Acting Secretary-General U Thant, in his Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization, 16 June 1961—75 June 1962, stated that the serious situation in the Congo, which had led to the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld, was particularly crucial among the problems of the last year. The peace-keeping operation in the Congo (ONUC) and the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) had incurred large expenditures, while a number of Member States had failed to pay their assessments for the maintenance of these peace-keeping forces. As a result, the financial difficulties facing the Organization had become increasingly serious in the last year. In an effort to ease the UN's financial problems, the General Assembly had requested the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the question of whether the expenditures for maintaining ONUC and UNEF constituted expenses of the Organization within the meaning of Article 17, paragraph 2, of the Charter and therefore represented binding legal obligations on Member States to pay their assessments for these operations. The General Assembly had also authorized the Secretary-General to issue during 1962 and 1963 up to $200 million of UN bonds.

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.

It has now become quite axiomatic to say that United States participation in the United Nations system is having an effect upon the substance I of United States foreign policy. What is not so well known as yet is that this participation is the cause for the creation of a new piece of machinery I for aiding the conduct of our foreign policy. Established in 1946 as the United States Delegation to the United Nations, this new outpost of the Department of State illustrates in its organization and operation many of the changes which have come about as bilateral diplomacy has given way to multilateral, “conference-type” United Nations diplomacy. Located at the headquarters of the international organization in New York City, the permanent Mission and its work are symbols of the importance and endless variety of problems posed for American foreign policy by our membership in and support for the United Nations. Since it is still in the process of development, the following study of the organization and role of the United States Mission to the United Nations should be taken as a preliminary analysis.

The thirteenth Congress of the Universal Postal Union was held at the Palais des Academies in Brussels from May 14 to July 15, 1952, with representatives from 91 countries present. The Congress, which met to revise the convention and its executive regulations concluded at Paris in 1947 as well as facultative agreements and their executive regulations also concluded in Paris, had before it more than 1,700 proposals for amending the Paris Acts. After electing E. Pineux (Belgium) President and F. Hess (Switzerland) Vice-President, the Congress established eight committees.

Case concerning the Guardianship of an Infant (Netherlands v. Sweden): In an order of April 17, 1958, the International Court of Justice fixed the following timelimits for the filing of further pleadings in the case concerning the guardianship of an infant: for the reply of the government of the Netherlands, June 18, 1958; and for the rejoinder of the government of Sweden, August 28, 1958.

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.

Quadripartite Activity: Failure to find a solution of the Berlin currency problem after the question had been considered by the United Nations Security Council was evident when the replies of the western powers and the Soviet Union to Dr. Juan Atilio Bramuglia's questions about the problem were made public on November 26, 1948. The Soviet reply stated that an agreement on the four-power control plan would mean the simultaneous lifting of the Berlin blockade and a return to four-power collaboration in the administration of Berlin, which in effect would mean resumption of direct conversations on the currency questions among the four military governors. The western powers made it clear that they considered the unity of Berlin city administration as the basic prerequisite for an agreement. Several days later, on November 30, a city government was installed in the Soviet sector of Berlin, with Friedrich Ebert as its mayor and on December 21, the western military governments announced formal reconstitution of the Allied Kommandatura on a three-power basis. In announcing the move, Brig. Gen. Jean Ganeval, French sector commandant, stated that fourparty administration of the city could be resumed any time that Soviet authorities decided to abide by agreements to which the four powers were committed.

Forty-seven nations were represented at the third annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was held in Washington from September 27 to October 1, 1948. Yun-wu Wang, Minister of Finance of China, acted as chairman of the joint sessions with the International Monetary Fund and also presided at other Bank meetings.

One hundred and two of the 110 states members of the International Labor Organization (ILO) met in Geneva from June 17 to July 9, 1964, for the 48th session of the ILO General Conference. Among those attending the Conference were 196 government delegates, 95 employers' delegates, 95 workers' delegates, and 63 ministers of labor. Mr. A. Aguilar Mawdsley (Venezuela) was elected President and the following three delegates were elected vice presidents: Mr. K. R. Baghdelleh (Tanganyika and Zanzibar), government vice president; Mr. S. Wajid Ali (Pakistan), employers' vice president; and Mr. H. Collison (United Kingdom), workers' vice president.

Australia is a nation small and vulnerable enough to need great power guarantees of territorial integrity, yet at the same time strong and stable enough to constitute an asset in any joint undertaking. The quality of being a small power dependent on the support of the great powers Australia shares with the countries of Southeast Asia, and in particular with the Southeast Asian states linked up with the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). But it is less exposed to immediate dangers, is more modern and industrialized than its near-northern neighbors, and hence is also capable of serving as an independent source of strength and of assuming a role somewhat akin to that of the great powers in SEATO. Australia's membership role in SEATO is, in effect, defined by these two basic conditions.

On November 6, 1963, the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) authorized its Secretary-General to conclude an agreement of cooperation between the OAS and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), included in which would be an exchange of experts in the nuclear energy field and of studies, information, and documents of common interest. A similar relationship between the OAS and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was approved at the Council's December 4 meeting.

The first 1964 meeting of the Ministerial Council of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) took place in Geneva on February 13–14, 1964. Chaired by Dr. Hans Schaffner, Minister of Public Economy in Switzerland, the meeting reviewed all major developments relating to the objectives of EFTA.

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.

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 25th meeting of the Caribbean Commission was held in Curacao, November 22–29, 1957–1 The meeting dealt mainly with recommendations made by the West Indian Conference, including consideration of a statement submitted by the conference on the procedure to be followed for the revision of the agreement establishing the Commission. It was decided to recommend to member governments that an ad hoc committee be appointed to make preparations for and facilitate the work of a revision conference proposed for November 1958. The Commission also approved the 1958 budget submitted by the Secretary General, considered the report of the July conference on the demographic problems of the area, approved the work program for the Commission's central secretariat, and noted progress reports on Commission-sponsored technical assistance projects, including aided self-help housing, an agricultural credit survey, a consultant on education and an education clearing house, and fisheries investigations.

“We do not want to entrust to five great Powers or to two great Powers the task of deciding … what our common destiny will be…”.

To anyone who attended the great assemblage gathered at San Francisco in 1945 to write the Charter for the United Nations, these words have a familiar ring. Indeed, they might have been uttered (and no doubt were ad nauseam) by small-power representatives during the seemingly interminable debates over the rule of unanimity—the veto—in the Security Council. In fact, these words were spoken in February 1965 by the Mauritanian delegate explaining, on the final day of the “abortive” nineteenth session of the General Assembly, why he voted with Albania in protest against the “basis of consensus” which had governed the session.

The annual report of the Technical Assistance Board (TAB) to the Technical Assistance Committee, which covered the activities of the Expanded Program of Technical Assistance (EPTA) during 1959 and, coming as it did at the end of the first decade of operations of the program, completed the record of the first ten years, was made public in June 1960. The report revealed that the period under consideration (July 1950 to June 1960) had ended with the pledge of an increase in UN technical assistance, following some reduction in the size of the 1959 program. Although the amount pledged by the 83 member governments for operations in 1959 had been $29.6 million, causing a 3 percent reduction in the amount spent to deliver aid, pledges for 1960 were expected to reach an all-time high of $33.4 million. In the face of the retrenchment necessary in 1959, the size of the technical assistance program in Africa had continued to rise modestly, the continent having received 14 percent of the aid given on a worldwide scale, as compared to 12 percent in 1958, while slight reductions in the Latin American and Middle Eastern programs had been necessary. However, the largest expenditure on regional projects, as in the past, had been in Latin America, where the cost of UN and specialized agency participation in such projects as the Fundamental Education Center in Mexico, the Andean Indian Program, and the Central American Economic Integration Program had reached $1.1 million. A substantial proportion of new EPTA operations had been in the form of assistance to the emerging states of Africa, financed by the use of contingency funds amounting to $1.2 million in all, thus making it possible to initiate assistance for which funds would not otherwise have been available.

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.

Palestine: Seven months after the first special session of the General Assembly met to consider the question of Palestine, the problem was again before the Assembly. Three agenda items dealt with the topic: 1) the original British proposal for discussion of the question, which had resulted in the convening of the special session, 2) the Report of the Special Committee on Palestine, established by that session, and 3) a proposal by Iraq and Saudi Arabia for termination of the mandate over Palestine and recognition of its independence as a unitary state.