The governments of the Schuman Plan countries – Belgium, France, west Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – are now examining plans for a European Political Community. The basis of the present discussions is a draft constitution which would consolidate the institutions of the Coal-Steel Community and the European Defense Community, once the latter is ratified, and would provide a framework within which further unification might take place. Its major innovations would be a provision – already approved in principle by the governments – for popular elections to a European Assembly, and a more controversial proposal looking toward gradual extension of the common market.

One of the marked features of international relations in recent years has been the growth of regional groupings and organizations. Included among the more notable regional arrangements formed since 1944 are the League of Arab States, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, the Organization of American States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Coal and Steel Community. In addition to these and other existent arrangements are proposals for the creation of a European Defense Community and a European Political Community, the idea of a Pacific Pact resembling NATO, the concept of a Middle East Defense organization, and a possible linkage of Asian States.

The attitude of the Soviet Union toward the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), among the specialized agencies of the United Nations, is particularly interesting because this organization is distinguished by the wide range of its activities and because the U.S.S.R. unexpectedly decided to join UNESCO after a virtual boycott of nine years. Certain technical aspects of UNESCO also give it an unusual position among international bodies. Like other organizations, it can accomplish little except with the approval of the member states. It is, however, less formal in its procedure than the United Nations, and its decisions are not subject to the veto.

Fourth United Nations Technical Assistance Conference: On November 12 and 13, 1953, the Fourth United Nations Technical Assistance Conference was held at United Nations headquarters, with Ernest G. Chauvet (Haiti) serving as president. In a welcoming address Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold stated that since the inception of the expanded program of technical assistance, 3,000 experts had given their services to almost 100 countries and 4,000 fellows had been given training. Not only were 70 governments contributing to the special account, but many countries which did not contribute to this account provided experts or acted as hosts to fellows, he reported.

This issue covers the work of the Security Council from the 646th meeting on December 11, 1953, to the 660th meeting on February 24, 1954.

The sixteenth session of the Economic and Social Council was resumed at United Nations headquarters in New York on November 30, and concluded on December 7, 1953. The Council worked out its basic program for 1954 and considered the provisional agenda for its seventeenth session drawn up by the Secretary-General (Hammarskjold). It transmitted to the Commission on Human Rights for appropriate action the resolutions of the eighth session of the General Assembly on the draft International Covenants on Human Rights and measures of implementation; the right of peoples to self-determination; and the development of the work of the United Nations for wider observance of, and respect for, human rights and fundamental freedoms. Amending its resolution of July 31, 1953, on the program of concerted practical action in the social field of the United Nations and the specialized agencies, the Council added to the list of projects on which such a program should concentrate the improvement of health, education and social welfare in the non-self-governing and trust territories. The Technical Assistance Committee, which had been instructed during the first part of the session to submit recommendations concerning the financial arrangements for the expanded program of technical assistance, informed the Council that the working party it had established had decided to refer the question to the Technical Assistance Board, and that since the Board was not due to meet until December 1953, it had received no specific proposals. Finally, the Council confirmed the members nominated by Denmark, Panama, Cuba, the Byelorussian SSR, and China to the Statistical, Social and Human Rights Commissions.

The thirteenth session of the Trusteeship Council was held at United Nations headquarters from January 28 to March 25, 1954, with Leslie K. Munro (New Zealand) as president. After adopting an agenda of eighteen items, the Council appointed China, Haiti, New Zealand, and the United States as members of the Standing Committee on Administrative Unions, and China, France, Haiti, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States as members of the Committee on Rural Economic Development of the Trust Territories. The latter committee was not scheduled to meet during this session.

Effect of Awards of Compensation Made by the United Nations Administrative Tribunal: On December 9, 1953, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution requesting the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on the following questions: 1) has the General Assembly the right to refuse to give effect to an award of compensation made by the Administrative Tribunal in favor of a United Nations staff member whose contract of service had been terminated without his assent? and 2) if the Court's answer to the first question was in the affirmative, what were the principal grounds on which the Assembly could lawfully exercise such a right? After copies of this resolution were transmitted to the Court by a letter of the Secretary-General (Hammarskjold) dated December 16, the Court fixed March 15, 1954, as the time-limit within which written statements might be submitted by any state entitled to appear before it or any international organization considered by the president as likely to be able to furnish information on these questions, and reserved the rest of the procedure for further decision. Members of the United Nations and the International Labor Organization were then notified that, in accordance with Article 66 (2) of the Statute, the president considered them likely to be able to furnish such information.

From November 18 to 20, 1953, the eighteenth session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization was held in Rome under the chairmanship of Josue de Castro. At this session a final survey was made of arrangements for the seventh session of the FAO Conference, which was scheduled to open in Rome on November 23. Having decided at its seventeenth session to report to the Conference on the most recent developments in the world agricultural situation and outlook highlighting issues for the special attention of the Conference, the Council drafted a statement which supplemented the report of the Director-General (Dodd) entitled The State of Food and Agriculture, 1953. The Council reported that since the sixth session of the Conference in 1951 when continuing food shortages were the main concern, the situation had changed considerably; supplies of many commodities were now pressing hard against effective demand. While stocks of some agricultural commodities had accumulated and nations were finding their disposal difficult, supplies were still insufficient to provide adequate standards of nutrition in large parts of the world. The improvement in supplies in the last few years had not been matched by an in-crease in consumption levels, and one or two bad harvests could wipe out much of the increase in annual production which had been achieved and reduce substantially present levels of stocks, the Council stated. The following points were commended to the attention of the Conference: 1) problems involved in the selective expansion of production, especially in the less developed regions, 2) methods of maintaining the level of farm incomes, especially by increased efficiency, and 3) methods of increasing per caput consumption levels.

On March 1, 1954, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development released a report supplementing its eighth annual report and covering its activities from July 1, 1953, until February 1, 1954. During this period, eighteen loans totaling $190,392,000 were made in ten countries, bringing the total of Bank lending to $1,781,158,464 for 96 loans in 31 countries. On February 1, 1954, total disbursements on loans amounted to $1,261,310,913, $158,049,798 of which had been made in the period covered in the report. Net earnings for the seven months ending February 1, 1954, totaled $11,072,000 all of which had been credited to the Supplemental Reserve against Losses on Loans and Guarantees, raising that supplemental reserve to $87,586,000. Approximately $6,550,000 had been added to the Special Reserve, increasing it to $43,787,000. Four issues of Bank bonds had increased the outstanding direct obligations of the Bank by $198,269,342 during the period; total Bank issues outstanding as of February 1, 1954, amounted to $753,479,877, of which $675 million was denominated in United States dollars and the remainder in sterling, Swiss francs or Canadian dollars. $15,448,464 principal amount of borrowers' obligations had been sold to private investors during the period; $10,163,766 of this total was sold without the Bank's guarantee. As of February 1, 1954, total sales by the Bank of the obligations of its borrowers totaled $85,463,118, of which $31,638,140 had been retired

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, which held its 21st session in Montreal from February 2 through April 7, 1954, decided to circulate to ICAO members a study on airport charges throughout the world made by the Air Transport Committee. A conference to amend the 1929 Warsaw convention on liability of air carriers for passengers and cargo was to be convened in the Netherlands in September 1955, according to another Council decision. Two further meetings which the Council decided to convene were an air navigation meeting for the north Atlantic region to be held in Montreal on October 5, 1954, and the fourth session of the ICAO Facilitating Division to be held as early in 1955 as practicable. The Council also decided to move ICAO's far east and Pacific office, currently located in Melbourne, Australia, to Bangkok, Thailand, sometime toward the end of 1954.

The Building, Civil Engineering and Public Works Committee of the International Labor Organization held its fourth session in Geneva from October 26 through November 6, 1953, under the chairmanship of M. Kaufmann (Switzerland), a government member of the Governing Body. Reports had been submitted by the International Labor Office on the three items on the meeting's agenda: 1) a general report dealing particularly with action taken by ILO members and the Governing Body in the light of previous committee conclusions; 2) methods of facilitating the progressive application in the construction industry of the principle of a guaranteed wage; and 3) factors affecting the productivity of the construction industry. After the delegates – which represented 24 countries on a tripartite basis – analyzed the problems and progress which the construction industry faced in their countries, the committee approved a series of resolutions which covered such subjects as: 1) action by engineers and architects with a view to raising productivity in the industry, 2) contract practices, 3) vocational training, 4) mechanization, 5) the psychologicàl factor involved in raising productivity, and 5) sharing the benefits of in-creased productivity. A memorandum concerning a guaranteed wage was approved without opposition which endorsed the principle of a guaranteed wage, either by agreeing to provide a specified period of work at ordinary rate of pay or by paying a minimum sum during the specified period regardless of whether or not the workers could be kept employed in customary or reasonably alternate work. In a further resolution, the committee stressed the role which the construction industries could play in implementing policies of full employment. By a vote of 60 to 39 with 24 abstentions it decided to place on the agenda of its next session the questions of protection of conditions of employment and living conditions of young workers, prevention of industrial accidents, reduction of hours of work, and practical measures for securing and maintaining full employment in the construction industry.

A mission sent by the International Monetary Fund to India, at the request of that government, to study monetary and financial problems arising from the Indian government's five-year development plan, said that $400 million would be needed to complete the program, according to a report released on February 7, 1954. The report indicated that this financing might be sought internally as well as through foreign assistance. The mission regarded the program, which was estimated to call for a total investment of $7 billion, as “essential to the well-being of the people of India and … important to the survival of democracy in Asia”. While grants-in-aid would have a better economic effect than borrowing to obtain the necessary foreign aid, the report noted, the Indian economy was sound and should be able to borrow abroad if need be. Among the special problems covered in the report was the unpredictability of an adequate food supply; the mission recommended that India conclude special arrangements with the United States, Canada and Australia for a supply of wheat to meet “any extraordinary future needs”. In presenting the report to the Indian Parliament, the Indian government welcomed the Fund's study but made it clear that it was not committed to its recommendations.

The seventh plenary assembly of the International Telegraph Consultative Committee (CCIT) of the International Telecommunication Union met in Arnhem, Netherlands, from June 5 through 13, 1953, under the chairmanship of Mr. van der Toorn (Netherlands). Most of the work of the session was carried on in study groups on the following subjects: 1) general telegraphy, 2) technical aspects of the establishment, operation and maintenance of telegraph channels, 3) technical aspects of telegraph apparatus, 4) vocabulary, symbols and classification, 5) phototelegraphy and facsimile, 6) technical aspects of switching in the service of start-stop apparatus, 7) European telegraph network operated by start-stop apparatus, 8) operational methods and quality of service, 9) services offered to users and rates other than telex rates, and 10) international service of telegraph subscribers and rates for such service. At the request of the Buenos Aires Plenipotentiary Conference of ITU, CCIT considered the possibility of amalgamating itself with the International Telephone Consultative Committee (CCIF) and concluded, by a vote of 16 to 11 with 1 abstention, that such a course would not serve the best interests of ITU. CCIT decided to hold its eighth plenary assembly in Geneva in the first half of 1956.

During the latter part of 1953 two seminars were held under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and a third was sponsored by UNESCO. For the purpose of studying the principal public library problems and drafting plans and proposals for the development of public library services in Africa, particularly in connection with mass education, UNESCO held a seminar at Ibadan, Nigeria, from July 27 to August 21, 1953. The seminar recommended, among other things, that the UNESCO public libraries manifesto be accepted as a statement of the basic policy and purposes on which national public library services should be established in Africa; preparation of national or regional plans for public library service should be preceded by a survey conducted with the aid of experts in education, the social sciences and administration; the permanence and development of public library service should be assured by appropriate legislation; and an independent or state agency established by the government should control and direct the national service. The second seminar under UNESCO auspices studied the contribution of the teaching of modern languages towards education for living in a world community from August 3 to 28, 1953, in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon. General topics discussed included the humanistic aspect of teaching modern languages, teaching modern languages as a key to the understanding of other civilizations and peoples, methodology of language teaching, audio-visual aids, psychological aspects of language teaching, and training modern language teachers. A resolution strongly urging that the mother tongue be used whenever possible at all levels as the medium of instruction and that the maximum facilities be created and maintained for the study of the widest possible range of foreign languages in all countries was adopted at the concluding session of the seminar.

At its thirteenth session, which was held in Geneva from January 12 to February 2, 1954, the Executive Board of the World Health Organization had some 80 items on its agenda. It examined a) reports on the work of expert and special committees concerned with such subjects as malaria, poliomyelitis, rabies, drugs liable to produce addiction, bioligical standardization, environmental sanitation, alcohol, public-health administration, rheumatic diseases, quarantine measures, and yellow fever; b) progress being made in a number of projects, such as a campaign against smallpox, the selection of international non-proprietary names for drugs, standardization of laboratory tests of foods, and a study on international medical law; and c) a variety of administrative and financial matters, including the Director-General's proposed program and budget estimates for 1955, the scale of assessments for member countries, and the revision of the staff rules proposed by the Director-General. Decisions taken by the Board included a recommendation that the seventh World Health Assembly request the Board at its fifteenth session to continue the study of program analysis and evaluation and report to the eighth Assembly, concurrence in certain transfers proposed by the Director-General between sections of the 1954 appropriation resolution of the sixth Assembly, and recommendations as to the procedure for considering the 1955 program and budget estimates at the seventh Assembly. Noting that the financial problems facing WHO in implementing the 1954 program arose because the known amount of technical assistance funds to be made available to the organization in 1954 fell substantially short of amounts expected and was inadequate to meet the minimum requirements, the Board authorized the Director-General to: continue all projects and activities then in operation, implement those projects not yet started where the government concerned had proceeded to the extent that funds spent or set aside would be lost if the project did not go forward or where the project was an essential element of a program planned in stages which had been agreed with WHO and the government concerned, defer starting new activities wherever possible, and report to the seventh Assembly on further developments.

The third part of the fifth ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe was held in Strasbourg from September 15 through 26, 1953.

The future position of the Saar: After considerable debate, the Consultative Assembly adopted a resolution submitted by Mr. van der Goes van Naters (Netherlands, Labor) on the future position of the Saar. In submitting a report on this question from the Committee on General Affairs, the rapporteur (van Naters) stressed the importance of finding a solution to the Saar question since the dispute between France and the German Federal Republic threatened to impede if not prevent progress toward European integration and cooperation. He emphasized that the problem was of concern to the whole of Europe and should be solved as a European problem rather than as a matter of concern only to Germans and French. During the debate, support of the van Naters' proposal came from representatives of the Saar, from Mr. Eugen Gerstenmaier (German Federal Republic, Christian Democratic Union), and Mr. Julian Amery (United Kingdom, Conservative). Mr. Amery, while unable to commit his government, announced his belief that the United Kingdom would not shirk its duties in this matter although unable to agree in advance to a particular time-table of action or to be bound to a particular procedure. Mr. Karl Mommer (German Federal Republic, Social-Democrat Party, SPD) felt that the question of the Saar was part of the larger problem of the reunification of Germany; the Saar, he argued, had not ceased to be a part of Germany.

Annual Report: The fifth annual report of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, which was released in January 1954, stressed three developments:) the elimination of inflationary trends of recent years;) the improvement of west Europe's balance of payments, both over-all and with the dollar area; and) the continued failure of western European production to expand at a satisfactory rate. After a brief look at the causes and consequences of the first two of these developments, the report turned its attention to the third and concluded that, unless specific proposals were implemented and if world conditions remained generally the same, European production as a whole would increase only slightly, and Europe's exchange reserves were likely to increase. Several factors which led to these conclusions were:) internal demand was not likely to expand without more expansionary policies by governments;) since export earnings of primary producers were not likely to increase, external demand for European production was similarly not likely to increase; and) United States over-all current surplus, exclusive of all military transactions, would be offset by a new military expenditure abroad of $2.5 billion in 1953 and $2.1 billion in the first half of 1954.

The fifth meeting of the Consultative Committee on Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia was held in New Delhi from October 13 to 17, 1953, under the chairmanship of Sir Chintaman Deshmukh, Indian Minister of Finance. The meeting was attended by delegations from Australia, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, Ceylon, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Viet Nam. A communique issued at the end of the meeting stated that the main purpose of the session was to review progress under the Colombo Plan during 1952–1953, including the achievements of countries in south and southeast Asia in their development programs. The Committee recognized the desirability of stimulating increased understanding of, and interest in, the Colombo Plan and its aims and objectives. It accepted a proposal for the establishment of a small information unit in Colombo; this unit was to collect information relating to the Colombo Plan, arrange for distribution of this information to all member governments, and serve as a central pool of information which would be available to the press and the public. At its final meeting the Committee unanimously adopted a progress report, on which preliminary work had been done by officials of the participating governments in New Delhi from September 28 to October 8.

The Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community held an extraordinary session in Strasbourg on March 11, 1953, to adopt a budget for the organization for the coming year. At a session on May 12, 1953, the Common Assembly elected its officers, re-electing Paul-Henri Spaak president.