The sixteenth annual report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1961, was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on June 23, 1961, by Mr. Per Jacobsson, Chairman of the Executive Board. The report stated that in contrast to the year 1959, when virtually all countries had participated in world-wide expansion, the year 1960 and early part of 1961 had presented a less unified picture. For the world as a whole, the expansionary elements had considerably outweighed the contractionary elements. World industrial production, excluding the countries of the Soviet area, had been almost 6 percent greater in 1960 than in 1959, having grown by 10 percent; and the value of world trade had increased by 12 percent, compared with 6 percent in 1959. The stimulus for the rise in world trade had come predominantly from the booming European industrial countries and from Japan, which had increased their imports by nearly 20 percent; there had been a slight decline in imports from the United States and Canada. The imports of the less-industrialized countries had also increased considerably, by some 10 percent. Trade developments during 1960 had improved the basic international payments situation in some respects. Rising exports and slightly declining imports caused an increase in the surplus of private goods and services account in the United States. West Germany's surplus also increased, while France's remained stationary; decreases had been noted in several other industrial countries, in particular Japan and Italy, where the rate of economic expansion had been exceptionally high, and in the United Kingdom, mainly due to the sharp growth of imports associated with their high level of economic activity.

South West Africa Cases (Ethiopia v. South Africa and Liberia v. South Africa): On October 2, 1962, the International Court of Justice held the first of the public hearings on the preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court, raised by the government of the Republic of South Africa in these cases. After opening the sitting and briefly recalling the stages in the written proceedings covered since the institution of the cases on November 4, 1960, the President of the Court proceeded to the installation of the two judges ad hoc designated by the parties in accordance with Article 31, paragraphs 3 and 5, of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. The two judges ad hoc were Sir Louis Mbanefo, Chief Justice of the High Court, Eastern Region of Nigeria, designated by Ethiopia and Liberia acting in concert, and the Honorable Jacques Theodore van Wyk, Judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa, designated by the government of the Republic of South Africa. The President announced that Judge Córdova was prevented by his health from sitting in the present proceedings.

The First Conference of Independent African States, attended by representatives of the independent states of western and northern Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, the Sudan, Tunisia, and the United Arab Republic), was held in Accra, Ghana, from April 15 to 22, 1958. The purpose of the conference was: 1) to discuss problems of common interest; 2) to formulate and coordinate methods aimed at accelerating mutual understanding; 3) to consider means of safeguarding the independence and sovereignty of participating countries and of assisting dependent African territories in their efforts toward the attainment of self-government; and 4) to plan cultural exchanges and mutual assistance schemes.

The 45th session of the International Labor Conference was held in Geneva from June 7 to 29, 1961, under the presidency of Mr. M. A. Raschid (government delegate and Minister of Industry, Mines, and Labor, Burma). The Conference was attended by over a thousand delegates, observers, and advisers from 94 member countries and four territories, including the ministers of labor from 42 of these countries.

The First All-African People's Conference, a nongovernmental assembly attended by more than 300 political and trade union leaders representing 200 million Africans in 28 countries plus observers from Canada, China, Denmark, India, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, took place in Accra, Ghana, from December 8 to 13, 1958. The conference was called by a preparatory committee composed of representatives from eight independent states (Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and the United Arab Republic); the 28 dependent and independent African countries participating were: Angola, Basutoland, Belgian Congo, Cameroons, Chad, Dahomey, Ethiopia, French Somaliland, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Occidental Afrique, Senegal, Sierre Leone, South Africa, South West Africa, Tanganyika, Togoland, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zanzibar. Mr. Tom Mboya, general secretary of the Kenya Federation of Labor, was reported to have been designated chairman of the conference by the preparatory committee.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development made a loan of $30 million for the continuation of a national power expansion program in Yugoslavia. The loan was to help to finance construction of a 240,000-kilowatt hydroelectric plant in central Yugoslavia, and the extension of the country-wide electric power network by the installation of 362 miles of transmission lines and associated substations. The loan was made to the Yugoslav Investment Bank, an institution of the federal government which channeled investment funds for development. The Investment Bank was to re-lend the proceeds of the Bank loan to the enterprises responsible for constructing and operating the power plant and the transmission system. The loan was for a term of 25 years at an interest rate of 5¾ percent; amortization was to begin on December 1, 1966. The loan was guaranteed by the government of Yugoslavia.

On October 2, 1961, it was announced that the International Monetary Fund had entered into a stand-by arrangement with the government of Haiti under which that government could draw the equivalent of $6 million from the Fund during the following twelve months. The arrangement with the Fund was considered as a useful supplement to the country's reserves to assist the government in maintaining the convertibility of its currency. The Haitian government had not drawn on its previous stand-by arrangement with the Fund, which had expired on September 30, 1961; in earlier years it had drawn $5.4 million, of which $2.6 million had already been repaid.

The sixteenth session of the Administrative Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was held in Geneva from April 22 to May 20, 1961, under the chairmanship of Mr. Vladimir Senk (Yugoslavia). Mr. Šenk spoke of some of the more important matters which the sixteenth session would have to discuss. He stressed that as the Union came to include more developing countries, technical assistance became increasingly important. He pointed out that, in addition to the help of experts and assistance in the training of their staff, these countries needed aid in obtaining essential materials for the development of their telecommunication networks. He stated that technical assistance in all its forms has gradually become a part of the traditional work of the Union. Turning to financial matters, Mr. Šenk mentioned that it would be necessary to revise the financial regulations of the union.

The International Monetary Fund entered into a stand-by agreement with the government of Honduras authorizing drawings equivalent to $7.5 million for a one-year period. The arrangement was to serve as an assured secondary line of reserves to strengthen the country's international reserve position. The Fund entered into a stand-by arrangement authorizing the government of India to draw up to $100 million over the following year; this arrangement was made in support of India's reserve position, which had been under considerable strain in previous months.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held its eleventh General Conference in Paris from November 14 to December 15, 1960, under the presidency of Mr. Akale-Work Abte-Wold (Ethiopia). Ninety-eight member states of UNESCO participated in the Conference compared with the 75 that were members in 1958 at the time of the tenth General Conference. The General Conference approved the program of activities for 1961–1962 and unanimously voted a budget of $32,513,228 to finance it; to this amount was added over $12 million provided by the United Nations Technical Assistance Fund to enable UNESCO to carry out many additional educational and scientific projects. UNESCO was also to act as executing agency for seventeen projects concerning higher technical education, for which the UN Special Fund was to provide more than $11 million in 1961–1962. Also allocated by the Conference was $915,000 for the construction of an additional building in Paris, the total cost of which was to be $3,535,000.

The first meeting of the twelve French-speaking African states which subsequently became known as the “Brazzaville group”—Cameroun, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Dahomey, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Malagasy, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Upper Volta—was held at Abidjan in the Ivory Coast in October 1960. The meeting was organized by President Félix Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast for the purpose of discussing whether the independent African states could mediate or in some other way help bring the Algerian conflict to an end without alienating France. The final communiqué stated that the conference had examined the Algerian, Congolese, and Mauritanian questions, that all the countries attending would support Mauritania's application for membership in the UN, and that further meetings would be held.

The report of the Director-General on the activities of the United Nations, Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for 1960 included a discussion of: 1) relations with member states and international organizations; 2) execution of the program; and 3) administrative services. In the first section the Director-General commented that, in 1960, UNESCO's role had assumed its full importance in the collective system of international organizations and that its close cooperation with the UN had resulted in new possibilities for direct, large-scale action.

The ANZUS Council met on May 8–9, 1962, in Canberra, Australia. The ministers expressed their concern at the Soviet refusal to end thermonuclear testing. The ministers of Australia and New Zealand recognized that the absence of such an agreement left the United States with no alternative but to conduct the current series of tests.

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) held its 29th session in Geneva on January 15–26, 1962, under the chairmanship of Dr. A. O. Abu Shumma. The Standing Committee on Administration and Finance held eight meetings. The Standing Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations held two meetings and considered new applications from organizations for official membership, as well as carrying out a quadrennial review of the organizations in official relationship with WHO. The Standing Committee on Headquarters Accommodations also met.

The fourteenth session of the Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) was held in New Delhi from February 7 through 24, 1961. In his address the President of the Assembly, Dr. Arcot Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar, stated that among the many international organizations set up by the UN, WHO occupied a foremost place in its efforts to improve the conditions of millions of people in all parts of the globe. Dr. Mudaliar pointed to the contributions of the WHO regional offices in bringing the work of the organization more directly into contact with the countries concerned. WHO had achieved its most spectacular successes in programs designed not merely to control but to eradicate diseases of which the causative organisms were well known and with respect to which effective steps could be taken—in this regard Dr. Mudaliar mentioned the malaria eradication campaign. Other diseases of a communicable nature—smallpox, cholera, several of the water-borne diseases, and many others carried by insects—could hopefully lend themselves to similar eradication programs. Dr. Mudaliar also referred to the work of WHO in areas of the world stricken by natural or man-made disaster, and in particular to the organization's emergency work in the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville). As for the future tasks of WHO, the President of the Assembly observed that although tuberculosis had been one of the four diseases that had been given priority by the first WHO Assembly, much still remained to be done to control it; the results of domiciliary treatment carried out in the city of Madras, India, he continued, gave some promise of success in the control and treatment of the disease. Dr. Mudaliar also singled out leprosy as a disease the organization should try to eradicate, and mentioned the problems of mental illness stemming from the stress and strain of modern society as being worthy of attention.

A summit meeting of the Presidents of Ghana, Guinea, Mali, and the United Arab Republic, attended also by the Libyan Foreign Minister, the Ceylonese Ambassador in Cairo, and Premier Ferhat Abbas of the Algerian provisional government, was convened in Casablanca by King Mohammed of Morocco in early January 1961 for the purpose of coordinating policy on the Congo and of considering a suggestion for the formation of an African high military command. Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Togoland, and Tunisia were invited but did not attend the conference. Excluding Ghana, all those states present which had troops with the UN Operations in the Congo (ONUC) had announced their intention of withdrawing them prior to the meeting.

The Agreement for the Establishment of the Caribbean Organization, Article V (2), stated that the agreement would enter into force on signature of a joint declaration to that effect by the signatory governments following deposit of instruments of approval or acceptance by the signatory governments and after the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Commission had received notification from not less than six of the prospective members of the Organization. It was announced in February 1961 that the Secretary-General had received formal notification from six prospective members, who had accepted the obligations imposed by the Statute of the Caribbean Organization and elected to become members. These were: France for the departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique; Surinam; the Netherlands Antilles; British Guiana; Puerto Rico; and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The government of the British Virgin Islands later notified the Secretary-General of its intention to join the Organization and became a member on May 31, 1962.

The thirteenth session of the Executive Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was held in Geneva from May 11 to 30, 1961, under the chairmanship of Mr. A. Viaut, President of the organization. As usual two working committees were set up on: administrative and financial questions, and technical questions. Discussions in plenary were based mainly on the reports of these committees. Following the presentation of reports on the meetings of regional associations and commissions, the report of the working group set up to study the revision of the WMO convention was heard and discussed. General agreement was reached on the substance of amendments proposed for some articles, and a provisional text was submitted to a legal expert for study and report. With regard to the WMO general regulations, it was decided that modifications arising from the proposed amendments to the convention should be studied after the amendments had been approved. The Executive Committee considered reports on the WMO field programs under the UN Expanded Program of Technical Assistance (EPTA) for 1960 and for the period 1961–1962. The need was stressed for field visits, in particular to the newly independent countries, to help them in the assessment of their requirements for technical assistance. Plans for future training seminars under EPTA were discussed and the Committee recognized in particular, in view of the increasing interest in water resources development, the importance of holding training seminars on hydrological forecasting. The Executive Committee also took note of the training seminars—organized in Cairo, Bangkok, and Nicosia and carried out under joint International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-WMO auspices—on forecasting for operations of turbine-engined aircraft.

Representatives of twenty independent African states [Cameroun, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Dahomey, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Libya, Malagasy, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Togo, Tunisia, and Upper Volta] met in Monrovia from May 8 to 12, 1961, to consider four major items: means of promoting better understanding and cooperation toward achieving unity in Africa; threats to peace and stability in Africa; establishment of special machinery to which African states might refer in case of disputes among themselves; and possible contribution of African states to world peace. Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, the Sudan, and the United Arab Republic were unrepresented at the conference.

On July 20, 1961, Kuwait was admitted to membership in the Arab League as an independent Arab state. Earlier the Iraqi delegates had walked out, alleging that the League was joining with British imperialism. Kuwait was the eleventh state to join the League. The League Council unanimously approved a three-point resolution: 1) the Kuwait government would undertake to request the withdrawal of British troops as soon as possible, and the Iraqi government would undertake not to resort to force; 2) the League would support any wish expressed by Kuwait for unity or union with other League member states, and the League welcomed Kuwait as a member and supported its application for membership in the UN; and 3) the Arab countries undertook to offer effective help to Kuwait to safeguard its independence. An Arab League military mission, led by Lieutenant-General Ahmed Halim Imam, arrived in Kuwait on August 7, 1961; it included representatives of Jordan, Lebanon, the United Arab Republic, and the Arab League secretariat. It was also accompanied by Abdel-Azia Husain, who had represented Kuwait at the recent Arab League meetings and was expected to be Kuwait's first ambassador in Cairo. The mission was the outcome of the July 20 decision of the League to give Kuwait all effective aid necessary to preserve its independence on condition that it asked for the withdrawal of British troops. On August 13, the paper work necessary to bring Kuwait under the protection of the Arab League and enable the British forces then in Kuwait to leave was completed.