Hilderbrand explains why, with the Second World War moving toward an Allied victory in the summer of 1944, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China began to give greater priority to protecting their own sovereignty than to preventing

"This edition of the principal documents of the ... Conference ... presents the text in as nearly an exact facsimilie as possible and in a subject arrangement which will make them convenient for use. All documents are presented (if they were so issued) in the two working languages of the Conference, English and French; the final documents, however, the Charter, the Statute of the International Court, and the Interim Arrangements, are presented in the five official languages, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish ..."--Prefatory note.