1 MARCH 1968, Page 27

Sir: One important point at least in Sir Robert Birley's

thoughtful review (23 February) of Sir Keith Hancock's second volume calls, I feel, for comment—the attribution to Smuts of responsi- bility for 'the introduction into the Charter of the United Nations of the reference to "fundamental human rights." ' While the Preamble of the Charter received its first formulation at the hands of Smuts in 1945, assisted in the matter by the late Sir Charles Webster—as recounted by the latter in a Creighton Lecture before the University of London—the sub- stance of the Charter, including in particular its Chapter IX, had been prepared at Dumbarton Oaks in 1944. Genetically, therefore, and chronologic- ally, the Preamble is a reflection of the content of the Charter, rather than the other way about.