THE UNITED NATIONS IN ACTION

byEugene P. Chase '16. McGraw-Hill, 1950,464 pp., $4-50.

Believers in the United Nations should be encouraged when a publishing firm includes in its textbook Series in Political Science such a volume as that under review. Apparently enough colleges offer courses in that field to warrant a reasonable hope of profit. The author has an admirable background to write such a book. He was a Rhodes Scholar, received his Doctor's degree from Harvard, is a specialist in British Government, has taught at Lafayette College since 1926, and, perhaps most important of all, was Secretary to the Trusteeship Committee at the San Francisco Conference. The book is divided into three parts. Part I covers background and the drafting of the Charter. Part II deals with the launching of the new organization and its history through 1949 as seen in the successive sessions of the General Assembly. Part III, which is the longest, discusses the other organs of the United Nations and concludes with a chapter on its future prospects. Professor Chase's basic sympathy with the United Nations is apparent. He does not hesitate to criticize its weaknesses, but his attitude is well summarized in the Preface (p. viii): "For believers in international organization, the choice still remains: something, though not exactly what they want, or nothing. This book is written on the theory that something is better a great deal better than nothing." The book was finished before the Korean War began. Hence Professor Chase comments only very briefly, but quite favorably, on the action of the Security Council against the North Korean aggressors. Since the Preface is dated August, 1950, there is no reference to the Acheson Plan for strengthening the General Assembly nor to the perplexing problems resulting from the Chinese Communist intervention. The volume should make a satisfactory textbook. The style is clear, the organization logical, and nothing important has been omitted. The chapters on the Security Council and the Trusteeship Council are especially satisfactory. The inclusion of a good index, the text of the Charter, and an excellent bibliographical note should increase its usefulness. If the volume is revised, it could be greatly improved by the transfer of much purely factual material in the chapters on the General Assembly and the Specialized Agencies to an appendix in tabular form. Unfortunately the book fails to impart to the reader the thrill which nearly every observer experiences on witnessing the United Nations in action.