Ku Wei-chun (1887-), known as V. K. Wellington Koo, distinguished diplomat who made significant contributions to the formation and early years of the League of Nations and the United Nations and who also represented China as ambassador to France, Great Britain, and the United States. From 1957 to 1967 he served on the International Court ofJustice at The Hague. Chiating, Kiangsu, was the birthplace of V. K. Wellington Koo. His father, a tax collector who owned property in Chiating and Soochow and a mansion in the International Settlement at Shanghai, reportedly named the boy Wellington, or Wei-chün, because of his admiration for the Duke of Wellington. After studying at Anglo-Chinese College (1899-1900) and the Yü Ts'ai School (1900-1) in Shanghai, he enrolled at St. John's University, where he completed the four-year course of study in three years and served as literary editor of the student paper The Dragon. After receiving B.A. and M.A. degrees from St. John's in 1904, W^ellington Koo went to the United States with a group of Hupeh students led by Sao-ke Alfred Sze (Shih Chao-chi, q.v.). He spent a year at the Cook Academy in Ithaca, New York and matriculated at Columbia College in 1905. He became a member of the debating team and of several student societies and served as editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator and manager of the Columbian, the yearbook. He won the Columbia Philolescean Literary Prize and the Columbia- Cornell Debating Medal. He also served as president of the Chinese Students Alliance of the Eastern States. After graduation in 1908, he became a graduate student in political science at Columbia University. He received the M.A. degree in 1909 and the Ph.D. degree in 1912, and his dissertation was published in 1912 by the Columbia University Press as The Status of Aliens in China. During this period, Koo also served for a time as editor of the Chinese Students' Monthly and the Chinese Students' Annual.
Wellington Koo returned to China in April 1912, and became secretary of the cabinet and secretary in the presidential office. Soon afterwards, he married the eldest daughter of T'ang Shao-yi (q.v.). He became secretary to the ministry of foreign affairs in August, retaining his post in the presidential office, and vice chairman of the Commission for International Claims Resulting from the Revolution. In October 1912 Wellington Koo was promoted to the post of councillor in the ministry of foreign affairs.
In July 1915, at the age of 27, Wellington Koo was appointed Chinese minister to Mexico. His assignment was changed three months later, and he became minister to the United States and Cuba. His distinguished performances as a diplomat in the United States was recognized by Yale University in 1916 when it awarded him an honorary LL.D. degree. At the end of 1918, his wife having died in an influenza epidemic, he returned to China on leave. In January 1919, he went to France as a member of the Chinese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. He played a prominent role in the delegation's handling of the Shantung question and in the decision not to sign the Treaty of Versailles because it provided for the transfer to Japan of Germany's treaty rights in Shantung. In September, Koo signed, on behalf of the Chinese government, peace treaties with Hungary and Bulgaria. During this period, W'ellington Koo also served as a delegate to the International Labor Conference, which produced the International Labor Organisation. In addition, he was elected one of five members representing "minor states" on the Paris Peace Conference's League of of Nations Commission, which developed the League Covenant, and the chief delegate from China to the first meeting of the League Assembly, which convened in November 1920. By that time, Koo had been appointed minister to the Court of St. James's. On 14 November 1920, the day before the League Assembly convened at Geneva, Wellington Koo married Oei Hui-lan. Her father, Oei Tiong Ham, an overseas Chinese whose native place was Amoy, had become the "sugar-king" ofJava. The newly wed couple's life in Geneva was a combination of diplomatic activity and glittering social events. Koo overcame formidable obstacles to have China elected a nonpermanent member of the League Council. In so doing, he developed the principle of geographical representation that subsequently became an accepted policy for international organization. He served as China's first representative on the League Council, and in September 1921, when he again represented China at the Assembly and Council meeting, he became president of the Council for the fourteenth session. In October 1921, Wellington Koo was made a member of the Chinese delegation, headed by Sao-ke Alfred Sze, to the Washington Conference. At the conference, Koo, as Sze's chief collaborator, presented China's "Ten Points" which included a definition of China, its territorial and administrative entity, and its right to participate in international conferences aflfecting its interests. The Nine-Power treaty signed in February 1922 and the settlement of the Shantung issue constituted an important diplomatic success for the Chinese delegation. After the Washington Conference ended, Wellington Koo returned to China amidst rumors that he was to replace W. W. Yen (Yen Hui-ch'ing, q.v.) as minister of foreign affairs. Although frugal by nature, he and his wife moved into the Ch'en YuanYuan, a palace which the famous Ming general W u San-kuei had built for his favorite concubine. At the urging of Oei Hui-lan, Oei Tiong Ham bought the palace for them. Koo was appointed head of a commission for the discussion of national financial questions in June and was named minister of foreign affairs in August when Wang Ch'ung-hui (q.v.) formed a new cabinet. ^V'ellington Koo's first task as foreign minister was to hold negotiations with the Sov'iet Union in an attempt to establish full diplomatic relations, settle the Chinese Eastern Railway question, and reach agreement on the political status of Outer Mongolia. On 2 September, Adolf Joffe, the new Soviet representative, proposed that the Karakhan declarations of 1919 and 1920 be used as the basis of the discussions. Koo demanded that the Red Army forces in Outer Mongolia be withdrawn before negotiations began. Joffe objected to the then current administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway in disregard of Soviet tj-eaty rights, and Koo replied that "the best solution of this problem would be the complete restoration of the railway to China." Soon after these exchanges took place, the W'ang Ch'ung-hui cabinet fell, and Koo was forced to resign as foreign minister. Joffe went to Shanghai to meet with Sun Yatsen, and Koo became chief of a commission to prepare for a special tariff conference which had been requested by China at both the Paris and the Washington conferences.
In March 1923 the Peking government gave C. T. Wang (^'ang Cheng-t'ing, q.v.) responsibility for handling Sino-Soviet relations. After Huang Fu (q.v.) resigned in early April, Wellington Koo became acting foreign minister in Kao Ling-wei's cabinet. Ts'ao K'un (q.v.) and his supporters forced Li Yuan-hung (q.v.) to abdicate the presidency in June so that Ts'ao could assume office. Koo retained his post and worked to negotiate a settlement of the so-called Lincheng Incident, during which a number of Westerners had been kidnapped by train robbers in Shantung. After weeks of patient negotiation resulting in a compromise settlement of the issue, Koo turned his attention to negotiations with Soviet envoy Leo M. Karakhan. He soon assigned direct responsibility for these negotiations to C. T. Wang.
Beginning in January 1924, Wellington Koo served as minister of foreign affairs in the cabinet of Sun Pao-ch'i (q.v.). In March, C. T. Wang signed an agreement with Karakhan which provided for the immediate establishment of diplomatic relations but which contained no provisions for the cancellation of Soviet-Mongol treaties or the withdrawal of Red Army forces from Outer Mongolia. The cabinet refused to ratify the agreement, and Koo repudiated Wang's signature and dismissed him from office. On 31 May, however, Koo signed a similar agreement under strong Soviet pressure. He became acting premier in July, after Sun Pao-ch'i resigned, but he was forced to resign in October, when Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.) staged a coup at Peking. Koo helped Ts'ao K'un and i WUlfV his family to escape to a foreign concession in Tientsin, surrendered his seal of office to C. T. W'ang, and retreated to Weihaiwei. His wife remained in Peking at the foreign-run Hotel de Pekin. Later, on the advice of Chang Tso-lin and Chang Hsueh-liang (qq.v.), she went to a foreign concession in Tientsin, where Koo joined her. In their absence. Sun Yat-sen died in their Peking palace in March 1925. After a year of political inactivity, during which he served as a trustee of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture, AVellington Koo returned to Peking in May 1926 to become minister of finance in the cabinet of W. W Yen. Chang Tso-lin, who had driven Feng Yü-hsiang's forces from Peking, opposed the appointment of Yen and forced the cabinet to flee Peking. A new cabinet was formed by Tu Hsi-k'uei in late June. Koo served as minister of finance until October, when he became acting premier and minister of foreign affairs. He attempted to resign three times in the next two months, but Chang Tsolin refused his requests. After assuming the post of commander in chief of the Ankuochün [national pacification army] and moving to Peking in December 1926, Chang confirmed the appointments of Koo and his colleagues in the cabinet in January 1927. Chang's raid on the Soviet embassy in April created new problems for Koo, who resigned in June and retired to a villa in the Western Hills.
As the Northern Expedition forces approached Peking in June 1928, Chang Tso-lin and his entourage left the ancient capital. Wellington Koo went to Peking and accompanied his friend as far as Tientsin. The special train continued on to Manchuria only to be blown up near Mukden by the Japanese. Chang Tsolin died in the explosion. Soon afterwards, the Nationalists at Peking issued an order for the arrest of Wellington Koo as a prominent supporter of Chang Tso-lin's regime. After taking refuge in Weihaiwei, Koo went to France and then went on a fishing trip in Canada. Wellington Koo returned to China in 1929 and went to Mukden, where he was associated with Chang Hsueh-liang. After Chang caused the collapse of the northern coalition of Feng Yü-hsiang and Yen Hsi-shan (q.v.) that threatened Chiang Kai-shek's National Government in 1930, he prevailed on Chiang to rescind the order for Koo's arrest and to restore his property to him. Koo remained in Mukden, where he constantly warned Chang Hsuehliang that his foreign policy was aiding the Japanese and urged Chang to change it. Chang, however, did not heed Koo's counsel. In 1931 Koo became chairman of the reform commission for Manchuria and a member of the foreign affairs commission of the Kuomintang Central Political Council.
The occupation of Manchuria by the Japanese, beginning with the Mukden Incident of 18 September 1931, resulted in Wellington Koo's return to national politics and international diplomacy. C. T. Wang resigned as minister of foreign affairs ; Sao-ke Alfred Sze refused the post; and Koo became officiating minister of foreign affairs in December. At the end of the year, Chiang Kai-shek was forced into temporary retirement, and Koo was replaced by Eugene Ch'en (q.v.). After serving as chairman of the commission for the recovery of the lost territory of the Northeast, Koo was attached to the Lytton Commission, which had been sent to Manchuria by the League of Nations to investigate the Sino-Japanese dispute, as China's assessor. He filled that role from February to August 1932, despite personal danger, and presented a lengthy memorandum on Japanese aggression to the commission. He was appointed minister to France that summer and China's delegate to the League of Nations in October. He sailed from Shanghai with the members of the Lytton Commission and went to Geneva, where he cogently argued China's case before the League Assembly. Both China and Japan rejected the Lytton Commission's recomendations, and Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in March 1933.
In March 1933 Wellington Koo served as the Chinese delegate to the Conference on Reduction and Limitation of Armaments at Geneva; in May he was the Chinese delegate to the World Monetary and Economic Conference at London; and in July he helped T. V. Soong (q.v.), the minister of finance, obtain technical cooperation from the League of Nations in such fields as public health in China. He served as China's representative on the League Council until mid- 1934 and as a delegate to the League Assembly. In January 1934 he was appointed an assessor on the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. In 1935-36 he was China's chief delegate to the League Assembly. These and other assignments left him little time for his duties as minister to France.
Upon returning to Paris in April 1936 after spending several months in China on home leave, Wellington Koo was raised to the rank of ambassador to France. After the Sino-Japanese war began, he served once again as China's chief delegate to the League of Nations and presided over the ninety-sixth session of the League Council. In November 1937 he attended the Brussels Conference of the Washington Treaty powers, convened to consider the Sino- Japanese conflict, as China's chief representative. He continued to work on China's behalf at the League of Nations sessions of 1938 and 1939, but with little success. His ambassadorial duties presented many problems, especially when, under Japanese pressure, the French authorities refused his requests concerning the free transportation of arms on the Indo-China- Yunnan railway. He negotiated and signed a treaty of friendship with Liberia in December 1937, and he presented China's claim to the Paracel Islands when French forces occupied them in mid- 1938. The following year, he took time off from his duties in France to serve as China's envoy to the coronation of Pope Pius XII.
The Koos were in Paris when the Second World War began. They soon moved to Bordeaux and then to Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Koo represented China at the eight-hundredth anniversary of the founding o^"Pprtugal in 1940. By the time he returned to Sa!ht-Jean-de-Luz, it was under Nazi occupation. He spent a short time at Vichy before going to London to replace Quo Tai-chi (Kuo T'ai-ch'i, q.v.), who had been named minister of foreign affairs, as ambassador to the Court of St. James's. Because he feared for his wife's safety, he sent her to the United States. Koo helped effect and signed a Sino-British agreement regarding Chinese seamen in 1942; he was prominent in the negotiations which led to the exchange of parliamentary missions at the end of 1942 and in late 1943, the relinquishment of British extraterritorial rights in China in 1943, and the Sino-British Lend- Lease Agreements of May 1944. He was the chief Chinese delegate to the second phase of the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations, held from 29 September to 7 October 1944.
In March 1945 Wellington Koo was named to the Chinese delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco. He represented China at the signing ceremony, held at the Veterans War Memorial Building in San Francisco on 26 June 1945, at which China was accorded the honor of being the first nation to sign the Charter of the United Nations. Subsequently, he served as the chief Chinese delegate to the United Nations Preparatory Commission.
Wellington Koo was transferred to Washington as Chinese ambassador to the United States in May 1946. He made strenuous efforts to secure American aid for the Nationalists during the civil war with the Chinese Communists. In addition to his ambassadorial duties, he served as chairman (1946) and then acting chairman (1947) of the Chinese delegation to the United Nations. In 1948 he played a prominent role in submitting the National Government's request for US S3 billion in American aid to be supplied over a three-year period. He also participated in the Nationalist effort of January 1949 to achieve a peace settlement with the Communists through American mediation, but this effort was completely unsuccessful. After the Communists won control of the mainland and the National Government moved to Taiwan, he continued his efforts to obtain American economic and military aid for the Nationalists. In 1954, after a trip to Taiwan for consultation with National Government officials, he accompanied George K. C. Yeh (Yeh Kung-ch'ao, q.v.), the minister of foreign affairs, to Washington and helped negotiate a Sino-American defense pact, which was signed on 2 December. In March 1956, after Koo had made another brief trip to Taipei, the National Government in Taiwan announced his resignation from the ambassadorship. Two months later, he was named senior adviser, residing in the United States, to Chiang Kai-shek.
In January 1957 Wellington Koo was elected to complete the term of Hsü Mo (q.v.), who had died on 28 June 1956, on the International Court of Justice. He assumed office at The Hague in mid-May, and he was reelected for a full ten-year term in October. He served as vice president of the court from 1964 until 1967. When his term expired on 5 February 1967, he returned to the United States to live in New York.
Wellington Koo and Oei Hui-Ian were divorced after the Second World War, and Koo later married the widow of Clarence Kuangson Young. He had four children, two by his marriage to the daughter of T'ang Shao-yi and two, Wellington and Freeman, by his marriage to Oei Hui-Ian.
In addition to 77?^ Status of Aliens in China and the Lytton Commission memorandum, Wellington Koo wrote a number of articles during his long diplomatic career. An analysis by Wunsz King of some aspects of Koo's pre- 1931 career, V. K. Wellington Koo's Foreign Policy, was published in Shanghai in 1931. In October 1963 Koo presented his collection of diplomatic papers to Columbia University, including files of correspondence, telegrams, speeches, records of conversations with many world leaders and 35 dual-language diaries. He stipulated that the collection not be made available for use until his death and that copies of certain documents be deposited in the archives of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. In announcing the receipt of the collection Grayson Kirk, the president of Columbia University, said that it "provides an accurate and detailed account of a career filled with significant assignments, executed in a truly effective and distinguished manner." V. K. Wellington Koo's accomplishments in the field of international diplomacy won him many honors, including honorary degrees from such universities as Columbia, St. John's, Aberdeen, Birmingham, and Manchester. He made significant contributions to the formation and early years of the League of Nations and the United Nations, and he helped strengthen the international position of China, a particularly notable accomplishment in the pre- Nationalist era, when the power of the Peking government fluctuated greatly. He was known for his brilliance as a public speaker, and, although his methods and actions were criticized from time to time, even his enemies recognized that he was, above all, a patriot whose loyalty to China was unshakable.
顾维钧
字:少川
西名:V.K.威灵顿•顾
顾维钧(1887—),杰出的外交家,他对国际联盟和联合国的成立及其早期工作有过重大贡献。历任驻法、驻英、驻美大使。1957—1967年在海牙国际法庭任职。
顾维钧生在江苏嘉定。他父亲是一个报关行职员,嘉定和苏州都有他的财产,并在上海公共租界内拥有一所大宅。他因为钦佩惠灵顿公爵,所以把儿子取名为威灵顿。顾维钧在上海英华书院(1899—1900),育才学校(1900—19
01)上学,后来进了圣约翰书院,用三年时间修毕了四年课程,并担任了学生主办的《龙》报的文学编辑。1904年获得圣约翰大学学士,硕士学位后,与施肇基率领的一批湖北籍学生去美国。1905年他在纽约州伊萨卡市的柯克学院学习一年,于1905年为哥伦比亚学院录取。他是语言社和一些学生组织的成员并担任《哥伦比亚每日旁观考》编辑和《哥伦比亚人》年鉴经办人。他获得语言文学奖金和哥伦比亚、康奈尔辩论奖。他还担任东部各州中国学生联合会主席。1908年毕业后,在哥伦比亚大学当政治科学研究生。1909年茯得硕士学位,1912年获得哲学博士学位。他的论文《外国对中国政府的权利要求》于1912年由哥伦比亚大学出版社出版。在此期间,他还一度编辑过《中国学生
月刊》,《中国学生年刊》。
1912年4月回国,顾维钧任国务院、总统府秘书,不久,与唐绍仪的长女结婚.4月,任外交部秘书,并仍保留总统府秘书的职位,又任国际革命损失索赔委员会副主任。1912年10月升任外交部参事。
1915年7月,顾维钧年二十七岁时任驻墨西哥公使,三个月后,调任驻美及驻古巴公使。他在美国时是一名很出色的外交官,因此1916年获得耶鲁大学名誉博士。1918年10月,因他妻子患流行性感冒去世请假回国。1919年1月,
顾维钧代表中国出席巴黎和会。他在中国代表团的处理山东问题,及由于凡尔赛条约规定德国在山东权利转让给日本而拒绝在该初约上签字,顾维钧起了重要作用。9月,他代表中国政府和匈牙利,保加利亚签订了和约。
在此期间、顾维钧又作为中国代表出席国际劳工会议,该会议决定成立了国际劳工组织。此外,他在巴黎和会国联委员会中当选为“小国”五名代表之一,参予拟订国联公约。顾维钧为中国首席代表出席月举行的国联节一次大会.那时,顾又出任驻英大使。
1920年11月14日,国联大会在日内瓦召开前一天,顾维钧和黄惠兰结婚,她的父亲黄仲涵是原籍厦门的华侨,爪哇的“糖业大王”。这一对新婚夫妇在日内瓦的生活,既有外交活动又有显赫的社会活动。顾维钧克服了很大困难,
使中国选入了国联理事会非常任理事。他为此而发挥了按地区出代表的原则,此后就成为国际组织公认的原则,他当了国联理事会中的第一名中国代表,1921年9月,又代表中国出席国联大会和国联理事会,并在第十四届国联理事会
中担任主席。
1921年10月,顾维钧以施肇基率领的中国代表团团员的身份出席华盛顿会议。在会议中,顾维钧作为施肇基的主要合作人提出了“十点”,例如关于中国的领土与主权的完整出席讨论有关本国利益的国际会议的权利等等问题,1922年2月九国公约之签订和对山东问题的解决是中国代表团的重大外交成就。
华盛顿会议结束后,顾维钧回国,当时传说,他将代颜惠庆出任外交总长。顾维钧虽然生性节俭,他和他的夫人有一所明代著名将军吴三桂为他爱妾陈圆圆修建的宅邸。黄仲涵应女儿黄惠兰之请,替顾夫妇买下了这所宅邸。6
月,顾维钧任全国财政委员会委员长,8月,王宠惠组阁,任命他为外交总长。顾维钧任外交部长时的第一个任务是与苏联谈判建立全面的外交关系,解决中东路问题,和对外蒙的政治地位达成协议。9月2日,新任苏联代表越飞提
出以1919年及1920年加拉罕的声明为基础进行谈判。顾维钧要求在谈判之前红军撤出外蒙。越飞反对当时对中东路的管理办法,认为无视苏联的条约权利,顾维钧签称“将铁路全部归还中国是解决问题最好办法”。这问题正在交换意
见时,王宠惠内阁下台,顾维钧辞去外交总长。越飞去上海,会见了孙中山,顾维钧出任关税特别会议筹备处处长,这是由中国方面在巴黎和会和华盛顿会议中先后提出召开的会议。
1923年3月,北京政府令王正廷负责处理中苏关系问题。4月初,黄郛辞职,顾维钧在高凌蔚内阁任代外交总长。6月,曹锟及其支持者逼黎元洪放弃总统之位,以便让曹锟就职。顾维钧留任原职,处理山东土匪临城劫车案,
当时有几名西方人士被劫持。经数周的反复磋商,取得妥协解决,顾维钧又与苏联代表加拉罕进行谈判,不久,顾将此事交由王正廷直接负责处理。
1924年1月,顾维钧在孙宝琦内阁任外交总长。3月,王正廷与加拉罕签订一项协定,双方立即建立外交关系,但其中并无取消苏蒙条约和撤退外蒙红军的规定。内阁乃不予批准,顾维钧不承认王正廷的签字.并将他解职。但是,
5月31日,顾维钧在苏维的强大压力下签订了同样的协定。7月,孙宝琦辞职,顾维钧代内阁总理,10月,因冯玉祥在北京发动兵变而辞职。顾维钧协助曹锟及其一家逃到天津租界,又将自己的公章交给王正廷,以后避往威海卫.。他的妻子留在外商经营的北京饭店,经张作霖、张学良之劝告,她去天津租界,顾维钧和她在那里相会。在他们离开家的时候,孙中山于1925年3月在他们的北京寓邸中逝世。
顾维钧有一年的时间没有什么政治活动,只担任中华教育文化基金董事会的董事。1926年5月,他回北京在颜惠庆内阁任财政总长,但驱逐冯玉祥出北京的张作霖反对颜惠庆组阁,逼使其阁员逃出北京,6月底,杜锡珪组阁。顾
维钧任财政总长到10月,10月后任代理内阁总理及外交总长。此后二个月中,他三次辞职,张作霖未允准。张作霖就任安国军大元帅后,1926年12月率部进入北京,1927年1月批准了顾维钧及其阁员的任命。4月,张作霖搜查苏联使馆,给顾维钧制造了新的问题,他在6月辞职退隐于西山别墅。
1928年6月,北伐军逼近北京,张作霖等一行离开北京,顾维钧由西山回到北京随送他们到天津。专列向东北行驶,到沈阳附近被日军炸毁,张作霖身死。不久以后,国民革命军因顾维钧支持张作霖政府下令通缉。他先逃往威海
卫,又去法国,以后又去加拿大做一次访问旅行。
1929年顾维钧回国后去沈阳与张学良共事。张学良于1930瓦解了威协蒋介石国民政府的阎冯联盟,劝请蒋介石取消对顾维钧的通缉并发还他的财产。顾维钧留在沈阳,经常提醒张学良,说他的对外政策对日本有利,劝他加以改
变。但张学良没有重视他的意见。1931年,顾维钧任东北改革委员会主任,国民党中央政治会议外事委员会委员。
1931年9月18日沈阳事变日军占领东北后,顾维钧又回到在内政与外交方面的活动。王正廷辞去外交总长,施肇基不愿继任,12月由顾维钧任职。同年年底,蒋介石辞职,陈友仁继顾维钧为外交部长。顾维钧任东北收复失地委员
会委员长,代表中国一方参加国联因中日争端而派到东北调查的李顿调査团。他从1932年2月到8月,不顾个人安危,给调査团提出了有关日本侵略的长篇备忘录。同年夏出任驻法公使,10月,任国联的中国代表。他和李顿调查团的一些成员,从上海趁船去日内瓦,他在国联大会上对中国的立场做了有力的辩论。中国与日本都对李顿调查团的建议拒绝接受。
1933年3月,日本退出国联。
1933年3月,顾维钧代表中国,出席在日内瓦召开的裁军及限制武器会议,5月,出席在伦敦召开的货币经济会议,7月,他协助财政部长宋子文从国联取得中国公共卫生方面的技术合作。1934年中,任国联理事会的中国代表及国联
大会代表。1934年1月,任海牙常设仲裁法庭的仲裁员,1935—36任国联大会中国首席代表。这样许多职务,使他很少有时间来兼顾法国大使的职务了。
他回国度假数月后,1936年4月,回到巴黎,升格为驻法大使。中日战争爆发后,他再次去国联任中国首席代表,担任第九十六届国联理事会主席。1937年11月,他任首席代表,出席在布鲁塞尔召开的华盛顿条约国讨论中日冲突
问题会议的中国首席代表。他又在L938年1939年两届的国联大会继续为中国活动,但并无多少成就。他在法国大使任内,遇到不少问题,当时法国当局受日本的压力,拒绝利用滇越路运输军火。1937年12月,他与利比里亚签订友好条约。1938年中,法国当局佔领西沙群岛,他确申中国对该地区的主权。第二年,他一度离开在法国的职务,以中国特使身份参加教皇庇亚第十二世的加冕礼。
第二次世界大战爆发时,顾维钧一家在巴黎,他于是迁往波尔多,后又迁往圣让德吕兹。1940年,他代表中国,参加葡萄牙建国八百周年。当他回到圣让德吕兹时,该地已为纳粹德国占领,他曾在维希政府统治下呆了一个短时
期,不久接任郭泰祺而为驻英大使,那时郭泰祺调任外交部长。他为了定全起见,将他的妻子送到国.1942年,他签订了中英关于中国海员的协定,他在1942年末及1943年后期的国会代表团互访。1943年,废除英国在华治外法权,
和1944年5月,签订中美租借协定的谈判中均起重要作用。他又以首席代表身份出席1944年9月29日到10月7日召开的顿巴登橡树园会议第二阶段的会议。
1945年3月,任命顾维钧为中国代表,出席在旧金山召开的联合国国际组织会谏。他代表中国,于1945年6月26日,在旧金山退伍军人纪念堂举行的签字仪式,中国得到第一个签字的光荣。以后他任联合国筹备委员会的中国首席代表。
1946年5月,顾维钧调任驻美大使,他竭力为国民党对共产党进行内战争取美援。除大使职务之外,他还兼任中国驻联合国代表团长(1946)及代理团长(1947)。1948年,他在国民政府向美国提出三年内提供三十亿美援的要求
中起了重要作用。1949年1月他为国民党争取通过美国调处与中国共产党和平解决的努力,但毫无成就。当共产党赢得了对大陆的控制,国民政府迁到台湾后,他仍为国民党争取美禺的经济及军事援助。1954年,他到台湾与国民党官员商谈后,又与外交部长叶公超同赴华盛顿,帮助中美防御条约的谈判,该条约于12月2日签定。1956年3月,他又一次去台湾,国民政府宣布顾维钧辞离大使之职。两个月后,任命他为蒋介石的最高谘议,驻在美国。
1956年6月28日徐谟去世,1957年1月,国际法庭选顾维钧继徐谟的任期。他于5月中旬在海牙就职,10月,再次选举他连任十年。1964—1967年,任国际法庭副庭长,1967年2月5日,任满后,他回到美国,在纽约定居。
第二次世界大战后,顾维钧和黄惠兰离婚,不久和杨广森(译音)的遗孀结婚。顾维钧有四个孩子,两个是唐绍仪的女儿所生,另二个孩子,惠灵顿、费利曼,系黄惠兰所生。
顾维钧在他一生的外交经历中,除写了《外人在华之地位》及李顿调查团备忘录之外,还写了不少文章。1931年在上海出版金问泗在《顾维钧的外交方针》一书中分析了顾维钧在1931年以前的事业于1931年在上海出版。1963年10
月,他把他收集的外交文件送给哥伦比亚大学。其中包括信函,电报,演讲,以及与世界政界领袖谈话记录,还有三十五册用两种文字写下的日记。他约定这些文件在他去世前不要引用,还将其中一部份文件副本存放于台湾中央研究院。哥伦比亚大学校长格雷森•柯克在接受这些文件时说,这些文件“详尽确切记录了一个人的经历充满了重大使命,并以有效而杰出的方法完成”。
顾维钧在国际外交上的成就,使他获得了不少荣誉,其中有哥伦比亚大学,圣约翰大学、阿伯丁大学,伯明翰大学,曼彻斯得大学的名誉学位。他对国联和联合国的成立和早期工作作出过重大贡献,并增强了中国的国际地位,特别
是国民政府成立之前的可贵成就,那时的北京政府的权力处于风雨飘摇之中。他是一名很出色的演说家。他的方法和行动虽然常常受到抨击,但是,即使他的敌人,也不能不承认顾维钧首先是一位对中国的忠诚的毫不动摇的爱国者。