Technical Assistance Board: The Technical Assistance Board considered that to cover commitments for 1953, $38,200,000 would be required of which $30,000,000 would be needed to liquidate the obligations incurred during the year. The difference would become deferred commitments to be met in 1954. Of the estimated $38,200,000 about $16,000,000 represented costs incurred in carrying on projects and programs now in operation or those which came into operation during 1952 under agreements already signed. The main differences in the 1953 program from those of the preceding two years were the following: 1) the inclusion in the program of a larger proportion of projects in the second phase; 2) the placing of greater emphasis on developing and extending demonstration projects and training centers in underdeveloped countries; 3) a further expansion in the number of fellowships,scholarships and study grants to be awarded nationals of underdeveloped countries; and 4) the provision of greater amounts of equipment and supplies. Under the 1953 program increased emphasis was to be given to regional projects and training centers for the benefit of several countries of comparable development and with similar problems. It was estimated that 2,386 experts would be required to carry out all of the proposed activities and 3,069 fellowships and scholarships awarded

This issue covers the remainder of the work of the thirteenth session of the Economic and Social Council. The Council met in Geneva from July 30 to September 21, 1951.

Organization of the Council: During the thirteenth session great importance was attached to the necessity of insuring that business reached the Council in a well-prepared state and that Members had adequate time to study it. An effort was made to spread the work-load over the year in a pattern which would best facilitate the operations of all the international organizations concerned. Although the Ad Hoc Committee on the Organization and Operation of the Council and its Commissions had suggested three annual sessions of the Council, the majority of members were agreed that the existing arrangement of two regular annual sessions was sufficient — with the qualification that, henceforth, the second session should not be closed before the opening of the annual session of the General Assembly, but should be resumed towards the end of the session. The resumed ECOSOC session would decide how questions referred to the Council by the General Assembly should be handled and plan the basic program of work for the following year. As far as possible, major economic items would be considered in the first regular session of the year, with the bulk of the major social and human rights questions falling in the second regular session. The Council's agenda procedure was modified so that each year the Council would plan its basic work program and calendar of conferences for the following year; moreover, at each regular session, the Council would in the future settle the detailed provisional agenda for the following session — with appropriate provisions for the insertion of urgent items at a later date.

The second part of the thirteenth session of the Economic and Social Council was held in Paris from December 18 to 21, 1951 to consider work plans and provisional agenda for 1952.1 It was decided to include on the 1952 agenda the question of Japan's admission to ECAFE as an associate member, as proposed by Pakistan, and to exclude other items – the problem of statelessness, the plight of survivors1 of concentration camps and the reports of the Council's Ad HocCommittee on Forced Labor. A Soviet proposal to hold a single session during 1952 was adopted by a vote of 7 to 4 with 3 abstentions. This session, the fourteenth, was scheduled to begin on May 13.

The fourteenth session of the Economic and Social Council met at United Nations headquarters in New York from May 20 to August 1, 1952. Mr. S. Amjad Ali (Pakistan) was elected president, Mr. Jiri Nosek (Czechoslovakia), first vice-president and Mr. Raymond Scheyven (Belgium), second vice-president. After a proposal by the United States that discussion of a Soviet motion to seat the representative of the Central Government of the People's Republic of China be adjourned for the duration of the session had been adopted by a vote of 14 to 4, the Council turned to consideration of an agenda containing some 46 separate items.

Mr. Khalidy (Iraq) and Mr. Forsyth (Australia) were elected President and Vice-President, respectively, of the eleventh session of the Trusteeship Council. The first part of the session was held in New York from June 3 through July 24, 1952, with the second part scheduled to open not later than November 7, 1952. Annual reports from trust territories in Africa and reports from the visiting mission to east African trust territories formed the bulk of the work of the first part of the session; the second part was to be devoted to consideration of a special report from the visiting mission to west African trust territories concerning the problem of Ewe and Togoland unification.

On December 18, 1951 the International Court of Justice delivered its judgment in the fisheries case which had been brought before the Court by the United Kingdom against Norway. By a vote of ten to two the Court established the validity of the Norwegian Royal Decree of 1935 in international law. This reserved to Norway an exclusive fishing zone of four miles based on lines connecting the outermost land points of the jagged coast. Through an eight to four vote the Court sanctioned the Norwegian system of straight baselines and overruled the United Kingdom contention that the four-mile belt should more closely follow coastal contours. This decision ended two years of litigation over a forty-five year controversy.

Anglo-Iranian Oil Case: On December 20, 1951, at the request of the Imperial Government of Iran, the Court granted a one month extension of the time-limit (to February 11, 1952) for the deposit of Iran's counter-memorial or preliminary objection.1 On February 11, the government of Iran deposited with the Registry of the Court a document entitled “Preliminary observations: refusal by the Imperial Government to recognize the jurisdiction of the Court”. As a result of the Iranian objection, which was presented in accordance with the conditions laid down by the rules of the Court, the proceedings on the merits were, as of that date, suspended. By an order of the same date, the President of the Court fixed March 27, 1952, as the time-limit granted to the United Kingdom to submit to the Court its written observations on the Iranian exception.

The tenth session of the Trusteeship Council met in New York from February 27 to April 1, 1952. President of the session was Sir Alan Burns (United Kingdom) and throughout all meetings the representative of Italy sat as a nonmember of the Trusteeship Council. During the session, the Council considered the annual reports of the administering authorities for the trust territories of Western Samoa, New Guinea, Nauru, and the Pacific Islands, and petitions from trust territories in Africa and from New Guinea, having decided to defer the reports of the visiting missions to east Africa until the eleventh session. The question of Chinese representation brought up by the representative of the Soviet Union was also deferred

The sixth session of the Food and Agricultural Organization Conference was held November 19 to December 7, 1951 in Rome. This was its first biennial session. The provisional agenda for the conference included the following: appointment of a Director-General; election of Council members and chairman; emergency action to assist the United Nations in the maintenance of peace and security; final action on the international plant protection convention; establishment of a Latin American fisheries council, and principles of forest policy; review of the world situation and existing trends in agricultural production and consumption; international commodity problems; the activities of FAO and its long-term objectives; the report of the Director-General (Dodd); the technical assistance program; the $8,753,000 budget and other administrative and financial questions; and the relation of FAO to the United Nations.

Annual Report of the Secretary-General: Speaking on the development of public understanding during the year under review, the Secretary-General ex-pressed his conviction that public understanding of the United Nations as an institution for world peace and progress had continued to grow in most areas of the world. Although the United Nations might, however, be almost universally regarded as “the main hope for peace in the long run”, the Secretary-General felt that there was then a general tendency to consider that the organization was not the “sole or main instrument for peace”. He remarked on the wide areas of misunderstanding and the lack of knowledge about the United Nations and its work which persisted in most parts of the world, but he coupled this view with the impression of notable progress during the previous year toward a more realistic appraisal of the organization's potentialities for the solution of basic problems. The Secretary-General pointed out also that, as in previous years, the course of events had had a direct bearing on prevailing public opinion and had caused fluctuations in both positive and negative directions. The situation in Korea during the past year had exerted particularly strong influence on the attitude of the public toward the United Nations.

On January 11, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development made a loan of $29,700,000 for electric power development in Mexico. The loan was to be used to finance imports of equipment and materials needed to carry out seven major projects in the 1952–1955 construction program of Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission. The loan, made for a term of 25 years and bearing interest at the rate of 4J½ percent per annum, was the third made to Mexico for power development, in support of that country's current industrial and agricultural expansion. It was estimated that, together with the loans of 1949 and 1950, the loan would contribute to the near doubling of Mexico's electric generating capacity in a span of seven years. The joint borrowers were the Comision Federal de Electricidad, a government agency charged with the development of electric power, and Nacional Financiera, the official financing institution of the Mexican government. The loan was guaranteed by the Mexican government.

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 sixth session of the Food and Agriculture Organization Conference, held from November 19 to December 7, 1951 in Rome,1 elected Amintore Fanfani (Italy) chairman and reappointed Norris E. Dodd Director-General for an additional two-year period. On November 21, 1951 the conference voted to admit to FAO Argentina by 53 votes to 0, Japan by 47 votes to 0, Nepal by 49 votes to 1, and Laos by 44 votes to 2.

The sixth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development took place in Washington, D. C, September 10 to 14, 1951, concurrently with the meeting of the Board of the International Monetary Fund. In presenting the Bank's Sixth Annual Report to the Board, the President (Black) reviewed briefly the Bank's activities for the year ended June 30, 1951. He pointed out that in all phases of its operations, the year was the largest in the Bank's history and demonstrated its considerable and growing strength. He expressed the opinion that the Bank, unless there was further deterioration in the international situation, could meet all the capital needs of economic development in its member states, to the extent that these needs should be met on a long-term loan basis. In view of this, he questioned the validity of continuing suggestions to vastly increase funds for this purpose. By that he did not exclude the provision of other instruments for providing capital for economic growth and stated that the Bank was studying a proposal for the establishment of an international finance corporation to complement' the Bank by providing equity investments and loans for private enterprise without governmental guarantee. The Bank's report on this proposal was to be presented to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in the spring of 1952.

The fourteenth session of the Council, convened on September 28, was adjourned on December 14, 1951. The Council adopted twenty amendments to Annex 8 (Airworthiness of Aircraft), arising out of the work of the Airworthiness Division at its fourth session. Action was also taken on recommendations 1 to 23 of the Search and Rescue Division, third session, the details of which were communicated to member states as a forward to the division's report. The Council noted with satisfaction the agreements reached at the special meeting on coordination of air traffic in western Europe4 held in Paris in October 1951, directed that the report of the meeting be published as an ICAO document, and urged all affected states to give high priority to the coordination of their national requirements for the use of air space in western Europe. It was hoped that the progress made would be consolidated at the European-Mediterranean Regional Air Navigation Meeting to convene in Paris on February 26, 1952. Further, the Council: approved the program recommended by the Air Navigation Commission for keeping regional plans up to date and for isolating the more critical deficiencies in air navigation facilities and services; decided to recommend to the Assembly the adoption, with minor amendments, of the draft revised constitution of the Legal Committee prepared by that committee at its seventh session;0 approved the convening of the subcommittee established to continue work on the revision of the 1929 Warsaw Convention.

The Minquiers and Ecrehos Case: On June 26, 1952, the International Court of Justice fixed October 6, 1952 as the time-limit for the filing of the reply of the government of the United Kingdom and February 6, 1953 as the time-limit for the filing of the rejoinder of the French government in the Minquiers and Ecrehos case. However, at the request of the United Kingdom, and with the acceptance of the extension by France, the Court, on August 27, fixed November 6, 1952 and March 6, 1953 as the time-limits for the filing of the United Kingdom reply and the French rejoinder, respectively.

The Council held a post-assembly session June 21 to 29, 1951 in which air navigation problems figured most prominently. The Council established universal radio telephony procedures recommended by the Airworthiness and the Communications Divisions during their fourth sessions and incorporated them into Amendment 4 to Annex 10 (Aeronautical Telecommunications) of Standards and Recommended Practices for implementation November 1, 1951. The Air Navigation Commission was authorized to establish a small standing committee, proposed by the Airworthiness and Operations Divisions, to make tentative amendment to Annexes 6 and 8 (Operation of Aircraft, Airworthiness of Aircraft). The Council also approved the implementation January 1, 1952 of the Revised Supplementary Regional Procedures in Meteorology. On the advice of the Air Navigation Commission, the Council approved the proposal by the United States and France to include the New York-Paris circuit in the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network of the European and the Mediterranean Region, subject to review by the European and Mediterranean Regional Air Navigation Meeting in February. Amendments 23 to 28 to Annex 4 (Aeronautical Charts) were adopted; and unless disapproved by a majority of contracting states they would become effective November 1, 1951 and implemented January 1, 1952. The Council endorsed the establishment of regional training centers and directed the Secretary-General to encourage such development and particularly to urge the governments of India, Pakistan, and Egypt to consider further development of centers of Allahabad, Nawabshar or Karachi, and Cairo, not only for the benefit of their own nations, but also for that of neighboring states. Noting the development of prohibited, restricted, and danger areas along international air routes, the Council asked all contracting states to issue communications prior to boundary changes. Mohammed El Hakeem (Egypt) and A. C. Carter (United Kingdom) were appointed to the Air Navigation Commission. In conclusion, the third report of the Organization's technical assistance program was approved with its estimated $900,000 budget for 1952 for transferral to the United Nations. The retirement of the Secretary-General, Albert Roper, was deferred until December 31, 1951.

The Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization held its fifteenth session in Rome from June 9 to 14, 1952 under the chairmanship of Josu6 de Castro (Brazil); Sir Ralph Enfield (United Kingdom) and Dr. G. B. H. Barton (Canada) were elected vice chairmen of the session. Focusing its attention on questions discussed at the Sixth Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the council reviewed progress reports on the reform of agrarian structures, the Expanded Technical Assistance Programme, commodity problems, locust control and plans for increasing food and agricultural production; studied the problem of food shortages and famine; and considered matters of procedure, administration and finance.

Between July 1,1951 and March 31,1952,1 the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development made fourteen loans totalling $212,658,000, bringing total loan commitments as of March 31, 1952 to $1,326,183,000. Through this period, the Bank continued to advise member governments in the preparation and execution of specific development programs and of general programs for economic development in member countries and their territories.

The ad hoc Committee on Forced Labor which was established jointly by the United Nations and the International Labor Organization, pursuant to an Economic and Social Council decision of March 1951,1 held its first session in Geneva from October 8 to 27, 1951.3 The committee, composed of Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar (India, chairman), Paal Berg (Norway) and F. F. Palavicini (Mexico), issued an invitation to all non-governmental organizations to supply it with documentary material and information. The committee reported that it would have to investigate “all the laws and regulations of the various states which might illustrate the different systems of forced labour employed in those States”, adding that it might also have to investigate existing administrative practices which enable forced labor to be put into effect. At its next session, scheduled to be held at New York from May 26 to July 3, 1952, the committee was to examine the replies of governments to its questionnaire, as well as hear and question the representatives of interested non-governmental organizations.