The Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held its 26th session in Madrid, June 3–14, 1957, under the chairmanship of S. A. Hasnie. During its discussion of current FAO activities the Council 1) decided to accept the invitation of the United States government to act as host to the fifth World Forestry Congress in 1960; 2) agreed to the proposed procedures for organizing the second session of the joint Food and Agriculture Organization/Economic Commission for Europe Committee on Forestry Working Techniques and the Training of Forest Workers, which was to be held in Moscow in September 1957; 3) established the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission to promote improvements in inland fisheries and to give advice on the matter; 4) approved certain budgetary amendments to the constitution of the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease; 5) received the report of a mission which had been appointed in 1951 to examine the Moroccan agricultural and food supply situation arising from drought conditions, noted subsequent developments and the intentions of several governments to assist Morocco, and requested the Director-General to keep the situation under review and to take further steps which might be necessary; and 6) requested the Director-General to examine the advisability of establishing a committee on settlement, resettlement, and agrarian reform, as proposed by the government of Israel.

The Indonesian question was before the Security Council twice in the period under review. On December 19, 1947, the Council decided without vote that Australia should continue as a member of the Committee of Good Offices after January 1, 1948, despite the expiration of its term as a member of the Security Council. From February 17 to February 28, 1948, the Council discussed the first interim report of the Committee of Good Offices.

The ninth session of the Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) met in Geneva, November 13–19, 1958. At the opening meeting of the Council the government of Panama was welcomed as the 28th member of ICEM. On November 14, the Council approved two pilot projects for developing services to assist migrants and the governments of emigration and immigration countries. One was the establishment of an international vocational training center at Cattolica vocational training center at Cattolica in Italy to train workers for emigration to overseas immigration countries, as well as for intra-European emigration. The second project was the organization of a training course for immigration and placement officers to be set up by migration officials of the Canadian government; the task of this course was to give theoretical and practical training to officials of various immigration countries to fit them for selection, counselling, and placement of immigrants. At the same meeting, the Council decided to make fresh appeals for further financial contributions from its member governments to pay for transport of European refugees from the Far East to countries of asylum.

The major international economic institutions established after World War II, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), had the economic disintegration of the Great Depression as their historical heritage. The lessons learned from that experience were twofold: National governments can and should take an active role in achieving national economic stabilization objectives, and one state's economic policies can and often will work at cross-purposes with those of another. The role of international institutions in such circumstances is to harmonize national policies so that international conflict is avoided.

On April 1, 1948, following lengthy discussion of methods of implementing the General Assembly resolution of November 29, 1947, concerning the partition of Palestine, the Security Council approved a resolution calling for the convening of a special session of the Assembly. The resolution requested the Secretary General “in accordance with Article 20 of the United Nations Charter, to convoke a special session of the General Assembly to consider further the question of the future government of Palestine.”

Amos Perlmutter has raised an interesting series of points in his commentary on my recent article concerning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). As I understand the crux of his argument, it is as follows. “From the outset UNRWA was a political organization” (p. 307). Despite this fact I have displayed a “low level of political judgment” (p. 306) which has led me to focus neither on the decisions rendered by UNRWA's commissioner-general nor on the future impact of UNRWA and the ways in which it can contribute to stability in the Middle East. Presumably these latter two types of analysis would be “high-level political judgments” (p. 308).

Report to the General Assembly: In accordance with a resolution adopted during the fourth regular session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the fourth report of IAEA to the UN General Assembly consisted of the annual report of the Board of Governors to the General Conference, covering the period July 1, 1959, to June 30, 1960, together with a supplement dealing with developments, including action taken by the General Conference, during the period July 1 to September 30, 1960. The report noted that during the period under review the preparatory activities of the Agency had begun to bear fruit and that in most domains the year had been the first full year of normal operations. One of the main goals of the Agency, the report continued, was to foster the safe use of nuclear power under economically competitive conditions, but in this area there were still innumerable problems to overcome. Since the cost of generating electricity from nuclear power plants, although steadily declining, was still substantially higher than that of producing conventional power except in a few special cases, the earlier nuclear power plans of a number of countries had been revised and construction of plants was not proceeding at the rate foreseen some years ago. With regard to reactor technology, the Board reported that work was being done to improve the performance of reactors and to reduce their costs of operation by detailed technical modifications, although the cost of research on advanced reactor concepts was so high that only a very few major industrial countries had the necessary material resources to conduct such research. While the Board considered it unlikely that nuclear—propelled ships would become economically competitive with conventional ships in the near future, progress had been made in this sphere in the year under review, as witnessed by the commissioning of a nuclearpropelled ice-breaker and the launching of the first nuclear merchant ship.

Following months of preliminary planning and negotiation, the first concrete steps toward the establishment of an International Trade Organization were taken by the Preparatory Committee of the International Conference on Trade and Employment, which met in London from October 15 to November 26, 1946. Called by the Secretary-General of the United Nations pursuant to a resolution of February 18, 1946, of the Economic and Social Council, the meeting was the first of a series of conferences to consider the possible integration of national trade policies and the removal of trade barriers on a world-wide scale. Its work, however, has been essentially preparatory in scope; its recommendations are not binding upon the governments represented.

Australia is a nation small and vulnerable enough to need great power guarantees of territorial integrity, yet at the same time strong and stable enough to constitute an asset in any joint undertaking. The quality of being a small power dependent on the support of the great powers Australia shares with the countries of Southeast Asia, and in particular with the Southeast Asian states linked up with the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). But it is less exposed to immediate dangers, is more modern and industrialized than its near-northern neighbors, and hence is also capable of serving as an independent source of strength and of assuming a role somewhat akin to that of the great powers in SEATO. Australia's membership role in SEATO is, in effect, defined by these two basic conditions.

The tenth session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was held in Rome from October 31 through November 20, 1959. In its review of the world situation and oudook the Conference noted with satisfaction that in 1958 a 4 percent increase in world agricultural production had followed the temporary pause in expansion of the previous year, when harvests in many areas had been reduced by bad weather. The information available to the Conference indicated that world production would again rise in the 1959 season, though the increase would probably not be so great as in 1958, and that variable weather conditions were likely to result in considerable differences between regions and between individual commodities. The Conference expressed concern, however, over the fact that the greater part of the 1958 increase had been contributed by the technically advanced countries and that, apart from a substantial increase reported in mainland China, gains had generally been small in the less developed regions, where a rapid increase of agricultural production was urgently needed. In addition, much of the increase in production had not moved into consumption. The large cereal crops of 1958, especially in the United States, had led to a sharp rise in unsold stocks of wheat and coarse grains, and coffee and sugar stocks had also increased markedly. Thus, despite the existence of surplus stocks, the less developed countries could not afford to import sufficient food to ensure the adequate nutrition of their rapidly growing populations, and the problems of rural poverty and inadequate food supplies which characterized most of them could be overcome only by a build-up of dieir agricultures and a balanced development of their economies. Another adverse factor affecting the less developed countries had been the recession in economic activity in most of the industrialized countries in the two years since the previous session of the Conference, for the volume of exports of industrial raw materials had fallen by some 8 percent in 1958, thus decreasing the needed export earnings of the less developed countries. The Conference also expressed its concern at the slackening in the increase of production in relation to population, particularly in the less developed regions, during the last few years, as the average annual increase in world food production had recently been only about 0.5 percent above the average population growth of 1.6 percent, in contrast to the margin of some 1.5 percent that had been achieved in the earlier part of the postwar period.

Case concerning the Guardianship of an Infant (Netherlands v. Sweden): In an order of April 17, 1958, the International Court of Justice fixed the following timelimits for the filing of further pleadings in the case concerning the guardianship of an infant: for the reply of the government of the Netherlands, June 18, 1958; and for the rejoinder of the government of Sweden, August 28, 1958.

The eighteenth plenary meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Committee was held in Washington, May 14–22, 1959. Governments from 34 countries were represented as members and 24 attended as observers; representatives from ten international organizations were also in attendance. Eight resolutions were adopted by the plenary meeting, the first four of which were concerned with budgetary matters. The fifth dealt with the future work program and instructed the secretariat to prepare a statement on government regulations on cotton and a report on harsh short staple cotton; the secretariat was also instructed to keep under review the extra-long staple cotton situation, to investigate the possibility of a similar survey on long staple cottons, and to provide as much information as possible on the effect of competition from the Soviet Union, communist China, and eastern Europe on world markets for cotton and cotton textiles. The sixth resolution drew attention to the present surplus situation of extra-long staples and indicated the desirability of convening a special meeting to examine the problems of this commodity with attention to production plans and policies, price and export policies, and steps needed to encourage consumption.

The Administrative Council of ‘the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) held its fourteenth session in Geneva from May 19 to June 12, 1959, under the chairmanship of Mr. Alfred F. Langenberger (Switzerland). In preparation for the 1959 conferences, the Council decided to prepare a report for submission to the forthcoming Administrative Radio Conference relating to the implementation of the Atlantic City Table of Frequency Allocations; the report summarized the action taken by the Council with respect to the situation prior to the Extraordinary Administrative Radio Conference, held in Geneva in 1951, and with respect to that arising from the decisions of that Conference. As usual during the session of the Council prior to a Plenipotentiary Conference, the Council also drew up its report to the 1959 Conference on the recent activities of the Union, including questions calling for special attention by the Conference. In its final form, the report was in three parts: Part I related to the activities of the Council and ITU from 1953 to 1959; Part II dealt with the staff and finances of the Union; and Part III covered the various questions to be brought to the attention of the Plenipotentiary Conference. Chief among these matters were the possible assimilation of Union salaries, allowances, and pensions to those of the UN common system, the possible introduction of a consolidated budget and a Working Capital Fund, and problems set by the “ceiling” for the ordinary expenses of the Union.

The 28th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1067th to the 1089th meetings inclusive, was held in Geneva from June 30 through July 31, I959.1 Mr. Daniel Cosío Villegas (Mexico) presided. After it was announced that Mr. Zahiruddin Ahmed (Pakistan), who had been elected second Vice-President at the 27th session, would be prevented by certain duties in his own country from attending the 28th session, Mr. Faruqi (Pakistan) was elected to that position.

Quadripartite Activity: Failure to find a solution of the Berlin currency problem after the question had been considered by the United Nations Security Council was evident when the replies of the western powers and the Soviet Union to Dr. Juan Atilio Bramuglia's questions about the problem were made public on November 26, 1948. The Soviet reply stated that an agreement on the four-power control plan would mean the simultaneous lifting of the Berlin blockade and a return to four-power collaboration in the administration of Berlin, which in effect would mean resumption of direct conversations on the currency questions among the four military governors. The western powers made it clear that they considered the unity of Berlin city administration as the basic prerequisite for an agreement. Several days later, on November 30, a city government was installed in the Soviet sector of Berlin, with Friedrich Ebert as its mayor and on December 21, the western military governments announced formal reconstitution of the Allied Kommandatura on a three-power basis. In announcing the move, Brig. Gen. Jean Ganeval, French sector commandant, stated that fourparty administration of the city could be resumed any time that Soviet authorities decided to abide by agreements to which the four powers were committed.

The first days of December, 1946, saw the completion of the first round of the peace treaties. Except for the verification of the texts and the final arrangements for signature, the treaties with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland were now ready, after fifteen months of back-breaking and often heart-breaking effort. The initial installment of peace-making had, in fact, taken more than fifteen months, for several of the thorniest questions—notably, the disposition of the Italian colonies, freedom of commercial navigation on the Danube, and Italian reparation—had received their preliminary going-over at Potsdam. And at least one question—the disposition of the Italian colonies—had been post-poned for later settlement.

In the name of their Peoples, the Governments represented at the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security, desirous of consolidating and strengthening their relations of friendship and good neighborliness, and

Palestine: Seven months after the first special session of the General Assembly met to consider the question of Palestine, the problem was again before the Assembly. Three agenda items dealt with the topic: 1) the original British proposal for discussion of the question, which had resulted in the convening of the special session, 2) the Report of the Special Committee on Palestine, established by that session, and 3) a proposal by Iraq and Saudi Arabia for termination of the mandate over Palestine and recognition of its independence as a unitary state.