The surprising feature of the Conference is not that the Charter as it finally emerged was so close to the Dumbarton Oaks draft - for in the final resort, the Big Four, if only they kept united, had only to dig in their heels and threaten non-eo-operation to make this inevitable - it is that, with a few notable exceptions, all the essential features of that draft were accepted almost without resistance, even without serious challenge, from the rest. Many of those features which most emphasised the dominance to be enjoyed by the Big Five permanent membership of the Council, the veto power they wielded there, the primary role given to the Security Council on all matters of security, the absolute obligation of all members to obey decisions of the Council and to provide forces for the implementations of these decisions, the authority of the Council to recommend the terms of a settlement in disputes between other members, the establishment of a military advisory body confined to the great powers - all these, which represented in effect a revolutionary transformation of the existing international system in favour of the great, were accepted by the majority of the middle and small powers at San Francisco virtually without question. Some of the points on which major disputes did arise - the circumstances in which the great-power veto could be exercised on questions affecting one of those powers, the right of nations to be represented on the Security Council when their own forces were being used, the distinction between the Security Council's powers in dealing with 'situations' and 'disputes' - were in practice, as subsequent history proved, of minimal importance. The essential features of the system as it actually emerged were accepted with little discussion or dispute.
San Francisco Conference's Four Main Commissions
