On the 1st November 1944 the delegates of 52 States met at Chicago at the invitation of the United States Government, and, on the 7th December, the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention) was signed. It came into force on 4th April 1947. Today, there are 117 States parties to the Convention, albeit representing, in the main, the same territories.

To mark the achievement of 25 years of international co-operation through ICAO, I had personally hoped that it might be possible to get the President of the Council, Mr. Walter Binaghi, to give an up-to-date account of ICAO’s work. This not being possible, I have been asked to take his place, and I must make it clear that I cannot attempt to do the same thing. This is not a history of ICAO. I speak only from the point of view of my experience in the first 10 years. I hope to show the origin of some ideas and actions and trace certain changes in thinking and attitudes. I must apologise in advance if, in doing so, I seem to give undue attention to matters in which I have taken part and to ignore so much else that has been done. How much that is was impressively borne in on me, when I recently received the ICAO Bulletin for September 1969. For an authoritative and complete (though summarised) account of what ICAO is and what it has done, I commend this admirable review, and I wish to pay my tribute to those who have contributed so much to what there is recorded.