The tenth annual meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia was held in Seattle, Washington, November 10–13, 1958. At the meeting the committee's seventh annual report was adopted. It was reported that President Eisenhower, who attended the conference, outlined a five point plan for economic growth which called for expanded international trade; more technical assistance; more private investment; public loans on normal bankable terms; and development financing to provide to the borrower flexibility regarding terms of repayment. Mr. Eisenhower observed that the Development Loan Fund established in 1957 by the United States Congress had given more than half its loans to the Colombo Plan countries. Additions to the fund were needed since Colombo Plan nations had requested further loans for projects which exceeded the resources of the fund. He suggested that progress would be hastened if other more developed countries were to act to meet these growing needs and said that the United States would welcome the contributions of other countries to this end. He spoke of the possibility of creating an international development association for this purpose, as an affiliate of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. During the committee's session, it was pointed out by some participants that less developed countries should prepare a satisfactory climate, with investment safeguards, if large private investments were to be expected. Several representatives from less developed areas concurred in this position, referring to steps already taken in this direction. It was decided to hold the next annual meeting of the committee in Indonesia.

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) announced that the tariffs of five member states on imports of goods qualifying for EFTA treatment would be reduced IO percent on March 1, 1962. This reduction resulted in a total reduction in basic duties of 40 percent since July 1, 1960, for Denmark, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. For imports into Austria and Norway a corresponding reduction was to be made not later than September 1, 1962. The reduction was not yet to apply to certain limited classes of goods imported into Denmark. The tariff reductions were to be applied to imports from Finland in the same way as to imports from other member states.

The eighth joint session between the members of the Consultative Assembly and the European Parliamentary Assembly (EPA) took place in Strasbourg on September 19 and 20, 1961, under the joint presidency of Mr. Hans Furler (German Christian Democrat), president of EPA, and Mr. Per Federspiel (Danish Moderate Liberal), president of the Consultative Assembly. The debates opened with the report of Mr. P. J. Kapteyn (Dutch Labor), on behalf of EPA, and the Consultative Assembly's reply, presented by Mr. Michel Junot (French Independent). Mr. Kapteyn, speaking of the British approach to the Common Market, stressed that two world wars had brought Great Britain much nearer to continental Europe.

Freedom of information and of the press is a fundamental human right and is the touchstone of all the freedoms consecrated in the Charter of the United Nations and proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; it is essential to the promotion and to the preservation of peace.

Like the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development devoted most of its first year of existence to the creation of a working organization, postponing its program of making loans to facilitate the reconstruction and development of productive capacity in many nations.

International cooperation regarding maritime problems was extended during the exigencies of war with the establishment of the United Maritime Authority which, as a wartime shipping organization, controlled the activities of ninety percent of the world's non-Axis tonnage. With the termination of United Maritime Authority controls, transitional machinery was set up to ensure transportation of UNRRA and other rehabilitation cargoes.

Meetings of the Commission

The nineteenth meeting of the Caribbean Commission was held in Trinidad, instead of French Guiana as originally scheduled, from November 29 to December 4, 1954, under the chairmanship of H. R. van Houten (Netherlands). Because of the last minute change in the site, it was agreed to make the meeting a purely working session. The substantive work of the meeting took place in committees which studied the various items on the agenda and prepared reports for the plenary session; the principal items on the agenda concerned the proposed work program and budget for 1955. At the final session the report of the Central Secretariat's activities since the eighteenth meeting was approved by the Commission, which noted with satisfaction the increased number of requests for information received by the Secretariate. The Commission also approved the 1955 work program which included various conferences, meetings, and two cacao cultivation tours in Trinidad. The Secretary-General was directed by the Commission to request the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for the following: 1) a fellowship to be given for the training of a Caribbean home economist who would be appointed to work with the Commission after she had finished her training; 2) a forestry expert and a fisheries expert to be assigned to the Caribbean area; and 3) a three-week training course in home economics in the French Caribbean Departments. The latter request was also to be presented to the United States Foreign Operations Administration. The Commission approved in principle the recommendation of the Joint Conference on Education and Small-Scale Farming that the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) assignan educational consultant to the area to beattached to the Central Secretariat. In accordance with a recommendation of the Trade PromotionConference, the Commission agreed that a trade promotion officer should be attached to its staff at the Central Secretariat. The Commission decided to convene in 1956 a Conference on Cooperatives in the Caribbean, jointly sponsored by the Commission and the FAO, and a Conference on Town and Country Development Planning.

In the Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization, 16 June 1963–15 June 1964 Secretary-General U Thant observed that the publication of the Introduction had been delayed because of the postponement of the nineteenth session of the General Assembly until December 1, 1964. Taking advantage of this delay, he had brought the Introduction up to date.

Following the revolution in Syria, the United Arab Republic announced on March 10, 1963, that it would resume its participation in the Arab League, which it had boycotted since the Shtoura meeting in August 1962, when the former Syrian government accused the United Arab Republic of interfering in Syrian affairs. Iraq had already resumed active membership in the League after the overthrow of the Kassem regime. Algeria was admitted to League membership on August 16, 1962.

The tenth Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO), held in Geneva from May 7 to 24, 1957, was attended by the delegates of 79 member and associate member states. After unanimously electing Dr. S. Al-Wahbi (Iraq) president, the Assembly adopted the report of the Committee on Credentials by 58 votes to o with 5 abstentions.

“Société Électricité de Beyrouth” Case: On August 15, 1953, an application instituting proceedings on behalf of the government of France against the government of Lebanon was filed with the Registry of the International Court of Justice by André Gros, agent for the French government. The French government alleged that the Lebanese government, by a series of acts or omissions dating from the end of 1951 and culminating in placing the Société Électricité de Beyrouth under provisional state control by decrees of March 19 and April 4, 1953, had violated the Franco-Lebanese Treaty of January 24, 1948, and general principles of international law.

The Korean war will no doubt long be regarded as the crucial test of the ability of the United Nations to meet armed aggression with international force. In view of the complexity of the events connected with the war, it may be useful to attempt a tentative appraisal of the United Nations' role up to the point of truce negotiations

The second meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was held in Paris on November 27–28, 1962, under the chairmanship of Mr. Donald Fleming (then Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General). The Council reviewed the economic prospects of the twenty member countries and the Organization's world-wide responsibilities, and surveyed the progress already made toward the growth target defined in 1961.

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1957, was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on June 28, 1957. The report stated that boom conditions had continued throughout 1956, sustained by an undercurrent of private business investment sufficiently strong to compensate for weaknesses in individual sectors. The increase in the demand for capital, due largely to new production techniques, changes in agricultural and manufacturing methods, and growth in population, had been accompanied by a great volume of economic activity and an increased demand for public and private investment in social services and amenities. Although there had been no further significant extension of restrictions, inflationary tendencies had constituted a primary problem.

As early as January 19, 1948, the press reported that the devaluation of the French franc was under consideration by the French Government as a measure to stimulate French exports. Lengthy consultations between the French Director of the Fund (Mendès-France) and other officials of the Fund gave rise to the belief that agreement would be reached whereby the Fund could approve some devaluation of the franc. However, on January 25 the Fund announced that it could not permit the devaluation and that it regretted the decision of the French Government to proceed without the Fund's permission. Following French devaluation the following day, the Fund stated that it would continue to “work with the French Government in seeking a modification of these exchange practices in order to meet French needs within the framework of the international monetary arrangements established by the Fund Agreement.” The Fund subsequently accepted a provisional adjustment in its holdings of the franc from approximately 67,940 million to 122,292 million, representing an 80 per cent increase over January 24, 1948.

The Council of Ministers of the Southeast Asian Defense Treaty Organization (SEATO) held its fourth annual meeting in Manila from March 11–13, 1958, under the chairmanship of the Acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, the Hon. Felixberto M. Serrano. A communiqué issued at the close of the session stated that the Council had reviewed the world situation, with special attention to the treaty area, approved the work of the organization since its meeting in Canberra in 1957, and considered reports by the Council representatives, the military advisers, and the Secretary General.

Pressures to extend the activities of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into fields other than the military, or actually to shift the emphasis to political, economic, and cultural objectives, have been so strong in recent years that one wonders whether there has not been a growing tendency, particularly in Europe, to lose sight of the purpose for which NATO was established and which makes it vital to the United States. Essentially, NATO is a multilateral military alliance for the protection of western and southern Europe against Soviet conquest, a means of denying these areas and their resources to the Soviets. If the members of the alliance, on one side or the other of the Atlantic, were ever to reach the conclusion that the threat of military attack from the east had vanished or that it could not be countered effectively by common military effort, NATO would have lost its original raison d'être, though it might be continued for the sake of what today are secondary non-military functions, such as political conciliation and economic collaboration. It should be added that the primacy of the military purpose of NATO, as it exists today, does not preclude the desirability or even the necessity of extending its scope beyond purely military matters. As Ruth C. Lawson has pointed out, there is little hope for reliable military collaboration among countries ohat do not succeed in attaining a reasonable degree of harmony between their political aims and policies. Cyprus, Suez, and Algeria are symptomatic of the problems NATO faces in the political field.

While analysis of any institution of such recent origin as the Interim Committee of the General Assembly can be only tentative in nature and must be subject to reservation at many points, it is possible at this time to identify certain trends in the development of the Interim Committee and its work. The broad questions to which an answer will be sought in the course of this inquiry are these: Why did a 1945 Netherlands' proposal for a standing committee on peace and security of the General Assembly meet with little response in the Preparatory Commission, while two years later a similar proposal by the United States was accepted by an overwhelming majority? For what purposes was the Interim Committee established, and, how successfully has it accomplished these purposes? Has the Interim Committee been organized in the best possible fashion for performance of its assigned functions? What, at this time, seems to be the future role of the Interim Committee in the United Nations system?

After the General Assembly confirmed in November 1948 an agreement for the transfer of certain funds and activities of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to the United Nations, Byron Price, Assistant Secretary-General for Administrative and Financial Services of the Secretariat, announced in January 1949 that the Communications and Records Division of the Secretariat would be responsible for administrative supervision of the UNRRA history project, which was prescribed by the agreement and which contemplated the completion, publication and distribution of a history to be compiled by March 31, 1949. Also this division would supervise both administrative and substantive matters in respect of the records and archives project contemplated by the liquidation agreement. The Department of Administrative and Financial Services was to perform the financial services required under the terms of the agreement, including the establishment of a special fund to record the financial transactions, the receipt and transfer of funds, provision of periodic financial reports regarding the history and records projects, processing of all payments from funds transferred, collection of accounts receivable transferred prior to and consequent on assumption of accounting functions from the Administrator for Liquidation and transfer of final residual amounts to the International Children's Emergency Fund, and arrangements for external audit of the liquidator's accounts. The Legal Department was to be responsible for examining and approving settlement of marine claims assigned by UNRRA to the United Nations for the benefit of ICEF, for the execution of the general releases required in the settlement of claims, and for such action with respect to legal proceedings as might be necessary.