The resumed 24th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was held on December 10 and 13, 1957, under the presidency of Mr. Mohammad Mir Khan (Pakistan). The Council elected as members of the Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organization, Brazil, China, France, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Council also elected Morocco to membership on the Technical Assistance Committee to replace the Sudan, which had been elected to ECOSOC, thereby becoming ineligible for TAC as a nonmember of the Council. The appointment of a number of members of ECOSOC commissions was subsequently confirmed by the Council.

Case concerning the Aerial Incident of July 27th, 1955 (Israel v. Bulgaria): On October 16, 1957, Israel filed an application instituting proceedings against the People's Republic of Bulgaria regarding an aerial incident which occurred on July 27, 1955. The application recalled that on that date an aircraft belonging to an Israeli airline company was shot down on Bulgarian territory by the Bulgarian Security Forces, fifty-one passengers and seven crew members being killed. The government of Israel requested the Court to declare Bulgarian responsibility under international law for the damage caused and to determine the amount of compensation.

The following summary covers the activities of the Security Council from its 827th meeting through its 839th meeting (July 15—August 28, 1958).

The eleventh session of the General Assembly reconvened on September 10, 1957, to consider further for nine meetings the question of Hungary in the light of the report of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary. Prior to the general debate Mr. Shann (Australia), rapporteur of the special committee, pointed out that the members of the committee, as instructed by the Assembly, had directed their attention to the situation created by the intervention of armed forces of the Soviet Union in Hungary on October 24, 1956. Stressing the judicial and fair-minded attitude of the committee, Mr. Shann commented on the converging nature of the evidence it had procured in the testimony of witnesses, documentation provided by Hungarian newspapers and radio reports issued during the uprising, statements of the present Hungarian government, and information provided by governments with diplomatic representatives in Budapest at the time of the occurrence. Speaking on a point of order, the representative of Hungary, subsequently endorsed by the Soviet delegate, asserted that the issue under discussion concerned measures taken by the Hungarian government to crush a counter-revolutionary attack, a domestic issue beyond the competence of an international organization to investigate. He concluded that the establishment of the special committee had been illegal and, therefore, requested the General Assembly to remove the item from the agenda. In accordance with a ruling of the President of the Assembly, however, it was decided to proceed with the debate.

The Trusteeship Council held its 22d session at UN headquarters from June 9 to August 5, 1958, under the presidency of Mr. Claeys Bouuaert (Belgium). The provisional agenda which the Council adopted included the examination of the annual reports on the administration of Togoland under French administration, New Guinea, Nauru, the Pacific Islands, Somaliland under Italian administration, and Western Samoa, as well as petitions relating to trust territories, arrangements for periodic visiting missions to trust territories in West Africa and in the Pacific in 1958 and 1959 respectively, matters referred to the Council by the General Assembly, and other matters.

The Trusteeship Council held its twentyfirst session at UN headquarters from January 20 to March 28, 1958, under the presidency of Mr. Emilio Arenales Catalan (Guatemala). The provisional agenda, adopted by the Council, included the examination of the annual reports on the administration of Ruanda-Urundi, the Cameroons under British administration, the Cameroons under French administration, and Tanganyika and also petitions relating to trust territories, questions referred to the Council by the General Assembly, and other matters.

The 24th session of the Economic and Social Council was held in Geneva from July 2 through August 2, 1957. Mr. M. Mir Khan (Pakistan) continued as President of the Council.

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 Trusteeship Council held its twentieth session at UN headquarters from May 20 to July 16, 1957, under the presidency of Mr. John D. L. Hood (Australia). The provisional agenda, amended and subsequently adopted by the Council, included the examination of annual reports on the administration of Tanganyika, New Guinea, Nauru, the trust territory of the Pacific Islands, Somaliland under Italian administration, and Western Samoa, as well as the consideration of matters referred to the Council by the General Assembly, petitions relating to the trust territories, and reports from the Council's various committees.

Secretary-General Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold in the introduction to his thirteenth annual report on the work of the Organization, June 16, 1957–June 15, 1958/ drew attention to some aspects of recent developments since the opening of the twelfth session of the General Assembly. He first dealt with the question of disarmament, observing that although new and serious difficulties had arisen to prevent pursuing the work in forms which had been followed in past years, efforts had been made Co approach one aspect of the problem from a new angle. In this context he referred to the meeting of experts from eight countries, representing both sides, which had convened in Geneva in the summer of 1958 to study the technical possibility of detecting violations of a possible agreement to suspend nuclear weapons tests. These experts agreed on what would be needed, from the technical point of view, and thus, by isolating certain non-political, scientific elements from the politically controversial elements in the total problem of disarmament, reduced the area of conflict some what. Mr. Hammarskjold suggested that it might be worth considering whether those elements of the problem of disarmament lending themselves to objective study by experts in science and technology, in military experience, and in law might not be singled out for separate treatment in a similar manner. The Secretary General noted that with the successful conclusion of the technical discussions at Geneva, all the present atomic powers had taken initiatives in the direction of a suspension of further weapons tests. The growing awareness of the increasing dangers of the continuing arms race might, Mr. Hammarskjold remarked, be reflected in the debates of the UN, were the General Assembly to resume discussion of disarmament under the item which he had proposed for the thirteenth session.

The twelfth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was held in Washington, D.C., September 23–26, 1957, under the chairmanship of Miguel Cuaderno, Sr. The meeting included four plenary sessions, two of which were held jointly with the International Monetary Fund, and two meetings of the Joint Procedures Committee.

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 twelfth annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, covering the fiscal year July 1, 1956, to June 30, 1957, was presented to the Board of Governors on September 23, 1957. Citing the increased economic activity in most of the Bank's member countries as a factor favorable to the operations of the Bank, the report noted that the twenty loans during the year had amounted to $388 million and had brought the gross total of Bank loans to $3,108 million, made up of 170 loans in 45 member countries and territories. Loans for the development of electric power had constituted $108 million, more than a quarter of the amount lent in the year, while loans made to industry had amounted to $95 million, and those for agriculture and transport each had accounted for about $55 million. Concerning the Bank's financial operations, the report stated that the year's net income, exclusive of receipts from loan commissions, had amounted to $36 million, which had been credited to a Supplemental Reserve against losses on loans and guarantees. Receipts from the commission of 1 percent charged on the outstanding balance of all loans had amounted to $17 million and, credited to a Special Reserve, had increased total reserves to $289 million. Gross income for the year, excluding loan commissions, had amounted to $74 million; expenses had been $38 million, of which nearly $30 million had been the interest paid on the Bank's funded debt. During the year under review total principal repayments to the Bank had amounted to $63 million.

The convention establishing the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) came into effect on March 17, 1958. The convention, which had been drawn up at the United Nations Maritime Conference in Geneva in 1948, came into force when Japan ratified the convention, there by fulfilling the requirement that 21 states must become parties before the convention was to come into effect. A twelve member preparatory committee, which held two sessions in 1948, was to meet at UN headquarters during the spring of 1958 to prepare for the first session of the organization's assembly or legislative body.

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) held its 32d session from September 30 to December 16, 1957. The Council devoted considerable attention to the planning of meetings. Since the sum appropriated by the 1956 Assembly for meetings in 1958 was approximately half of the amount required for carrying out the planned program, the Council approved the convening of only nine meetings and recommended to the next Assembly that budgetary provision should be made to permit additional ones. During its next session the Council would consider the problem of the tendency towards longer meetings and the resulting increase in cost.

Case concerning the Arbitral Award Made by the King of Spain on December 23rd, 1906 (Honduras v. Nicaragua): On July 1, 1958, Honduras filed an application instituting proceedings against Nicaragua concerning an arbitral award made by the King of Spain with regard to the demarcation of the limits between the two countries. According to Article 5 of the Bonilla-Gamez Treaty which determined the limits, certain points in dispute might, in certain circumstances, be referred to the decision of the government of Spain. Thus an arbitration was requested from the King of Spain in October 1904, and the award was made on December 23, 1906. The application stated that, when the time came to proceed to the delimitation, Nicaragua contended that the arbitral award was a nullity and that it was not possible to resolve the dispute by diplomatic means or through the mediation of friendly nations and governments. Under the resolution adopted by the Organization of American States on July 5, 1957, the governments of Honduras and Nicaragua concluded an agreement at Washington on July 21, 1957, by virtue of which their dispute should be referred to the International Court of Justice. In its application Honduras requested the Court to declare that Nicaragua's failure to give effect to the arbitral award of 1906 constituted a breach of an international obligation and that Nicaragua was under an obligation to carry out the award.

The 30th session of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) took place in Montreal from January 28 to April 18, 1957. In its consideration of the problems of air navigation, the Council, upon a recommendation of the Third Air Navigation Conference as endorsed by the Air Navigation Commission, approved the establishment of an Airworthiness Committee and noted the proposal of the Air Navigation Commission for its work program. The Council also agreed that the Air Navigation Commission should on its own authority take action on the provisional AMC's (Acceptable Means of Compliance) prepared by the Airworthiness Committee. A report by the Air Navigation Commission on signals to be used when an aircraft has infringed on restricted airspace was endorsed by the Council, which decided that a paper on the legal aspects of the question should be prepared as soon as practicable. In accordance with a resolution of the tenth session of the Assembly, the Council approved the establishment of a panel of statistical experts nominated by the following countries: Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the legal field, the Council accepted the invitation of the Japanese government to hold the eleventh session of the Legal Committee in Tokyo in September 1957 and referred a report by the Air Transport Committee on the economic aspects of the liability limits on the proposed Convention on Aerial Collisions to the Legal Committee.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development on March 1, 1958, announced a loan equivalent to $75 million to the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, a governmental agency for industry, agriculture, and electric power development in southern Italy. The loan, in which more than twenty financial institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States, and Canada participated, was for a term of twenty years and bore interest of 5½ percent, including the 1 percent commission allocated to the Bank's Special Reserve. Amortization on the loan, which was guaranteed by the Republic of Italy, was to begin on February 15, 1961.

The 27th session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was held in Rome from October 31 to November 1, 1957. In considering the provisional agenda for the ninth session of the FAO Conference/ the Council recommended a number of amendments and a rearrangement of certain items in the Director-General's program for work for 1958–1959. The Council approved various reports for submission to the Conference: that of the subcommittee on rules of procedure and financial regulations, containing proposed draft amendments to the constitution; that of the 29th session of the committee on commodity problems; and that of the 24th session of the committee on financial control.

The 137th session of the Governing Body of the International Labor Organization (ILO) was held in Geneva from October 29 to November 1, 1957, under the chairmanship of E. Calderon Puig. The Governing Body devoted three sittings to the consideration of matters concerning freedom of association, in connection with which it received from the Director-General a report on the establishment of machinery to determine the facts relating to freedom of association in ILO member states. The report contained proposals to strengthen ILO methods of promoting respect for freedom of association under regular constitutional machinery through factual inquiries and the establishment of independent machinery for the adjustment of disputes. Several members of the Governing Body felt that prior to forming the proposed body the definition of freedom of association would require clarification, while others felt that the tripartite principle should be introduced into the suggested independent commission or that a body representing the Governing Body should be installed between the commission and the Governing Body.