The conduct of the foreign relations of a state within the framework of a general international organization to maintain peace and security presents problems of a special character. Participation in such an organization implies the acceptance of commitments with respect to the purposes and objectives of policy and the methods to be pursued in the achievements of these ends. In addition, participation in anything more than name requires that consideration be shown for the points of view and special concerns of other participants and that an honest effort be made to achieve a consensus which embodies an accommodation of national interests and attitudes. The pursuit of such a course is likely to present a formidable challenge to a country which has been accustomed in the past to pursue a largely independent course in its foreign relations and which has not felt the necessity of cooperating closely with other countries in the furtherance of important national interests.

When M. Schuman first presented his celebrated Plan over two years ago, American views, official and public, were divided between an easy cynicism and a careless rapture. Optimism was stirred by the promise of a unity of European peoples, achieving strength, peace and prosperity through their mutual interests in producing coal and steel. Cynicism amused itself with a vision of a new bureaucracy, exercising new controls through the monster international cartel hidden beneath M. Schuman's diplomatic dress. All groups of opinion, materialistic and democratic in outlook, would have agreed that the Plan, however conceived and dedicated, could not long endure unless it touched the popular heart through raising the standard of living. Here, as elsewhere, Americans looked for Europe's salvation in the joy, excitement, strength and sense of human kinship that is supposed to come from successfully executed achievements in engineering.

There is today a new kind of international agreement which, going beyond general provisions and vague expressions of goodwill, has proved to be of immediate, practical consequence. Cooperative radio agreements or, as they are sometimes called, “agreements for mutual assistance”, provide the legal and organizational framework for international relations among broadcasting services in sixteen European countries. At the same time, some of them constitute a basis for the collaboration and coordination of communist-controlled stations, and thus for spreading and strengthening Soviet propaganda; they effectively supplement military and economic ties of the Cominform group in the fields of information and mass communications. Their provisions reflect a new trend in international law, taking into account technical and cultural factors as well as legal considerations, political and economic interests. Although no less than thirty-two agreements have been concluded during the last five years – some also by broadcasting organizations in western Europe – they are little known outside the countries directly concerned.

United Nations Commission to Investigate Conditions for Free Elections in Germany: In May the United Nations commission submitted its report to the Assembly covering the period from February 11 to April 30, 1952. On February 11 the first meeting of the commission, composed of the representatives of Brazil, Iceland, Netherlands and Pakistan, was convened in Paris. Later from Geneva the commission requested the Chairman of the Allied High Commission for Germany and the Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission for Germany that meetings be arranged between the commission and the appropriate authorities. The Chairman of the Allied High Commission complied with the request; no answer was received from the Soviet commission. Nevertheless, the commission went to Germany where it stayed from March 16 to 23.

This issue covers the work of the Security Council from its 573d meeting on February 6 to its 576th meeting on April 14, 1951. During February the President of the Council was the representative of Greece (Kyrou) and during April, the representative of Pakistan (Bokhari). No meetings were held during March during which the representative of the Netherlands (von Balluseck) was President.

Technical Assistance Board: The Technical Assistance Board considered that to cover commitments for 1953, $38,200,000 would be required of which $30,000,000 would be needed to liquidate the obligations incurred during the year. The difference would become deferred commitments to be met in 1954. Of the estimated $38,200,000 about $16,000,000 represented costs incurred in carrying on projects and programs now in operation or those which came into operation during 1952 under agreements already signed. The main differences in the 1953 program from those of the preceding two years were the following: 1) the inclusion in the program of a larger proportion of projects in the second phase; 2) the placing of greater emphasis on developing and extending demonstration projects and training centers in underdeveloped countries; 3) a further expansion in the number of fellowships,scholarships and study grants to be awarded nationals of underdeveloped countries; and 4) the provision of greater amounts of equipment and supplies. Under the 1953 program increased emphasis was to be given to regional projects and training centers for the benefit of several countries of comparable development and with similar problems. It was estimated that 2,386 experts would be required to carry out all of the proposed activities and 3,069 fellowships and scholarships awarded

The tenth session of the Trusteeship Council met in New York from February 27 to April 1, 1952. President of the session was Sir Alan Burns (United Kingdom) and throughout all meetings the representative of Italy sat as a nonmember of the Trusteeship Council. During the session, the Council considered the annual reports of the administering authorities for the trust territories of Western Samoa, New Guinea, Nauru, and the Pacific Islands, and petitions from trust territories in Africa and from New Guinea, having decided to defer the reports of the visiting missions to east Africa until the eleventh session. The question of Chinese representation brought up by the representative of the Soviet Union was also deferred

Ambatielos Case: When oral proceedings in the preliminary objection in the Ambatielos Case opened on May 15, as announced, the President of the Court stated that the Greek government had designated an ad hoc judge in the person of Mr. Jean Spiropoulos. Sir Eric Beckett, counsel for the United Kingdom, stated that, in spite of the United Kingdom's contention that the jurisdiction of the Court should be accepted as widely as possible by states, it felt bound to contest the jurisdiction of the Court in the case under consideration because: 1) the dispute related to facts occurring before 1930 when the United Kingdom first accepted the Optional Clause; 2) it considered the claim of denial of justice completely unfounded on the merits; 3) it considered it clear that municipal remedies had not been exhausted; and 4) no claim of any denial of justice or other breach of an international obligation was made until 1933, ten years after the events and eight years after a refusal of a request ex gratia in which it had been admitted that no legal claim could be made. Sir Eric explained that the United Kingdom, although it took the preliminary objection that the Court had no jurisdiction, had filed a comprehensive counter-memorial on the merits of the case in order that the Greek government's aspersions on the administration of justice in the English High Court and Court of Appeal should not appear on the record unrefuted. Further, the United Kingdom denied that the terms of the 1886 or 1926 treaties (or the declaration appended to the latter) between the two governments lent any support to the Greek government's claims on behalf of Mr. Ambatielos.

The sixth session of the Food and Agriculture Organization Conference, held from November 19 to December 7, 1951 in Rome,1 elected Amintore Fanfani (Italy) chairman and reappointed Norris E. Dodd Director-General for an additional two-year period. On November 21, 1951 the conference voted to admit to FAO Argentina by 53 votes to 0, Japan by 47 votes to 0, Nepal by 49 votes to 1, and Laos by 44 votes to 2.

Between July 1,1951 and March 31,1952,1 the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development made fourteen loans totalling $212,658,000, bringing total loan commitments as of March 31, 1952 to $1,326,183,000. Through this period, the Bank continued to advise member governments in the preparation and execution of specific development programs and of general programs for economic development in member countries and their territories.

The fifteenth session of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, meeting in Montreal, January 29 and April 2, 1952, referred thequestion of retroactive applications of amendments to Annex 1 of International Standards and Recommended Practices to the Air Navigation Commission for continued study; adopted amendment 1 to Annex 12 (Search and Rescue) and pertinent recommendations of the Air Navigation Commission; and accepted amendment 4 to Annex 10 (Aeronautical Telecommunications). In its discussion of secondment policy, the Council directed the Secretary-General (Ljunberg) to report to the Council on recruitment by the employment of secondment, as envisaged by the ICAO Service Code, and referred to a working group proposals for the revision of staff policy. The Council decided that the special conference for the finalization of a revised Rome Convention on Damage Caused by Foreign Aircraft to Third Parties on the Surface scheduled to convene in Rome on September 9, 1952 should be open to all states, including non-contracting states which were Members of the United Nations, and Rumania, and agreed to include in the documentation for the Rome conference the interpretation of the Air Transport Committee of the Council's insurance resolution of December 6, 1950 to the effect that the resolution was intended to establish maximum limits of state action to cover all forms of international air navigation.

The sixth report of the International Labor Organization to the United Nations noted that, in the preparation of the 1953 program of ILO, the organization had found itself faced with the necessity of distinguishing between what was essential and what was desirable. “The criteria for this distinction have been the financial capacity of Governments to pay.’ Two general objectives toward which all ILO activities were directed were methods of increasing labor productivity and action to secure and maintain full employment. However, it was emphasized that these were long-range objectives which could not be measured in the “arbitrary time limit” of a single year. Shifts in emphasis in ILO's program were more apparent in different types of activity within these general fields rather than in the adoption of a different program. For example, the report continued, in 1950 when there appeared that a threat of recession in the United States and Europe existed, ILO placed particular emphasis on problems of full employment; since that time, ILO had placed increasing emphasis on problems of underemployment in underdeveloped countries.

On January 3, 1952, the International Monetary Fund1 announced that Burmahad signed the Articles of Agreement, becoming the fifty-first member of the Fund. Burma's quota in the Fund was designated at $15,000,000.

Par Values: The Fund announced on January 17 the establishment of the initial par value for the Ceylon rupee at 4.76190 rupees per United States dollar.

The last annual report of the International Refugee Organization to the United Nations summarized the work of IRO and its predecessors from the decision by the General Assembly on February 12, 1946 to establish the organization to March 1, 1952 when IRO entered its period of liquidation. During this time, ninety percent of the refugees registered with IRO had been repatriated, resettled or otherwise assisted; over one million persons had been resettled while over 73,000 had been repatriated to their countries of origin or former residence. During the period from July 1, 1947 to February 7, 1952 the organization had received contributions from member governmentstotalling $398,596,802.

The sixth meeting of the Administrative Council of the International Telecommunication Union was held in Geneva, April 16–May 26, 1951. The seventh session was to begin on April 9, 1952. Because of the nearness of the Plenipotentiary Conference of ITU, the agenda of the seventh session was limited to administrative and fiscal problems.

Under the terms of the extension of the time limit for the signing of the Torquay Protocol, granted by the sixth session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the protocol was signed by the United Kingdom on December 19 and by Denmark on December 21, 1951, bringing to 31 the number of signatories. On December 27, Brazil notified the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Lie) of its intention to apply the tariff concessions of the Annecy Protocol and on December 31, 1951, India signed the First Protocol of Rectifications and Modifications and the First Protocol of Supplementary Concessions to GATT. The number of the contracting parties to GATT was increased to 34 with the accession, during the sixth session, of Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Peru and Turkey.

The twenty-ninth session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris, March 13–April 7, 1952, devoted most of its attention to the draft program and budget for 1953 and 1954. In presenting the drafts, the Secretary-General (Torres-Bodet) pointed out that they had been prepared, insofar as possible, to allow for a probable gap between UNESCO's actual resources and its theoretical budget brought about by members in arrears in contributions. In addition, the suggestions of the General Conference and the Economic and Social Council on program priorities had been followed. If UNESCO were to maintain its present level of activity, he continued, it would be necessary for the assessed budgets for each of the years 1953 and 1954 to be $9,895,029, an increase of $1,267,029 each year over the 1952 figure. Any expansion of the program, and the Director-General several times expressed opposition to stabilizing the program at its present level, would involve an even greater increase.

The Executive and Liaison Committee of the Universal Postal Union held its sixth meeting in Berne, Switzerland, January 21 to 28, 1952. The Committee made recommendations to the forthcoming Congress on such questions as revision of the Paris Acts concerning parcel post, harmonizing the Acts of UPU and the Geneva Conventions in matters of freedom of postage to war victims and air mail.

At the request of the Director-General (Chisholm) of the World Health Organization, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Lie) transmitted on March 20, 1952 to the People's Republic of China and the People's Democratic Republic of North Korea WHO's offer of assistance in controlling reported epidemics in north Korea. Two further telegrams were sent on March 27 and April 3 but no acknowledgment or reply had been received.

By March 1952, the total membership of the World Meteorological Organization had been increased to seventy-five–fifty-two states and twenty-three territories – by the following ratifications of the World Meteorological Convention: Ceylon, Ecuador, Denmark, Haiti, Netherlands (on behalf of Surinam, Curaçao and New Guinea) and Cuba