The eighteenth annual report of the Bank for International Settlements, which reviewed the period from April 1, 1947, to March 31, 1948, called for abandonment of the wartime type of direct controls on prices, production and trade, and the restoration of a functioning price system, operating under well-controlled monetary regimes. The report, the most comprehensive ever issued by the Bank, dealt in detail with such topics as 1) recovery and set-back in 1947, 2) restoration of monetary order, 3) price movements, 4) the tense position of international trade, 5) foreign exchange rates, 6) production and movements of gold, 7) international credit conditions and the trend of interest rates, 8) European payment agreements, multilateral monetary compensation and the European Recovery Program, and 9) current activities of the Bank. Reference was made to the fact that the Bank for International Settlements had acceded to a request to act as technical agent for the Agreement on Multilateral Monetary Compensation, signed in Paris on November 18, 1947. Practical compensation operations under this agreement were begun in December 1947.

Desiring to conclude an agreement for the purpose of carrying out the resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 14 December 1946 to establish the seat of the United Nations in the City of New York and to regulate questions arising as a result thereof;

Following a decision of the Rubber Study Group at its fourth meeting, a Permanent Secretariat with headquarters in London was established by the Management Committee in 1947, with A. G. Pawson as secretary and W. G. G. Kellett as senior statistician. The secretariat's primary activity was to be to provide the Group with information on the statistical situation and general world economic conditions as related to rubber.

Nineteen member governments, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations were represented at the seventh meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Committee held at Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt, from April 1 to 8, 1947.

The Mandate for Palestine shall be terminated at the earliest practicable date.

Among the reasons for this unanimous conclusion are the following:

a. All directly interested parties — the Mandatory Power, Arabs and Jews — are in full accord that there is urgent need fora change in the status of Palestine. The Mandatory Power has officially informed the Committee “that the Mandate has proved to be unworkable in practice, and that the obligations undertaken to the two communities in Palestine have been shown to be irreconcilable”. Both Arabs and Jews urge the termination of the Mandate and the grant of independence to Palestine, although they are in vigorous disagreement as to the form that independence should take.

The second meeting of the International Tin Study Group was held in Washington from April 19 to 24, 1948, to review the world tin situation and examine the statistical position regarding production, consumption and stocks since the first meeting held at Brussels in April 1947. Delegates attended from Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, British Colonies, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, France, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Siam, United Kingdom, and the United States; observers were present representing the United Nations, Pan American Union, InternationalBank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Tin Research Institute.

A. The Interim Committee should study the categories of decisions which the Security Council is required to make in carrying out the functions entrusted to it under the Charter and the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and should report to the General Assembly those categories of decisions which in its judgment, in order to ensure the effective exercise by the Security Council of its responsibilities under the Charter, should be made by an affirmative vote of seven members of the Security Council, whether or not such categories are regarded as procedural or non-procedural. (A provisional proposed list of such categories is attached.)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLEY,

HAVING MET in special session at the request of the Mandatory Power to constitute and instruct a Special Committee to prepare for the consideration of the question of the future government of Palestine at the second regular session;

The fifth meeting of the Rubber Study Group, attended by delegates of fifteen nations and observers from several international organizations, was held in Washington from April 26 to 29, 1948.

The Group examined the rubber statistical position and made estimates for natural rubber production and total consumption of natural and synthetic rubber during 1948 and provisionally for 1949. Production for 1948 was estimated at approximately 1,390,000 tons with total consumption nearly 1,745,000 tons. Production in 1949 was expected to reach 1,550,000 tons while consumption would remain at the 1948 level.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

CONSCIOUS of the responsibility specifically conferred upon it by the Charter in relation to matters concerning the maintenance of international peace and security (Articles 11 and 35), the promotion of international co-operation in the political field (Article 13) and the peaceful adjustment of any situations likely to impair the general welfare or friendly relations among nations (Article 14);

1. The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, referred to in this agreement as the parties, hereby agree as follows:

That a stand fast and cease fire order be issued separately and simultaneously by both parties immediately upon the signing of this agreement and to be fully effective within forty-eight hours. This order will apply to the troops of both parties along the boundary lines of the areas described in the proclamation of the Netherlands Indies Government on 29 August 1947, which shall be called the status quo line, and in the areas specified in the following paragraph.

The Committee of Good Offices has been informed by the delegation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and by the delegation of the Republic of Indonesia that, the truce agreement having been signed, their Governments accept the following principles on which the political discussions will be based:

1. That the assistance of the Committee of Good Offices be continued in the working out and signing of an agreement for the settlement of the political dispute in the islands of Java, Sumatra and Madura, based upon the principles underlying the Linggadjati Agreement.

1. WHEREAS

The peoples of the United Nations have expressed in the Charter of the United Nations their determination to practice tolerance and to live together in peace with one another as good neighbours and to unite their strength to maintain international peace and security; and to that end the Members of the United Nations have obligated themselves to carry out the purposes and principles of the Charter;

The Atomic Energy Commission reports that it has reached an impasse.

In almost two years of work, the Commission has accomplished much and has succeeded in making clear the essentials of a plan for the control of atomic energy, in fulfillment of the objectives of the resolution of the General Assembly of 24 January 1946.2 Nevertheless, it considers that it cannot now prepare a draft treaty “incorporating its ultimate proposals” as urged by the resolution3 of the Security Council of 10 March 1947.

On November 17, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the following Resolution:

“The General Assembly,

Considering Article 4 of the Charter of the United Nations,

Considering the exchange of views which has taken place in the Security Council at its Two hundred and fourth, Two hundred and fifth and Two hundred and sixth Meetings, relating to the admission of certain States to membership in the United Nations,

Considering Article 96 of the Charter,

Requests the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on the following question:

Is a Member of the United Nations which is called upon, in virtue of Article 4 of the Charter, to pronounce itself by its vote, either in the Security Council or in the General Assembly, on the admission of a State to membership in the United Nations, juridically entitled to make its consent to the admission dependent on conditions not expressly provided by paragraph 1 of the said Article? In particular, can such a Member, while it recognizes the conditions set forth in that provision to be fulfilled by the State concerned, subject its affirmative vote to the additional condition that other States be admitted to membership in the United Nations together with that State?

Instructs the Secretary-General to place at the disposal of the Court the records of the above-mentioned meetings of the Security Council.”

INASMUCH AS the Korean question which is before the general Assembly is primarily a matter for the Korean people itself and concerns its freedom and independence; and

The Committee of Good Offices is of the opinion that the following principles, among others, form a basis for the negotiations towards a political settlement:

1. Sovereignty throughout the Netherlands Indies is and shall remain with the Kingdom of the Netherlands until, after a stated interval, the Kingdom of the Netherlands transfers its sovereignty to the United States of Indonesia. Prior to the termination of such stated interval, the Kingdom of the Netherlands may confer appropriate rights, duties and responsibilities on a provisional federal government of the territories of the future United States of Indonesia. The United States of Indonesia, when created, will be a sovereign and independent State in equal partnership with the Kingdom of the Netherlands in a Netherlands-Indonesian Union at the head of which shall be the King of the Netherlands. The status of the Republic of Indonesia will be that of a state within the United States of Indonesia.

Recognizing the determination of the United Nations to create conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations,

TheParties to this Charter undertake in the fields of trade and employment to co-operate with one another and with the United Nations

For the Purpose of

Realizing the aims set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, particularly the attainment of the higher standards of living, full employment and conditions of economic and social progress and development, envisaged in Article 55 of that Charter.

1. This agreement, which is entered into by the United Nations pursuant to the provisions of Article 63 of its Charter, and by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (hereinafter called the Bank) pursuant to the provisions of section 8 (a) of article V of its Articles of Agreement, is intended to define the terms of which the United Nations and the Bank shall be brought into relationship.

The Government of Chile has noted that on 10 March Mr. Jan Papanek, Permanent Representative of Czechoslovakia accredited to the United Nations, sent you a communication requesting that the Security Council should consider the events which had taken place in his country since 22 February last on the grounds that they constitute a situation endangering the maintenance of international peace and security.