more about it. In this country, you have better opportunities than most people, but I'm afraid you take the easy way of finding out. You listen to the stuff that is dished out by people who want to guide your thinking instead of acting up to your own picture of yourselves as an enlightened nation. You mentioned India, Jack. Everyone does. All right, I'll take you up on that. There is a lot of ignorance and lack of understanding in many countries of even the main points of this Indian question. And this is about the best misinformed country of all. Britain is pledged to let India govern herself after the war as soon as India can agree on how to do it. When I remind people of that, I'm practically called a liar. Yet it's on the record. You see what I mean? That's just one example. It takes both ways, but you asked me, didn't you? If we want to get together and agree on the best kind of peace, we have to discard prejudices and inherited beliefs we don't trouble to check. What the average man and woman believe becomes in time a nation's policy. That hands a small piece of responsibility for what is going to happen to you and me and all of us. As surely as careless talk may sink a ship, so it can wreak a hope. And not only careless talk, but ill-directed or thoughtless criticism and comment. Let's get behind those fellows who are trying to straighten this thing out and let them feel we're there. It might make all the difference in the tough spots, but we can't do that unless we make up our own minds as intelligent, informed individuals. Let's get busy on that, Jack, shall we? That's what Ph Powell of the London store said. Now let's drop in and talk with Major A. Pelt What would you say is a Netherlands view, Major Pelt? You see, Jack, I can't make the Netherlands points of view clearer than by pointing to the May capitals in the Netherlands delegation. For this delegation, on which our foreign secretary, Dr. Van Clevens, is chairman, contains personalities of all three parts of the kingdom, Holland itself, the West Indies and East Indies. I don't mean, of course, that a man such as Dr. Van Mook, the Lieutenant Governor General of the East Indies, represents only the people of the Indies, but he has been a leading figure in the Indies so long that his presence here, accompanied by Dr. Van Der Plaas, the deputy to the Lieutenant Governor, and by Indonesian advisors, shows how greater importance the Netherlands attached to this conference. But then, Jack, this conference is something that naturally means a lot to the Netherlands. For, with the exception of the West Indies, both the mother country in Europe and the Indies in the Orient have been overrun by the enemy. We know from bitter and direct experience what insecurity and war mean. Our people in both parts of the world have undergone, and in large numbers are still undergoing terrible misery and suffering. The voices of our people in the occupied parts of the kingdom cannot be heard, of course. But this is what happened in one small Dutch village when the news of President Roosevelt's death was announced. The villagers immediately started raising funds to build a statue to his memory, with the little left to them after nearly five years of German occupation. They wanted to express in concrete form their veneration for this great humanitarian under whose aegis this conference is being held and whose spirit this conference expresses. I think this is a moving symbol expressing the reverent hopes of the people of the Netherlands that this conference may achieve the great aims for which it was called. A lot of things Major Pelt of the Netherlands said had never occurred to me. That will give you some idea of the complexity of the job. But now let's go down and see Fabian Chow, a correspondent of the Chinese News Service. Well, strictly from the Chinese point of view, Mr. Chow, what do you think? Chow has been a peace-loving nation. She stands for justice. The ultimate goal of the three people's principles, which will guide the destiny of Chow, is word brotherhood, something which our sages and philosophers started preaching in ancient times. Now Jack, for the very principles of justice, China has been fighting this war for almost eight long years. Japan started this war first by meddling in China's internal affairs and then by demanding special rights and privileges in China. She frantically told the world that she had no territorial designs in China, but she forgot that by meddling in China's internal affairs and by demanding special rights from China, she violated China's sovereignty. Although China was far behind in military preparations, although her armies were poorly equipped then as now, she took up Japan's challenge. We felt then as we will always feel that we would rather die independent and free men than live under the dictates of others. Some other writers on Soviet and Chinese affairs trade that China, while still fighting against Japan, may face problems regarding Manchuria. Such fear that Russia might join the war against Japan and she might, after the defeat of Japan, ask for some rights from China in Manchuria. Such fears are unwarranted. I doubt very much that Russia harbors such designs. The relations between China and Soviet Russia have been cordial. Russia was one of the first nations that came to China's aid when China resisted Japan's aggression. I can tell those writers for China, the question of Manchuria does not exist. Manchuria is an integral part of China and will remain so. Well, Jack, that is my personal opinion. Like millions of others who love mankind, I sincerely hope the conference will be a great success. That's what Fabian Chao said. It was dawning on me that a lot of talking was going to have to be done to straighten out all these things. Yes, and every nation's got to recognize the rights of every other nation. And then there is the minority point of view. Come on, we'll go and see a citizen of a minority nation, fellow named Roberta Bianchi, who represents El Imparcial of Guatemala City. What's your opinion, Mr. Bianchi? Well, Jack, as a citizen of a minority nation, I speak for the peoples of a smaller country. The great need for a world security organization is seen in what Germany did to Norway and Greece, and what Japan did to Korea, and what Fascist Italy did to Ethiopia. You know that for centuries, nations have been taken advantage of by dominating neighbors. Those economies until recently have been of the simple colonial type. Strong powers have controlled them, but fortunately the world is realizing more and more every day that this state of affairs could not long endure. In this hemisphere, the good neighbor policy has done miracles to abolish these practices. Today, we are rapidly moving towards the Pan-American ideal. The delegations are here to strengthen this spirit of cooperation and to extend its effects to the countries of the old world. We want a good neighbor policy to exist in favor of all the smaller nations of Europe, Asia and Africa. The infamy of past years of dictatorships has kindled in the hearts of our peoples a love of liberty. This embraces not only the frontiers of our own nations, but foreign spheres as well. Therefore, we desire not only personal, but national, liberty. Most delegations at this conference, Jack, will strive in accord with proposals at Dumbarton Oaks and particularly at Chapultepec to strengthen the Pan-American system and for the adequate representation of the minority nations. At present now, the people of the minority nations would no doubt express the well-founded hope that the foundation will be laid in San Francisco for the realization of the ideals of all peace-loving countries, that from the still-smoldering ruins of this war will emerge a better world where man can live as his human dignity demands free, from misery and free from fear. I thought of the guys like me and Guatemala as I listened to Mr. Bianchi. The thing all of us have got to keep in mind is that this security organization is not just for us, it's for all the world. Yeah. Now let's see what Richard Atkinson has to say. Mr. Atkinson has lived in Russia a long time before the revolution and after. Most of the nations, Mr. Atkinson, agree on the basic issues, but what is Soviet Russia's point of view? Well, Jack, I don't really think you have to worry much about the Russians. They're desperately tired after 30 years of war and fear wars. And in this last invasion by the Germans, one-third of all their farmlands, their industries, and their cities have been destroyed. You know, Jack, Russia isn't a war-like nation. She doesn't start wars, although she generally is the winner in the end. Her people love peace and laughter and friends and music, just as you do. Russia doesn't want an empire. She's the largest country in the world and has enough men and resources to make any nation contented and prosperous. It's true that her government and economic system are different from ours, but that's all right. She can keep hers and we'll keep ours. Marshal Stalin has said that way to long. Russia joined the League of Nations and even proposed world as armament. Soviet Russia's financial relations with other countries have been good and she's never broken a treaty. This war struck when she was striving desperately to bring better conditions to her people. Her neighbors were suspicious of her new ideas and the Germans thought the time was right to seize her vast fields of grain and wealth of oil. Millions of Russian slave prisoners in Germany and more millions of Russian dead look over the shoulders of their delegates here in San Francisco and remind them that it must not happen ever again. You see Jack, these realistic Russians have a high stake in permanent peace and by coming to the conference they've shown their faith in its success. But while they are helping to build the machinery to enforce peace they insist upon political boundaries, national boundaries which they believe will help protect them as Americans believe that their Monroe Doctrine and other nations have believed without posts all over the world. And the Russians also insist that their neighbors be friendly ones and they wouldn't be satisfied with an abstract peace, Jack. They want a peace filled with trade and commerce with interchange of tourists and students and music and scientific inventions. They must have access to warm waters so their trade can flow without interruption. They want credits for their disrupted finances. They want an international banking system operating without restraint of prejudice and greed. They need more electric lights and power dams and concrete highways and long railroads and the ordinary comforts of life for which they have waited so long. But above all they want world friendship and an understanding of their problems. They feel they have earned the right to sympathy and fellowship in the family of nations. They can and will fight as hard to win the peace as they fought to win the war with a mutual willingness to cooperate and the application of the golden rule surely all of the allied nations can sit down together and mold that peace that you fought for and risked your life for. Yes, Jack, there is hope for this conference hope born of suffering and death and mourning and a desperate need of humanity to grow to new dignity of friendship and mutual helpfulness. Mr. Atkinson said what he had to say just like that. I turn to Mr. Peterson. It's a matter of playing ball, isn't it? Yes, and recognizing that it's better to stop wars before they get started than trying to stop them afterward. But with all these points of view, I don't know. Tell you what, H.V. Coltonborn is right here in hotel. Let's go see him. The Mr. Coltonborn? Yes, come on. Mr. Coltonborn looked exactly like his picture. I'd heard him on the radio for years. And here he was. Mr. Coltonborn himself speaking. I feel sure that this conference will succeed. But I also feel sure that people expect too much from it. They call it a peace conference. But it isn't a peace conference at all. It will not bring peace, and it will not make peace. What the delegates will try to do is to agree on the best way to stop the next war before it begins. Now, that sounds like an Irish bull, and perhaps it is one. But there is always a next war that people think about and talk about by the first time I went to Europe in 1900. I heard a lot about the next war between France and Germany. And each time I went back in the years that followed, I heard more about it. And when I came back from Europe in June 1914, I wrote an article about the bad blood between Germany and France and told what I had seen in Germany of Germany's minute preparations for war. Why, it was easy for me to predict that there would soon be a war. For in those days, war was like weather. Everyone talked about it, and no one did anything about it. But here, in San Francisco, we are going to do something about it. But I certainly hope that we are not going to pretend that just setting up a council and an assembly and an international court and a police force, that that's going to stop wars. Why, we had all those under the League of Nations. That is why the United States didn't join the League. We said we did not want to see our police force use to stop other people's wars. But we soon found out that other people's wars become our wars. In Europe, they found out that peace machinery by itself does not stop wars. If those who built the machine do not service it and do not use it the way it was meant to be used, it cannot function. Therefore, the San Francisco Conference will be a beginning, not an end. It will be a declaration of good intentions, not a final accomplishment. The very best that it can do is to set up a beginning and to set up the machinery that will make that beginning develop and grow better, more perfect, more successful. That's the way this time we're going to make the peace. We're not going to sit down in another Versailles and try and write a complete treaty in the brief weeks immediately after the war when the hitfords of that war are still strong in the hearts of men. Oh, no, we're going to work out the peace bit by bit, month by month, year by year on the basis of experience. And exactly so will it be with the machinery that we are going to set up here at San Francisco. It will be a continuing process. This conference will set up committees and commissions that will continue to work, that will adapt the machinery as experience indicates. Spectations. We will learn by doing, by trial, by error and because we are not planning here to set up something that is going to last humanity for all time, we can be the more reasonably sure that it will last humanity for that necessary period between wars when it is still possible to do something that will work out the better way, the way of peace. Those were Carltonborn's exact words. As we walked out into the street what Mr. Carltonborn said and what all the others had said turned over and over in my head. Can I drop you somewhere? No, no thanks Mr. Peterson. I'll just, well, walk down the street. Well, well, I've got to get back to the studio. I've got a deadline on my neck. Come back and see me. You bet. Goodbye. Goodbye Mr. Peterson. I walked down the street. The streets were crowded with people and a lot of them had come here to talk about just one thing. Maybe there is a chance. Maybe there is a chance. You have been listening to the Pacific Story presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service in cooperation with the News and Special Events Department. All of the personalities in this presentation were real people played by themselves in person. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. I repeat, for a reprint of this Pacific Story program send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. This program came to you from San Francisco. This is the National Broadcasting Company.