The charters of the League of Nations and the United Nations were prepared in the late stages of large-scale wars. On those occasions the Great Powers, armed to the limits of their capacity, and with colossal forces in the field, were in an abnormally dominating position. The rapid increase in the membership of the Assembly of the United Nations has thrown into sharper relief the long debated questions concerning the comparative powers of the Assembly and the Security Council, and, the position of the Great Powers in relation to the smaller powers. The change from the Council of the League of Nations to the Security Council of the United Nations seem to have been a retrogression rather than an advance, so far as it was designed to give precedence to the exercise of police powers. The interpretation of a term may be influenced by the interpreter’s own views on the proper role of Great Powers in the international community.