Rotary and the UN (excerpt from Rotary Global History Fellowship):
The tragic impact of two World Wars within the fifty-year life-span of Rotary has directed the thoughts of many leaders toward the age- old problem of discovering some method by which international questions might be settled without resort to bloodshed. Symptomatic of this interest was the Rotary conference called in London early in 1942, which succeeded in assembling ministers of education and observers of twenty-one governments—many of whom were then in exile in London—for the purpose of considering the organization of a vast educational and cultural exchange after the conclusion of the war. Later, in that same year, the same group began laying plans for UNESCO.
Rotary International issued, under the title of “Essentials for an Enduring World Order,” two booklets setting forth articles interpreting the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals. The principal objective was to stimulate discussion by Rotarians everywhere on the newly proposed world organization. Two pamphlets entitled “Pattern for San Francisco” and “The Bretton Woods Proposals” also were sent to all clubs, with the result that the proposals were widely discussed.
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