Office of the Historian

IO Files: US/A/C.1/446/Rev. 1

United States Delegation Working Paper1

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[New York,] October 27, 1947.

Draft Compromise Resolution Prepared by Australian, Canadian and French Delegations

[U.S. Delegation changes indicated by striking out and underscoring.]2

Whereas

In the Charter of the United Nations the peoples expressed their determination to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors;

Whereas

The Charter also calls for the promotion of universal respect for, and observance of, fundamental freedoms including which includes freedom of expression, all Members having pledged themselves in Article 56 to take joint and separate action for such observance of fundamental freedoms

The General Assembly

1.
Condemns all forms of propaganda, particularly propaganda controlled by Governments or their political agencies, in whatsoever countrios conducted, which is either designed or likely to provoke or to encourage any threat to peace, breach of the peace, or acts of aggression.
2.
Requests the Government of each Member to take appropriate steps within its constitutional limits
(a)
To promote by all means of publicity and propaganda available to them friendly relations among nations based on the purposes and principles of the Charter;
(b)
To encourage the dissemination of all information designed to give expression to the undoubted desire of all peoples for peace;
3.
Directs that this resolution be communicated to the forthcoming Conference on Freedom of Information, with a recommendation that the Conference consider methods for carrying out the purposes of this resolution as being relevant to the discussion of item 2(d) of the provisional agenda.
  1. The United States amendments were offered by Ambassador Austin on October 27, when the First Committee, after several votes, reached unanimous agreement on the text of a draft resolution to be recommended to the General Assembly. This text (printed in U.N. Doc. A/428, October 28) was substantially the same as that submitted in the draft Australian, Canadian, and French resolution, except that section 2 of the operative part of the resolution included the words “within its constitutional limits” and section 3 was shortened to read simply “Directs that this resolution be communicated to the forthcoming Conference on Freedom of Information.” (Text also in GA (II), Plenary, p. 745.) Committee discussion is recorded in GA (II), First Committee, pp. 242 ff. The Committee draft was adopted by the General Assembly without discussion on November 3 (GA (II), Plenary, p. 746). For official text, Resolution 110 (II), see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Second Session, Resolutions, p. 14.↩
  2. Brackets appear in the source text.↩