United Nations Anniversary, 25

The hidden date for this stamp can be found on the right side of the stamp in the red pattern.

As a Charter member dedicated to international peace, security, the development of friendly relations between nations and the achievement of a spirit of world cooperation, Canada joins with fellow member-countries in celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the United Nations for which "Peace and Progress" has been selected as the theme. It has been said that the concept of the United Nations sprang from the Atlantic Charter, drafted by President Roosevelt of the United States of America and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and issued on the 14th August 1941. This famous Charter speaks of a need to establish a permanent system of general security, the abandonment of the use of force and a desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field. At the beginning of 1942, in a world still torn by war, Canada was one of twenty-six nations subscribing to these purposes in the Declaration of the United Nations. Representatives of four of the world's great powers, meeting in Moscow in October 1943, recognized "the necessity of establishing at the earliest possible date a general international organization, based on the sovereign equality of all peaceloving states, and open to membership of all such states, large and small, for the maintenance of international peace and security". The Dumbarton Oaks conversations, extending from August to October 1944, laid the foundation for a wider Conference, convened in San Francisco in April 1945, which was attended by fifty sovereign states. Many weeks of searching and deliberations culminated on the 26th June in the unanimous adoption and signing of the Charter which came into force on the 24th October 1945. In 1970, with a membership of 126 nations and with varied Agencies touching the lives of countless millions, the Organization reflects on a quarter-century of efforts to preserve the peace and looks ahead to an even greater fulfillment of the objectives and principles laid down in the preamble to the founding Charter. Although the United Nations does not legislate, it provides machinery for member states to cooperate in the furtherance of peace and the promotion of the welfare of humanity. Firm support of the United Nations is regarded as an essential element of Canada's foreign policy. To this end our nation has played a confident, willing and active role in the affairs of the Organization. At the opening of the San Francisco Conference, Canada's Prime Minister, after emphasizing his delegation's preoccupation with the creation of a strong and flexible organization, added, in Part: "Experience has shown that the contribution of smaller powers is not a negligible one, either to the preserving of peace or to its restoration when peace has been disturbed". In creating a design for the Canadian United Nations 25th Anniversary stamps, the artist symbolically represents a sense of emergence and illustrates the tremendous force and energy being focused towards a unification of the world.