Like a chronic sore that never quite cripples, hurts most of the time, and sometimes becomes dangerously inflamed, the issue of China in the United Nations has plagued United States policy for almost twenty years.

The so-called “Chinese Question” in the United Nations has been an issue in UN politics for the last seventeen years. It has hampered the operation of the UN and influenced the course of post-World War II international politics. Yet little study has been done with regard to the attitudes of the Communist Chinese themselves toward the UN.

The panel believes the time has come for a reassessment of the United States approach toward representation of mainland China in the United Nations. The United States' position in world affairs would be strengthened, we believe, by acknowledging that the China originally contemplated in the Charter has now been succeeded by two states, and that both states should be Members of die United Nations. The recent hardening of Maoist extremism in Peking and the xenophobic excesses of the Red Guards convincingly demonstrate, in our view, the need to provide this fresh and timely encouragement to those moderate influences that still remain in China.

During the first twenty years of the United Nations' existence the patterns of its activities changed significantly. One of the most important changes took place in the practices of the Secretary-General. While the most noticeable development was his assumption of the position of executive agent for peacekeeping forces, a less noticeable but equally important one occurred in his activities as an agent of peaceful settlement. The importance of the latter change was that not only did a single official of the United Nations assume new functions and become instrumental in the settlement of a number of international conflicts, but the Organization as a body gained a more influential role in international politics.

In his review of the Fifth General Report on the Activity of the European Community the Rapporteur for the European Parliament critically singled out certain aspects of the Commission's style in developing Community policy: the excessive importance it seemed to place on proposing only solutions which had the strongest chance of being adopted by the Council of Ministers instead of maximizing the potentiality of its power of initiative; and, as a corollary, the disturbing tendency toward increasing infusion and influence of national administrations in the policy orientations and decisions of the European Economic Community (EEC).

Organizations, like human beings, are not born to an identity. They establish one in the course of their maturation. The identity they can develop is limited by the social origins of the organization and by the environment during their early years, but it is not predetermined by these factors in any simple fashion.

At the initiative of the President of the Council, Arthur J. Goldberg (United States), the Security Council met on September 4, 1965, to consider the India-Pakistan question. Mr. Goldberg explained that, following consultations with the Secretary-General, he had decided to call a meeting of the Council because of the gravity of the military news from Kashmir and because it appeared that the UN observers there were being prevented from carrying out their functions freely. He also informed the Council that on September 1 the Secretary-General had sent to the Prime Minister of India and the President of Pakistan an appeal for a cease-fire. Although objections of a procedural nature were raised by the representative of the Soviet Union, the Council decided to consider the question. At the invitation of the President representatives of India and Pakistan took seats at the Council table.

The Maritime Safety Committee of the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) held is tenth session in London, April 29-May 7, 1965. The session dealt with a number of matters, including the question of tonnage measurement, the revised International Code of Signals, the IMCO International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, and navigation in the Strait of Dover.

The fifteenth Congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) met in Vienna from May 29 to July 10, 1964, under the chairmanship of Benno Schaginger of Austria. Nearly 500 delegates representing 122 countries participated in the sessions. On June 5, 1964, however, the Congress approved a resolution expelling South Africa from UPU by a vote of 58 in favor, 30 opposed, with 26 abstentions. During the debate on this question several delegates maintained that the resolution was illegal since a country could only be expelled for violating UPU's regulations. The South African delegate remained in the conference hall after the vote but left at the request of the presiding officer when African delegates demanded his withdrawal.

Meeting under the presidency of Dr. A. Nyberg, the Executive Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) held its sixteenth session in the WMO secretariat, Geneva, from May 26 to June 12, 1964. The Committee considered a number of matters, including technical questions, the New Development Fund, and administrative and financial questions.

Meeting in Seoul on June 14–16, 1966, nine non-Communist Asian and Pacific nations declared dieir common determination to preserve their integrity and sovereignty in die face of external threats and invited other free countries in the region to join the newly formed Asian and Pacific Council (ASPAC). Participating in the conference were Australia, the Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Laos attended as an observer.

The fourteenth session of the Council of Ministers of die Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) was held in Ankara, Turkey, on April 20–21, 1966, under the chairmanship of Ihsan Sabri Caglayangil, the Foreign Minister of Turkey. Others attending the session were Abbas Aram, Foreign Minister of Iran; Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Foreign Minister of Pakistan; Michael Stewart, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom; and Dean Rusk, Secretary of State of the United States. The session had been preceded by a meeting of the CENTO Military Committee held in Tehran, Iran, on April 5–6.

Council of Ministers: The European Economic Community (EEC) Council Of Ministers met on July 29–30, 1964, to discuss the fusion of the EEC, the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). It also discussed the question of Austria's future relations with the Community and instructed the permanent representatives to prepare draft directives to permit the opening of negotiations with Austria on the subject.

A new Joint African and Malagasy Organization—Organisation commune africaine et malgache (OCAM)—was founded on February 12, 1965, at a conference at Nouakchott, Mauritania, receiving the initial adherence of thirteen French-speaking African states and Madagascar and replacing the Union africaine et malgache de co-opération économique (UAMCE) set up in 1964. The thirteen countries represented were Cameroun, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Congo (Brazzaville), Dahomey, Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Upper Volta. Although no representative of Rwanda attended, the Rwandese government subsequently signified its adherence to the OCAM Charter drawn up at the conference.

Tenth meeting: The tenth meeting of the Council of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was held in London on May 3–5, 1965, under the chairmanship of Michael Stewart, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom. Other member governments were represented by Paul Hasluck, Minister for External Affairs of Australia; D. J. Eyre, Minister of Defense of New Zealand; Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan; Librado D. Cayco, Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines; Thanat Khoman, Minister of Foreign Aflairs of Thailand; and George W. Ball, Under Secretary of State of the United States. Achille Clarac, French Ambassador in Bangkok and Council representative for France, also attended the London session as an observer. (On April 20 the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had announced that France would not send a delegation to the meeting although Ambassador Clarac would be present as an observer only.)

At a meeting of foreign ministers of five Central American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua—held on November 15–17, 1962, and attended also by an observer from Panama, it was provisionally agreed to set up a new Organization of Central American States (ODECA) to supersede the organization of the same name set up in October 1951. The Charter of the new organization, known as the San Salvador Charter, was formally signed at a further meeting of foreign ministers held in Panama City from December 12 to 14, 1962. Panama did not sign the Charter, but provision was made for that state to become a member if it wished to join at a future date. The new Charter was to come into effect when ratified by the five states which had signed it. Following ratification by Costa Rica on March 30, 1965, the Charter entered into force.

The Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Treaty Organization met in Bucharest on July 4–6, 1966. Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and the Soviet Union were represented by the first secretaries of their respective Communist parties and by their prime ministers, foreign ministers, and defense ministers. Albania, which had taken no part in the work of the organization since its break with the Soviet Union in 1961 and had refused an invitation to attend the Committee's 1965 meeting, had not been invited.