Questions concerning Palestine and United Nations action regarding its future governmental structure were the chief concern of the Arab League during the latter part of 1947.

Although members of the Arab League had earlier cooperated with the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, the presentation of the committee's report on September 3, 1947, brought forth a change of policy. On September 19, the League's political committee, meeting at Sófar, Lebanon, adopted a series of resolutions which denounced the UNSCOP report and threatened armed resistance if it was implemented. The committee not only inveighed against the majority recommendations, which called for a creation of independent Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, but also against the minority recommendation, which suggested a federal state with ‘parity’ between Arabs and Jews.

The fifth meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics was held at Petropolis, Brazil, from August 15 to September 2, 1947. The main task of the conference was to translate into more permanent form the system of inter American collective security established by the Act of Chapultepec. This act, drawn up as a temporary war measure by the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace in March 1945, had for the first time envisaged the use of force by the inter-American system.

General Occupation Affairs: On July 25, 1947, the four High Commissioners for Austria reached formal agreement on occupation costs to be assessed against Austria for the remainder of 1947, a decision which represented considerable reduction of costs and equalization among the powers. The costs for the second quarter of 1947 were fixed at a total of 131 million schillings, the Soviet share amounting to 50 million with 27 million for each of the other zones. For the third quarter occupation costs were to total not more than 120 million schillings, divided equally among the occupying powers. It was also agreed that the amount for the fourth quarter was not to exceed 110 million schillings, to be similarly distributed. Under terms of the United States “pay-as-you-go” plan, the United States was expected to purchase its schilling requirements with dollars, thereby reducing the financial burden to the Austrian Government.

General Occupation Matters: In the period under review, relatively little of significance in the way of four-power agreement issued from the Allied Control Council for Germany. After agreements had been reached in June, 1947, on 1) freedom of exchange of public information in all four zones; 2) the resignation of Dr. Ostrowski and the appointment, on a temporary basis, of Frau Schroeder as Oberburgermeister of Berlin; 3) plans for the democratization of education; and 4) the opening of telephone and telegraph communications between Germany and most of the rest of the world, relatively few agreements were secured except amendments to the property tax law, a general non-mandatory series of recommendations on adult education, and specification of the time and date at which Germany would change from winter to summer time. British and United States representatives submitted lists of plants to be allocated for reparations removals, but no approved action was taken. The Council, however, agreed to make available to Poland, without prejudice to the ultimate question of legal title, seven ships of non-German ownership registered at the Port of Danzig.

On August 17,1947, W. McMahon Ball, the British Commonwealth representative on the Allied Council for Japan, announced his resignation, due to disagreement on certain occupation policies. On September 2 General Douglas Mac-Arthur appointed William J. Sebald as chief of Allied Headquarters' Diplomatic Section and chairman of the Allied Council, succeeding the late George Atcheson, Jr.

Differences between the American and Russian delegations on consultations with Korean political parties arose in the 37th meeting of the Joint Commission on July 2, 1947, and continued unresolved. The basic issue involved in these disputes concerned the composition of the list of parties and organizations to be invited for initial consultation on the formation of a provisional Korean Government. The USSR remained firm in its refusal to allow those parties and organizations falling within the following categories to be included: 1) those not classified by them as social organizations, 2) district and other local organizations, and 3) those which the USSR contended did not intend to support the Moscow decisions, particularly members of the Anti-Trusteeship Committee and similar organizations.

The fifth session of the Council of Foreign Ministers met in London from November 25 to December 15, 1947, to discuss the drafting of peace treaties for Germany and Austria. It met without an agreed agenda and adjourned without agreement. The first ten days were devoted to a discussion of the mechanisms necessary for the preparation of a German treaty, with two sessions devoted to the question of Austria; discussion in the last ten days centered around the problem of the related questions of immediate economic and political unity for Germany and the level of Germany's reparations payments. On most questions, press reports indicated that France, the United Kingdom and the United States were in general agreement, with the Soviet Union in opposition.

In the period under review the Far Eastern Commission approved policy decisions relating to: 1) interim import-export policies for Japan, together with the controls necessary for enforcement; 2) the reduction of Japanese industrial war potential; 3) the supply of food for civilian consumption in Japan. It also approved a proposal that fines collected by the military occupation courts should be set aside as a special fund to be used to defray the costs of Allied occupation.

On June 5, 1947, the Secretary of State of the United States, George C. Marshall, stated that the United States could not proceed much further with its plans to assist European recovery unless the countries themselves reached some agreement as to their requirements and to their own contribution to European recovery. Immediately following this speech at Harvard University, representatives of the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union met in Paris to discuss the possibility of a joint conference on the problem. After the Soviet representative (Molotov) withdrew, sixteen nations, upon the invitation of France and the United Kingdom, met in Paris from July 12 to September 22, 1947, to draw up a joint program for European reconstruction. Participating countries were: United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The European Central Inland Transport Organization, which had been created on September 27, 1945, as a temporary reconstruction organization, was dissolved following its ninth council session on September 29, 1947. In accordance with previous agreement its functions were assumed by a committee created by the Economic Commission for Europe.

Final windup of the activities of the International Emergency Food Council, which replaced the Combined Food Board on June 20, 1946, took place during the latter part of 1947. Formed as an emergency mechanism to recommend allocation of scarce commodities, IEFC was responsible, during the eighteen months of its existence, for the distribution of a major portion of the world's food supply.

The seventeenth annual report of the Bank for International Settlements, which reviewed the period April 1, 1946, to March 31, 1947, covered such topics as 1) the transition from war to peace economy, 2) price movements, 3) recovery of foreign trade, 4) foreign exchange rates, 5) the production and movements of gold, 6) post-war settlements and new foreign lending, 7) internal credit condition, and 8) national economic plans in Europe. Reference was made to the fact that as a result of informal discussions between the President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, a memorandum had been worked out regarding the bases for cooperation between the two organizations. As of June, 1947, the Board of Directors of the Bank included representatives of Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Because of the war Germany and Japan were not represented but were still technically considered to be members.

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;

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 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 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. 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;

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

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.

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