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May 27, 1947 Memorandum by Leo Szilard I believe that there is in fact a wide area of agreement as far as fundamental convictions are concerned among the Emergency Committee but that this agreement become apparent only if our attitudes are formulated in the proper terms. The following is an attempt to do this and might serve perhaps a basis for further discussions. 1. In view of the recent technical advances, it is very likely that a world government will be in fact in operation within a very few generations. 2. That such a world government will be a satisfactory solution of the problem of peace only if based on popular consent. 3. That the operation of such a world government will be a subject to great strains and stresses unless by the time it is in full operation there has taken place a condiderable shift in the present pattern oof loyalties of people. 4. That such a world government may come about either by conquest or other forms of coercism involving a world war, or it may come about by voluntary agreements arrived at among the several nations, and that atomic scientists ought to exert their efforts toward helping the world to reach that ultimate solution of the problem of peace without going through another world war. 5. That foreign policies which may prolong the peace do not bring us closer to our goal if they merely delay a world war which will be all the more terrible the later it comes. 6. That a state of peace can not be maintained in the world indefinitely under conditions in which there are two armed camps and there is in the absence of adequate control of atomic energy an atomic armements race. 7. That the problem which faces the world today is whether or not we can reach the ultimate goal of world government without going through another world