diff --git a/src/FbTk/FbString.cc b/src/FbTk/FbString.cc
index 6c5ffbbb..9a575bf7 100644
--- a/src/FbTk/FbString.cc
+++ b/src/FbTk/FbString.cc
@@ -54,6 +54,11 @@ static int iconv_convs[CONVSIZE];
 
 /// Initialise all of the iconv conversion descriptors
 void init() {
+    static bool s_init = false;
+    if (s_init)
+        return;
+    s_init = true;
+
     iconv_convs = new iconv_t[CONVSIZE];
 
     setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
diff --git a/src/FbTk/I18n.cc b/src/FbTk/I18n.cc
index 62fda06b..43af752b 100644
--- a/src/FbTk/I18n.cc
+++ b/src/FbTk/I18n.cc
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ using std::string;
 namespace FbTk {
 
 void NLSInit(const char *catalog) {
+    FbStringUtil::init();
     I18n *i18n = I18n::instance();
     i18n->openCatalog(catalog);
 }