Signing the Charter

UN Chronicle, Sept, 1995 by Donal McLaughlin

A great effort went into the staging of the ceremony which Life magazine compared to a "Hollywood production". I prepared a flow chart to avoid hitches in guiding delegates and visitors to the right places inside the building. Each delegation would be escorted through the foyer, its guests dropped off at the visitors gallery. The delegates, at a special backstage briefing station, were instructed on where to stand so that they would be in "camera-range" when they signed the document. At the right moment, they were escorted to a holding area in the wings.

It was agreed that the stalking and crawling antics of the still photographers at the opening plenary session had been an unwelcome distraction. To avoid repetition, we set some simple rules for the media as to their mobility - mainly a 12-inch-high-rope railing set back from the table on a 25-foot radius. The motion picture people, perched high on scaffolds in the rear, were delighted to have their field of vision thus unobstructed.

The 50 countries signed in alphabetical order, beginning at 10 a.m. on June 26. The Chinese delegation was first and brought its own equipment - brushes, inkstick, mortar - and called for a Dixie cup of water. While the world waited, they ground a fresh batch of pure, dense, black Chinese ink.

From there on, things went smoothly and on schedule. Dr. Kelchner of the United States State Department - he was the very image of a gentleman of the old school - greeted each new delegation as they entered. My role in the proceedings was to be all over the place. One moment, I happened to be in the corridor outside the briefing room when the Soviet delegation arrived with Andrei Gromyko at its head. He stopped in front of me as if to say, "What do I do next?" As I explained the briefing room and its purpose, I noticed some dust on his Chesterfield collar. I simply brushed it off naturally as I talked. He took no notice, but I thought later that some Soviet bodyguard could have floored me for such impertinence.

The ceremony was proceeding smoothly as the afternoon wore on, but suddenly in burst a dozen dark-clad security figures from a side door. Everybody backstage stopped in their tracks. In walked President Truman, Secretary of State Stettinius and the American delegation.

Mr. Stettinius requested that the Charter be brought backstage so that he could take his time with his signature. When asked what he would do next, he said that he would pretend to sign the Charter when it was returned to the table. Bluntly informed that the telescopic cameras shooting the action could detect a fly speck on the page, he melted and called for pen and paper, dropped into a chair, and practiced his signature five or six times on the back of an 8 x 10 photo that Dick Wilson handed him.

After,the last signer rose from the table, pandemonium broke loose. The "papparazzi" leaped the rope barricade and rushed to the table for close-up photographs. Dr. Kelchner, overwhelmed, threw his body over the Charter and called out "McLaughlin! McLaughlin!" I rescued him like a football referee untangling players to get at the ball. The Charter was safe, but the two Sheaffer pens were missing from their marble base. Should someone, someday claim to have the original pens, they should be returned to the UN as stolen property. The Sheaffer Company replaced the pens next morning. My hope is that the scene was captured by the motion picture people - Fox Movietone or Paramount was there.

I took the Charter upstairs under a military guard. We had to wait for a State Department guy to authenticate both documents before we could erase the pencil lines. We had previously calqued soft pencil guide lines on the Charter pages where each signatory was to position his signature. This ensured that even though the number of signatories from each nation varied, the signatures would look presentable, not sprawled or crooked or squeezed. The guidelines now had to be carefully erased with artgum.

It fell to Alger Hiss, the State Department official overseeing UN matters, to fly the Charter to Washington, D.C. for hand delivery to President Truman the next day. While the Charter was wrapped in a parachute for safe passage, Hiss noted with mild irony that he himself had not been provided with one!

The Charter arrived in Washington safely, and now permanently resides in our National Archives. (During 1995, it is on display at UN Headquarters in New York.)