The fourth session of the Council of the Baghdad Pact was held in Ankara, Turkey, January 27–30, 1958, under the chairmanship of Mr. Adnan Menderes, Prime Minister of Turkey, and was attended by delegations from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well as by an observer delegation from the United States. It was reported that at the opening meeting the delegates from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan stressed the need for more economic aid to the pact area, while the United Kingdom and United States speakers expressed the belief that member nations should concentrate on completing economic projects already under way. Mr. Dulles, Secretary of State of the United States, in his opening address pointed out that Congress had authorized the President to use armed forces to assist any nation or group of nations in the Middle East, including the Baghdad Pact nations, that requested assistance against armed aggression by any communist-controlled country. On the second day of the session the Council approved reports of the military, liaison, and countersubversion committees. The report of the military committee recommended a longterm defense building project, which would include a communications system from west Turkey to Pakistan with trunk and lateral highways, harbor and storage facilities at seaports on the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea, and civil airports that could be readily converted for military use. In the meeting on January 29 Mr. Dulles announced that, subject to funds being made available by Congress, $10 million would be provided by the United States for the improvement of telephone and radiotelephone links between the capitals of Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, in addition to $8 million already provided for surveys being carried out.

The General Assembly held its twentieth session, comprising the I332nd–1408th plenary meetings, at UN Headquarters from September 21 to December 21, 1965, during which time it took action on 108 agenda items and adopted 125 resolutions. By acclamation the Assembly admitted three new states, Gambia, the Maldive Islands, and Singapore, to United Nations membership, thereby bringing the Organization's total membership to 117.

No consideration of the place of Africa in the United Nations or of the role of international organization in the progress of this continent would be thinkable without an authoritative expression of views upon the subject by Africans themselves.

The Eighth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organization of American States (OAS) took place from January 22–31, 1962, at Punta del Este, Uruguay, to consider the threat posed to the western hemisphere's security by Cuba. Before the meeting, the Inter-American Peace Committee, a standing committee of OAS, after investigating charges made by the representative of Peru that Cuba was engaged in promoting subversive movements in other Latin American countries, unanimously approved a report to be put before the meeting of the foreign ministers. This report included the following points: 1) that the identification of the government of Cuba with the Marxist-Leninist ideology and socialism of the Soviet type presupposed positions that were basically antagonistic to the principle established in the OAS charter that the solidarity and high aims of OAS were based on the effective exercise of representative democracy; 2) that the present government of Cuba impeded the exercise of the right of self-determination, as it was conceived in the inter-American system; 3) that the serious and systematic violation of human rights by the government of Cuba not only constituted one of the principal causes of the international tensions affecting the peace of the hemisphere but was also in open contradiction to various instruments of the inter-American system. Also, it stated 4) that the connections of the government of Cuba with the Sino-Soviet bloc of countries were incompatible with the principles and standards that governed the regional system, and particularly with the collective security established by the OAS charter and the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance; and 5) that the intense subversive activity in which the countries of the Sino Soviet bloc were engaged in America and the activities of the Cuban government that had been pointed out in the report represented attacks upon inter-Amercian peace and security as well as on the sovereignty and political independence of the American states, and therefore a serious violation of fundamental principles of the inter-American system.

In accordance with a decision taken at the first part of its thirteenth session, the General Assembly reconvened on February 20, 1959, to consider exclusively the question of the future of the trust territories of the Cameroons under French administration and the Cameroons under United Kingdom administration. The Assembly referred the question to its Trusteeship (fourth) Committee which discussed the matter from its 844th meeting on February 25 to its 880th meeting on March 18. The Trusteeship Council had submitted a special report to the General Assembly concerning the future of these trust territories. The Council had also transmitted to the Assembly the reports of the UN visiting mission to trust territories in West Africa, 1958, and the observations of the administering authorities on the reports.

The fourth South Pacific Conference was held at Rabaul, New Britain, in the territory of Papua and New Guinea, from April 20 to May 13, 1959. Sixty-five delegates and advisers attended from sixteen Pacific territories and the Kingdom of Tonga. The Conference was divided into two standing committees, one dealing with social and health questions, and the other with matters affecting the economic welfare of the island peoples. For the second time in the history of the conferences, the delegates themselves elected the chairman and vice-chairman of each committee, but for the first time a woman was elected chairman of one of them, i.e., the social committee. The Conference proceedings were governed by a general committee, on which each of the six governments forming the membership of the South Pacific Commission was represented by a member of a territorial delegation; the chairman of the Conference, Mr. J. R. Halligan, Australia's Senior Commissioner on the South Pacific Commission, was the only European member of the general committee.

The Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held its 54th session in Paris, June 1–12, 1959. Under the heading, Execution of the Program, th Board took the following decisions, inter alia:1) to appoint a rapporteur, commissione to follow the successive discussions of the Director-General ‘s reports by the Board, for the purpose of assisting in the preparation of comments by the Board on these reports for information to the General Conference at its forthcoming session; 2) to authorize the Director-General to request the Technical Assistance Committee to contribute for 1960 a sum of $505, 779 toward the Headquarters costs of administering the Technical Assistance Program; 3) to designate twelve Member States— namely, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States—which were to be entitled to appoint a representative for two years on the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee for the Major Project on the Extension of Primary Education in Latin America; 4) to request the Director-General to accept the invitation of the government of Denmark to hold in Denmark in i960 an intergovernmental conference on international oceanographic research and training vessels; 5) to approve the celebration of the anni- 1 Document 54 EX/Decisions, June 22, 1959. For a summary of the 33d session, see International Organization, Spring 1939 (Vol. 13, No. 2), p. 324. versaries of the great personalities (Frederic Chopin and Charles Darwin) listed in one of the documents before the Board; and 6) to authorize the Director-General to signify UNESCO&'s agreement in principle to the proposals by the government of the United Arab Republic concerning international action for the study and protection of the archaeological monuments of Nubia threatened by submergence as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

In the closing months of the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War and for about two and one-half years thereafter, the American voluntary agency CARE (Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere) operated a rehabilitation program in Nigeria's East-Central State. With funds largely provided by USAID, it concentrated on rebuilding or extending basic structures, like bridges and water systems, and on distributing badly needed planting material. During much of that period, while the war for Bangladesh's independence still raged, the British voluntary agency Oxfam also sought, in timely fashion and on its own initiative, to improve the condition of refugees who had fled to camps within India. Its major emphases were on supplementary feeding, medical assistance, sanitation, shelter, and clothing.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held its ninth General Conference in New Delhi from November 5 to December 5, 1956. It was presided over by Mr. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Minister of Education (India).1 Of the 76 states which were members of UNESCO as of June 30, 1956, the Conference recognized as valid the credentials of 73 attending member states. In addition, the Conference was attended by delegates from associate members, and observers from non-member states, the UN and international and non-governmental organizations.

The United Nations cannot be expected to abolish the balancing process, which is the natural expression of the struggle for advantage and influence in international politics. It does, however, endeavor to modify the process. What are the methods which it employs? What actual effect have they had in promoting security? Above all, what relevance do they have for the conduct of American foreign policy?

Ambatielos Case: When oral proceedings in the preliminary objection in the Ambatielos Case opened on May 15, as announced, the President of the Court stated that the Greek government had designated an ad hoc judge in the person of Mr. Jean Spiropoulos. Sir Eric Beckett, counsel for the United Kingdom, stated that, in spite of the United Kingdom's contention that the jurisdiction of the Court should be accepted as widely as possible by states, it felt bound to contest the jurisdiction of the Court in the case under consideration because: 1) the dispute related to facts occurring before 1930 when the United Kingdom first accepted the Optional Clause; 2) it considered the claim of denial of justice completely unfounded on the merits; 3) it considered it clear that municipal remedies had not been exhausted; and 4) no claim of any denial of justice or other breach of an international obligation was made until 1933, ten years after the events and eight years after a refusal of a request ex gratia in which it had been admitted that no legal claim could be made. Sir Eric explained that the United Kingdom, although it took the preliminary objection that the Court had no jurisdiction, had filed a comprehensive counter-memorial on the merits of the case in order that the Greek government's aspersions on the administration of justice in the English High Court and Court of Appeal should not appear on the record unrefuted. Further, the United Kingdom denied that the terms of the 1886 or 1926 treaties (or the declaration appended to the latter) between the two governments lent any support to the Greek government's claims on behalf of Mr. Ambatielos.

The first part of the eighth ordinary session of the Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) took place in Paris from June 4 to 8, 1962. Mr. Arthur Conte (French Socialist) was re-elected President. In addition to the usual reports on defense questions, the Assembly took up the question of the negotiations between the European Common Market and the United Kingdom. On the solution of the Commonwealth problem in the negotiations, the Assembly recommended that special provisions should be worked out to cover a transitional period for imported foodstuffs, especially from the temperate zone. On political union, the Assembly's recommendation proposed that it should take the form of a Community institution, with an executive independent of the member states and responsible to an elected assembly and a ministerial council voting in some cases by qualified majority.

International Telegraph and Telephone Conference: The International Telegraph and Telephone Conference was held in Paris from May 23 to August 4, 1949 to amend the regulations drawn up at Cairo in 1938. In addition the conference considered questions referred to it by the International Telegraph Consultative Committee. Attention was concentrated on two items: unification of categories of telegrams; and tariff principles. The number of categories of telegrams was reduced from five to three, and all member countries were granted freedom to fix their own terminal and transit rates, as the conference abolished the Cairo regulation which had imposed restrictive rates for countries in the European system in their relations with countries in the extra-European system. The conference devised rules and a method of calculating rentals applicable to the joint use of circuits operated by start-stop apparatus in the European civil aviation system. The telephone regulations devised applied only to countries within the European system, whereas the telegraphy regulations were applicable throughout the world.

On June 6, 1961, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced a $15 million loan to Ceylon for the expansion of Ceylon's electric generating capacity and for the extension of electric power distribution in western Ceylon. The loan, the third made by the Bank to Ceylon for the purpose of developing an integrated electric power system under the Department of Governmental Electrical Undertakings (DGEU), was to cover the foreign exchange requirements of the project; local currency costs were to be met from government contributions and from DGEU's earnings. The loan was a 25-year term loan at 5%¾ percent interest, with amortization to begin on November 15, 1964. Six commercial banks participated in the loan, without the International Bank's guarantee, for a total amount of $1.1 million.

The 28th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1067th to the 1089th meetings inclusive, was held in Geneva from June 30 through July 31, I959.1 Mr. Daniel Cosío Villegas (Mexico) presided. After it was announced that Mr. Zahiruddin Ahmed (Pakistan), who had been elected second Vice-President at the 27th session, would be prevented by certain duties in his own country from attending the 28th session, Mr. Faruqi (Pakistan) was elected to that position.

The first formal action by the Allied Governments in considering the problem of reconstruction of the disrupted transport system of Europe's devastated areas was taken in October, 1942, when the Inter-Allied Committee on Post-war Requirements set up a Technical Advisory Committee on Inland Transport, with Professor E. R. Hondelink of the Netherlands as chairman. On November 18, 1942, the Hondelink Committee held its first meeting in London, with representatives present from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The work of the Committee consisted of 1) the preparation of estimates of requirements of equipment for the rehabilitation of inland waterways, railways, and ports against estimated movements of military and relief materials, and 2) the planning of an organization to expedite the movement of relief and priority traffic in post-war Europe. As a result of this work, the basis was laid for the eventual Agreement establishing the European Central Inland Transport Organization.

Following months of preliminary planning and negotiation, the first concrete steps toward the establishment of an International Trade Organization were taken by the Preparatory Committee of the International Conference on Trade and Employment, which met in London from October 15 to November 26, 1946. Called by the Secretary-General of the United Nations pursuant to a resolution of February 18, 1946, of the Economic and Social Council, the meeting was the first of a series of conferences to consider the possible integration of national trade policies and the removal of trade barriers on a world-wide scale. Its work, however, has been essentially preparatory in scope; its recommendations are not binding upon the governments represented.

Report to the General Assembly: In accordance with a resolution adopted during the fourth regular session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the fourth report of IAEA to the UN General Assembly consisted of the annual report of the Board of Governors to the General Conference, covering the period July 1, 1959, to June 30, 1960, together with a supplement dealing with developments, including action taken by the General Conference, during the period July 1 to September 30, 1960. The report noted that during the period under review the preparatory activities of the Agency had begun to bear fruit and that in most domains the year had been the first full year of normal operations. One of the main goals of the Agency, the report continued, was to foster the safe use of nuclear power under economically competitive conditions, but in this area there were still innumerable problems to overcome. Since the cost of generating electricity from nuclear power plants, although steadily declining, was still substantially higher than that of producing conventional power except in a few special cases, the earlier nuclear power plans of a number of countries had been revised and construction of plants was not proceeding at the rate foreseen some years ago. With regard to reactor technology, the Board reported that work was being done to improve the performance of reactors and to reduce their costs of operation by detailed technical modifications, although the cost of research on advanced reactor concepts was so high that only a very few major industrial countries had the necessary material resources to conduct such research. While the Board considered it unlikely that nuclear—propelled ships would become economically competitive with conventional ships in the near future, progress had been made in this sphere in the year under review, as witnessed by the commissioning of a nuclearpropelled ice-breaker and the launching of the first nuclear merchant ship.