Released on April 30, 1951 the financial statements of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development showed the net income for the nine months ending March 31, 1951 to be $11,483,230. This amount was placed in the General Reserve against losses on loans and guarantees, thus increasing this reserve to $38,481,500. Gross income for the period amounted to $20,567,359 after deducting loan commissions of $4,723,859 which were allocated to the special reserve.

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization met in Montreal from May 22 to June 1, 1951 to consider items which needed to be completed before the opening of the fifth session of the ICAO Assembly on June 5, 1951. Annex 14 of the Convention Standards and Recommended Practices for Aerodromes as adopted differed in some respects from that submitted by the Air Navigation Division; the major change was the elimination of recommendations concerning the application and characteristics of the approach lighting system, Type B (high intensity). Unless a majority of the contracting states disapproved the Annex was to become effective on November 1, 1951 and to be implemented on June 1, 1952 in the case of airdromes used by international air services and on January 1, 1954 of other airdromes used by aircraft engaged in international air navigation. Sixteen amendments to Annex 3 of the Convention — Standards and Recommended Practices for Meteorological Codes — were adopted on the recommendation of the Meteorology Division. They were to become effective on October 1, 1951, and to be implemented on January 1, 1952. Action was also taken on the recommendations of the Committee on Performance of the Air and Operations Division. Report of the Air Navigation Division on its review of the implementation of regional plans in North America, South Pacific, South Atlantic, South American, and African-Indian Ocean Regions were approved. It was noted that in the first two regions there were no deficits in air navigation facilities and services which would seriously affect safety, efficiency or regularity of service.

The fifth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development met simultaneously in Paris from September 6 to 14, 1950 with the Board of Governors of the International Fund. In a supplementary report by the President to the Board, Mr. Black announced that the Bank had informed the government of Iran of its willingness to open discussions for a loan of up to $3 million to meet the foreign exchange requirements for the project for rehabilitation and expansion of the port of Khorramshahr, and that the Bank had concluded its preliminary review of the proposed development program for southern Italy. The Bank notified the Italian government that it was prepared to send representatives to Italy immediately to examine the technical features of the program and to select individual projects which might be suitable for Bank financing. Between July 1, 1949 and September 1, 1950 the Bank made sixteen loans totalling $315.7 million bringing the total of loans granted up to September 1, 1950 to $965.8 million. On September 14 the board approved the reports of the Committee on Organization and Administration, of the Executive Directors on the establishment of reserve and disposition of surplus, and approved the recommendation that a study be made of the Advisory Council and that until the study was completed the election of new members to the council be deferred. At the September 15 meeting nine Executive Directors were elected to serve two-year terms. Czechoslovakia abstained from voting and was therefore not represented on the new board. At the same time, the Executive Directors representing the five largest stockholders of the Bank were appointed: one each from the United States, United Kingdom, China, France and India.

The eleventh session of the Council met in Washington on November 13 and 14,1950. In accordance with the decision of the special session of the Conference providing for the continuation of the Committee on Commodity Problems, the Council agreed to invite the following governments, representatives of which had been serving on the committee, to continue as members of the newly constituted committee: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Indonesia, Pakistan, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay. For economy reasons it was decided that the headquarters for the committee should be transferred to Rome simultaneously with the transfer of the headquarters of the organization; only then would adequate servicing for the committee be available.

On April 14, 1951 the headquarters agreement between the government of Canada and the International Civil Aviation Organization was signed in Montreal. The agreement provided for the recognition of ICAO, on the part of the Canadian government, as an international organization composed of sovereign states members and as a specialized agency in relationship with the United Nations. The organization, its assets, and its property enjoyed the same immunity from suit and judicial process as enjoyed by foreign governments although ICAO could waive the immunity in certain circumstances. The headquarters premises, its archives and documents were inviolable, its property was exempt from any search or other interference except with the consent of the Secretary-General. Certain exemptions from taxes and customs duties were granted as well as privileges in regard to exports, imports and exchange. The Canadian government was to permit and facilitate the entry of representatives of information agencies accredited to ICAO after consultation with Canada. Special entry facilities were granted to representatives of the United Nations or specialized agencies on official business.

The second part of the eleventh session of the Council of ICAO was convened in Montreal on September 27, 1950. The government of Spain dispatched a delegation to Montreal to take part in the meetings and arrange for that government's entry into the International Civil Aviation Organization. The agenda included: 1) appointment of members to serve on the Air Navigation Commission, Air Transport Committee, the Committee on Joint Support of Air Navigation Services, and the Finance Committee; 2) the proposals of the Secretary-General, Dr. Albert Roper, for reorganization of the secretariat and the question of his successor for 1951; 3) the site for a permanent office for the far east and the Pacific; 4) schedules for meetings of the subordinate bodies of the organization for 1952; and 5) a preliminary scale of contributions for 1952. The work of the Air Navigation Commission was surveyed in the report of the commission on 1) “differences” from ICAO standards, 2) sites for AIR, OPS and COM division meetings, and 3) necessary changes in abbreviations and symbols. Special attention was given to the formulation of ICAO's position on charges for airline operated agency messages carried over the aeronautical network and a study of this problem was to be undertaken in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union. The Council also was to discuss the communication to the Universal Postal Union on air mail charges upon which the member governments had made comments.

In a statement of February 1, 1951, the International Bank reported on its financial status and operations for the period from June 30 to December 31, 1950. Net income for the last six months of 1950 amounted to $7,574,631 as compared with $6,672,667 for the first half of the year. Placed in the General Reserve against losses on loans and guarantees, this income increased the reserve to $34,572,901. Gross income for the period was $13,370,710 after deducting loan commissions of $3,114,702 which were appropriated to the Special Reserve which, as of December 31, amounted to $16,851,907. Applications for membership were received from Burma, Indonesia, Hashemite Kingdom of the Jordan and Sweden but final action had not been taken on these applications by the Board of Governors. Since September 30, 1950, three additional countries authorized the Bank to use part or all of their eighteen percent currency subscription for loans; this eighteen percent of a member's capital subscription could not be lent without the member's permission under the Articles of Agreement of the Bank. In December 1950 the Bank sold without its guarantee the following bonds from its investment portfolio: $50,000 of Credit National (France), $50,000 of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, $50,000 of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and 2,650,000 Swiss franc bonds of the Herstelbank of the Netherlands. Loans totalling $206,900,000 were made in the last half of 1950 and an additional $65,000,000 was lent early in 1951, bringing to $1,088,375,000 the total of loans made since the Bank began operations.

The Governing Body's 116th session was held at Geneva, on June 30, 1951. Having elected its new chairman (Mr. Paul Ramadier) and vice-chairmen (Sir J. F. Watson and Mr. Léon Jouhaux), the Governing Body reappointed its various standing committees for the duration of its three year term of office and appointed its representatives on the Joint Maritime Commission. Delegations were also appointed to attend the Migration Conference (Naples, 2–16 October, 1951), the fourth session of the Inland Transport Committee (Genoa, 4–15 December, 1951), the Meeting of Experts on Women's Work (Geneva, 11–15 December, 1951), the third session of the Asian Advisory Committee (Geneva, 10–13 November, 1951), and the sixth session of the General Assembly.

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1951 indicated a general improvement in balance of payments, world production, and trade, although serious dollar shortages still existed in some countries. The outbreak of hostilities in Korea, however, and the expanded rearmament programs had produced shortages of raw materials and skilled labor, rises in prices and changes in the terms of trade of many countries. The report stressed the importance of using monetary and fiscal measures as well as measures of direct control to combat inflationary tendencies in order to prevent “situations of latent inflation”. It was believed that the present pattern of world payments was not a stable one and that it would become so only following an increase in production outside of the United States and a better relationship between prices of primary and industrial goods.

Eleventh Session of the Council: In the period from September 15 to October 15, 1950, the Council, meeting in the second part of its eleventh session, devoted a major portion of its time to the study of the 79th report of the Air Navigation Commission containing the commission's recommendations on the notification by states and the dissemination by the secretariat of divergencies from ICAO standards, practices, and procedures. No decision was reached on the question during the Council's discussions. During the same period the Council approved in principle the transfer of responsibility for liaison with certain areas in central and south Africa from the European and African (Paris) regional office to the middle east (Cairo) office, and for certain states and territories in the Caribbean from the South American (Lima) regional office to the North American (Montreal) office. The Council then granted a request from the Civil Aviation Board, as agents of the Allied High Commission for Germany, to participate as observers in regional and special meetings of ICAO that discussed the provision of facilities or introduction of procedures for civil aviation in areas including territories under the Allied High Commission's control. In addition the Council accepted from the government of Switzerland an offer of 200,000 Swiss francs towards the maintenance of various north Atlantic safety services. The Council in the closing meeting of the eleventh session: 1) approved some 21 recommendations of the Meteorology Division's third session; 2) took note of specifications for a 1:500,000 Chart Series of Europe and directed that the specifications be brought to the attention of the contracting states for appropriate action; 3) granted a request from Pakistan for an advisory opinion and interpretation of the Transit Agreement and of Article 6 of the Convention regarding the right of an aircraft of a contracting party to fly without landing over the territory of another contracting state; and 4) set the opening date of the next Council session.

The primary emphasis of the report of the Director-General of the International Labor Organization to the thirty-fourth session of the Conference was the issue of wage policy in conditions of full employment. The Conference debate on this question, stimulated by the report Mr. Morse hoped, would help ILO member countries to arrive at wage-price policies “designed to promote the best interests both of workers and of the community as a whole, in conditions of full employment and scarcity of labor.” The problem of wage determination had been receiving renewed public attention, mainly owing to the desire to include restraint of wage increases in a program designed to minimize the possible inflationary effects of full employment, economic development and rearmament. There existed also a belief that adjustments in the wage structures of most countries were needed to provide increased incentives for workers to acquire skill, to work harder and to man the essential industries where labor was particularly scarce.

In preparation for the 34th session of the International Labor Conference, the International Labor Organization published recently four reports covering the following topics: 1) industrial relations, 2) equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value, 3) minimum wage fixing machinery in agriculture, and 4) objectives and minimum standards of social security. The reports on the first three topics contained summaries of the proceedings of the 33rd General Conference relevant to them, while the report on the fourth subject envisaged adoption of a new general convention on social security.

The Director-General of the International Refugee Organization (Kingsley) announced1 that IRO's Hague mission would be closed on July 31, 1951. The Organization had already closed its missions in eleven other countries, in preparation for the scheduled ending of IRO's “displaced persons” operations on December 31, 1951. The Director-General stated that a Refugee Service Committee, which was being formed in the Netherlands by national relief agencies, would assure the continuity of many of the services to refugees that had been performed by IRO's Hague mission. The mission, itself, had aided in the resettlement of over 5500 displaced persons.

In accordance with the request of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the International Monetary Fund submitted to the Council's thirteenth session, a study on the capacity of underdeveloped countries to service investments of foreign capital. With compensatory financing eliminated from its consideration, the remainder of the country's international receipts appeared to furnish a reasonable total with which to compare its foreign debt service. Such a total would include the goods and services the country was able to sell abroad, the foreign capital that it was able to attract by its investment opportunities and the donations that it received for particular purposes other than compensatory financing. This total would be subject to wide fluctuations. Markets for the raw materials exported by underdeveloped countries were notoriously subject to sudden shifts in demand which could drastically affect both volume and price. Again the capital flow to underdeveloped countries could be suddenly interrupted if the markets for their raw material exports turned weak or if they pursued unstable or confiscatory policies at home. The dangers to an underdeveloped country's balance of payments position arose from the wide fluctuations in the value of raw material exports and inflow of capital that might occur almost overnight. It was these that raised questions of how quickly and how far imports of goods and services could be contracted in order to permit the service of the foreign debt to continue to be paid in full.

The 113th session of the International Labor Organization Governing Body convened in Brussels on November 13, 1950. The agenda of the meeting included the following items for consideration by the Governing Body: 1) action to be taken on resolutions adopted by the International Labor Conference at its 33d session; 2) record of the conference on Rhine boatmen (July 1950); 3) arrangements for the fifth ILO regional conference of American states; 4) arrangements for the regional conference for the near and middle east; 5) first report of the Committee on the Working of the Governing Body and its Committees; 6) methods of associating all members of the organization more closely with the work of the Governing Body; 7) reports of the Finance Committee, the Allocations Committee, the Staff Questions Committee and the manpower committees; 8) reports of the Committee on Industrial Committees, the Technical Assistance Committee and International Organizations Committee; 9) composition of committees; and 10) report of the Director-General (Morse).

The annual joint meeting of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was held at Paris from September 6 to 14, 1950 at the same time as the annual meetings of the Governors of the two organizations. At the opening joint meeting of the Fund and the Bank on September 6, the first matter considered was a draft resolution submitted by the Governor for Czechoslovakia requesting that delegates from the People's Republic of China be substituted for the delegation from the “Kuomintang group”. This proposition was vehemently resisted by the Governor for China but supported by the Governors for India and Yugoslavia. After a show of hands the motion was defeated at the second joint meeting. At the fourth joint session it was agreed that the sixth annual meeting of the two organizations in 1951 would be held in the United States. Following that recommendation the joint session approved the nomination of the Governor for Canada (Douglas Abbott) as chairman for the ensuing year and the Governors for China, France, India, the United Kingdom and the United States as vice-chairmen.

In the period from November 20, 1950, to March 20, 1951, the Fund was consulted in connection with the modification of foreign exchange systems by three of its member governments. On November 20 the Fund announced its agreement to certain modifications proposed by the government of Iran. Iran was to continue to retain in effect three foreign exchange rates: 1) an official rate, 32.5 rials to the dollar, for governmental transactions and transactions with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company; 2) a certificate rate, 40 rials to the dollar, for essential imports; and 3) a third rate for exports other than oil and for nonessential imports. The latter rate, which formerly had been permitted to fluctuate in a free market, was fixed at 48.75 rials to the dollar and all transactions were to be conducted through official banks. The Fund and the Iranian government were to continue consultations towards the eventual unification of the Iranian foreign exchange system. Agreement was announced on March 3 to the proposed devaluation of Paraguayan currency from 3.09 to 6 guaranies to the dollar. Consultations between Paraguay and the Fund had also been held, according to the announcement, on the modification of the country's multiple currency system. A further announcement of March 20 revealed that Columbia had proposed to the Fund measures to simplify its foreign exchange system and reduce its restrictions on imports. The new system, to which the Fund gave its approval, would not involve a change in Columbia's par value as fixed by the Fund. A new exchange rate of 2.50 pesos to the dollar was established for all foreign exchange payments and all foreign exchange proceeds other than those for coffee exports. For a period of not less than six months, 25 percent of the coffee export exchange would operate at the new rate and the remaining 75 percent would operate at a buying rate of 1.95 pesos to the dollar. All licensing restrictions on imports would be removed, with the exception of a prohibited list of specified luxury products, and the differential exchange taxes, other than a uniform stamp tax, and all mixed rate arrangements would be abolished. The Fund announced on March 19 the establishment of the initial par value for the Pakistani rupee at 3.30852 rupees to the dollar, the rate proposed by the government of Pakistan.

In the annual report covering the period July 1, 1949 to June 30, 1950, J. Donald Kingsley, the Director-General of IRO, stated that the organization began the year covered in the report with a total caseload of 694,823 refugees and at the end of June 1950 the total caseload had been reduced to 539,579 refugees; the over-all reduction resulted from 4,759 refugees who had been repatriated and the 264,078 refugees who had been resettled. The reductions, however, were offset by 195,950 new registrations, many of which came as a result of the announcement of the cut-off date for new applications for assistance (August 31, 1949). Mr. Kingsley reported that the resettlement program had not progressed as rapidly as had been expected and that final figures had fallen short of the estimated 343,000 because: western Europe which had absorbed large numbers in the past was unable to accept any further large labor resettlement; the volume of visa issuance for the United States had declined; and the anticipated curtailment of the Australian scheme for resettlement had become a reality in the last quarter of the year. The Director-General made a supplementary report on August 30, 1950 in which he stated it was impossible for IRO to complete its work by March 31, 1951 and noted that the amended United States Displaced Persons Act had expanded resettlement opportunities by providing approximately 140,000 openings and admission to 54,000 Volkesdeutsche (persons of Germanic ethnic origin). At the request of the United States Displaced Persons Commission, IRO had undertaken to transport the Volkesdeutsche group to the United States on a reimbursable basis.

The report of the International Telecommunication Union submitted to ECOSOC on June 11, 1951, was accompanied by a statement by the Secretary-General (Mulatier) in response to ECOSOC's resolution requesting all specialized agencies in the economic and social fields to review their programs with an eye to the concentration of all efforts and resources on the most urgent tasks. Noting that ITU's program of work was governed by the Atlantic City Convention (1947) and that the Union's 1952 activities would relate to its regular task of enabling its members to operate their international telecommunications services and to the holding of any conferences which might be essential for the performance of that task, the Secretary-General expressed the opinion that the program would not appear to include any activities of the kind contemplated in the ECOSOC resolution.

The third annual report of the International Refugee Organization was submitted to the thirteenth session of the Economic and Social Council. In the report the organization announced that in 1950 it “came within sight of its goal, the solving of the refugee problem resulting from World War II and its immediate aftermath.” By the end of the year, 1,525,643 refugees had been given assistance of one kind or another, 71,695 had been repatriated to their countries of origin, 879,403 had been resettled in new countries, and others had been settled in countries of asylum. The number actually resettled during 1950 was 191,119 – 150,844 less than in 1949, but it included a much higher proportion of cases requiring special welfare assistance, “uneconomic” family groups and other difficult cases. “Of the 489,000 persons eligible for resettlement assistance at the beginning of 1950, only 181,000 were considered to be resettleable on the basis of established criteria for immigration schemes likely to be open to them. The number of openings actually found and filled, however, exceeded this number by 10,119 indicating general response to the Organization's appeals for more liberal standards and its concerted campaign on behalf of the so-called ‘Institutional Hard Core’”.