At the seventh regular meeting of the Danube Commission in December 1952 it was decided to extend the mandate of the special commission established in July 1952 to examine the Yugoslav proposal for amendment of the rules of procedure and the Statute until the eighth regular meeting. However, despite Yugoslav objections, the report of the special commission was not put on the agenda for the eighth meeting. Also discussed at the seventh meeting were the Yugoslav failure to pay dues for the preceding year, and the action of Yugoslavia in taking over control of the locomotive traction of the Sip Canal. Yugoslavia took the position that it had a right to defend its national interests in the light of previous breach of contract by other Commission members. With Yugoslavia objecting to both nominations, the meeting elected the Rumanian representative as chairman and the Soviet delegate as secretary of the Com-mission, the latter for a term of three years.

The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration held its fifth session at Geneva from April 16 to 24, 1953. Representatives were present from 21 of the 22 member governments, and several non-member governments and agencies sent observers. The subcommittee on finances reported that gross income had amounted to $26,114,357 in 1952, and gross expenditures totaled $19,446,549, leaving a budgetary surplus of $6,667,808. Reimbursements for movements completed in 1952 had been “most satisfying”, but it was anticipated that a slower rate of reimbursement would prevail in 1953, and that additional funds would therefore be required. The subcommittee also re-ported that between February 1, 1952, and December 21, 1952, 77,626 persons, among them 31,226 refugees, had been moved from Europe. The Director, Mr. Hugh Gibson, reported the following developments in the activities of ICEM: 1) provision had been made for training building laborers in Italy destined to migrate to Brazil (in collaboration with the Brazilian and Italian governments and the International Labor Organization), and for a number of preselection projects; 2) in Greece, in collaboration with UNESCO, a language training program for prospective migrants to Australia had been initiated; 3) Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela were making “definite progress” in the area of land resettlement; and 4) other projects of a “technical nature” were being considered. The fifth session also studied a draft constitution for the Committee which had been prepared by the Director at the request of the fourth session. The delegates concluded that eventual acceptance of the constitution by member governments would give the Committee “more stability and an anticipated life span of from three to five years”, and decided to refer the draft agreement to governments for comment before the next session of ICEM.

The third annual meeting of the International Commission for Northwest Atlantic Fisheries was held in New Haven, Conn., from May 25 to May 30, 1953. For the first time all signatory governments were represented by commissioners, Norway, Portugal, Italy, and France having ratified the convention in the interval between the second and the third meetings. The first regulation established by the commission, concerning the size of meshes in the nets used in the haddock fishery off the New England coast, had been proposed at the preceding annual meeting. It was strengthened at the third meeting and entered into force on June 1, 1953. In addition, the commission made recommendations to its members concerning the improvement of the statistical work of the members and of the commission, and adopted a “comprehensive research program for the Convention area”. The commission chose Halifax, Nova Scotia, as the site of its permanent headquarters, and elected Stewart Bates of Canada as chairman and Commander Tavares de Almeida of Portugal as vice-chairman for the ensuing two years.

The second session of the twelfth plenary meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Committee was held in Washington from November 2 to 12, 1953. The first session, held in Washington from May 4 to 5, 1953, had been concerned with budgetary matters and the exchange of information. Representatives of 28 members of the committee as well as observers from 24 non-member governments and six international organizations were present at the second session which considered a technical study proposing three possible types of international cotton agreements: 1) a multilateral contract, under which quantitative quotas and minimum and maximum prices for each importing and exporting country would be established; 2) a buffer stock agreement, which would also set floor and ceiling prices for cotton and under which there would exist buffer stocks, held by member governments or by an international agency which would be built up in times of surplus and drawn on in times of shortage; 3) a combination of 1) and 2). The meeting failed to agree on any of these, and referred the question to the standing committee for further study. Other resolutions of the committee at this meeting included recommendations to the standing committee to study means of increasing cotton consumption to close the ten percent gap between production and consumption, and to circulate information about the terms of external trade of cotton importing and exporting countries, and a recommendation to the secretariat to begin publishing textile statistics. E. D. White (United States) was reelected chairman of the standing committee. In closing, the session accepted the invitation of the government of Brazil to hold its next plenary meeting in Sao Paulo.

A report of the activities of the International Materials Conference during its first operative year was issued in March 1952. Concerning the accomplishments of IMC during the preceding year the report stated, “The major accomplishment … was the development of plans for international distribution of the materials in short supply and securing their prompt acceptance by the participating countries”. The plans for the distribution of metals recognized three categories of needs, namely: 1) defense, 2) strategic stockpiling, and 3) essential civilian consumption. These allocation plans, which were to be administered by the member countries, the IMC not having actual materials at its disposal for direct distribution, were designed to include the total production at the disposal of the member countries, and the report stated that, for the most part, the allocations had been carried out as planned. In many cases the commodity committees also recommended to their members the adoption of conservation and end-use control measures for those commodities. The report also noted an increase in market stability and a downward trend in prices during the preceding period. In discussing plans for the ensuing year, the report anticipated continued shortages, necessitating plans for distribution, in the commodities with which IMC dealt. However, it held, the activities of the various committees would gradually take on a more long term character as the immediately pressing problems were solved, and “In the field of production, studies of future requirements and probable availabilities, based upon programs for increasing production already under way, will be required.”

The Convention for the High Seas Fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean was signed at Tokyo on May 9, 1952, on behalf of Canada, Japan, and the United States, and came into effect on June 12, 1953, upon the exchange of ratifications by the three governments at Tokyo. The first meeting of the Commission was held in Washington, D.C., in February 1954. Canada, the United States, and Japan sent representatives, and invitations to send observers were extended to FAO, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, the International Salmon Fisheries Commission, the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. The purposes of the conference were “to decide matters of organization, to prepare coordinated programs of research on the stocks of fish that are of common concern to the three countries, and, generally, to carry out the commitments of the convention”. The Commission decided to establish temporary headquarters at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C.

The International Whaling Commission held its fourth meeting in London from June 3 to June 6, 1952. Represented were all of the seventeen member governments except Mexico, namely: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Sweden, the Union of South Africa, the USSR, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Commission elected Dr. Remington Kellogg (United States) chairman, and Dr. J. G. Lienesh (the Netherlands) vice-chairman. Amendments to paragraph 6, paragraph 8 (c), and paragraph 8 (e) of the schedule of the International Whaling Convention were adopted at the meeting, and entered into force in September 1952. In closing, the Commission agreed that research in new methods of whale marking should be pursued, “but if funds should not allow this, marking by the existing methods should continue. The current catch limits … were extended to the 1952/53 season, retaining the same opening date now in force.”

The eighth session of the International Wheat Council was reconvened in Washington from February 2 to April 13, 1953, and the eleventh session of the Council was also held in Washington from January 30 to April 2, 1953. On April 13, 1953, the Agreement Revising and Renewing the International Wheat Agreement was opened for signature. The agreement provided for the following sales of wheat for each of the ensuing three years: the United States, 270,174,615 bushels; Canada, 250,000,000 bushels; Australia, 75,000,000 bushels, with a clause providing for revision downward in the event of drought; and France, 367,347 bushels. The price range per bushel provided for in the new agreement was $1.55 to $2.05, as against $1.20 to $1.80 in the previous agreement. Britain objected to the maximum of $2.05, stating that $2.00 was a “generous settlement”, and withdrew from the agreement.

The working party established at the ninth meeting of the Rubber Study Group to consider whether measures designed to prevent burdensome surpluses or serious shortages of rubber were necessary or practicable met in July and August 1952 and again in January 1953. The working party, which had decided to focus on a buffer stock type of agreement to apply to natural rubber, concluded that a buffer stock agreement would be practicable, but that the question as to whether it was necessary should be decided at the tenth meeting of the Rubber Study Group, for which a draft agreement was prepared.