Early in World War II, the representatives of nine European governments fled to London. Nazi Germany had conquered much of Europe and had driven these leaders from their homelands. Representatives of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth nations met in London with the leaders of nine European nations. On June 12.1941, all these nations signed a declaration pledging to work for a free world， where people could live in peace and security. This pledge,usually called the Inter-Allied Declaration, was the first step toward building the UN.
On October 30,1943, representatives of the United Kingdom, China, the Soviet U- nion, and the United States signed the Moscow Declaration on General Security. This declaration approved the idea of establishing an international organization for preserving world peace.
From August to October 1944,representatives of the United Kingdom,China, the Soviet Union,and the United States held a series of meetings at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington D.C. The four nations succeeded in drawing up a basic plan, though they could not agree on some important questions. The plan's main feature was a Security Council on which the United Kingdom,China9 France,the Soviet Union, and the United States would be permanently represented.
In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill,and Stalin met at Yalta in the Crimea. The three leaders announced that a conference of United Nations would open in San Francisco on April 25,1945. This conference would use the plan worked out at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference to help prepare a charter for the UN.
Delegates from 50 nations met in San Francisco for the United Nations Conference on International Organization. The conference opened on April 25, 1945,13 days after the death of Roosevelt and 12 days before the surrender of Germany. Victory over Japan was still four months away.
At the conference.some major disagreements arose between the Big Three (the United Kingdom,the Soviet Union, and the United States) and the smaller, less powerful nations. The Big Three believed they could guarantee future peace only if they continued to cooperate as they had during the war. They insisted that the Charter of the United Nations should give them the power to veto actions of the Security Council. The smaller nations opposed the veto power but failed to defeat it.
On June 26,1945,all 50 nations present at the conference voted to accept the charter. Poland had been unable to attend but later signed the charter as an original member. The charter then had to be approved by the governments of the five permanent members of the Security Council and of a majority of the other nations that signed it. It went into effect on October 24,1945,a date celebrated every year as United Nations Day.
The Moscow Declaration was signed by ______.