The Council of the ANZUS Pacific Security Pact met in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 1954, to survey the situation in southeast Asia in the light of concurrent developments. The Council members agreed that immediate action to bring about the early establishment of collective defense in southeast Asia was needed and further agreed that, should the French government be confronted, at the Geneva conference, with demands which would prevent an acceptable agreement regarding Indochina, the international situation would have been seriously aggravated. The three govern- ments were represented by their foreign ministers: Mr. Casey for Australia, Mr. Munro for New Zealand and Mr. Dulles for the United States.

Council

The Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met in regular ministerial session in Paris on December 17 and 18, 1954, under the chairmanship of Stephanos Stephanopoulos, Foreign Minister of Greece. One of the principal items considered by the Council was the annual review of the military position of NATO, which had been prepared by the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR, Gruenther) and by the Military Committee at its meetings in Washington in November and in Paris immediately preceding the Council meeting. According to press reports, the review showed that defensive rearmament of NATO was virtually completed so far as conventional armaments were concerned. It was reported that SACEUR and the Military Committee recommended that only the air arm of NATO defenses be substantially augmented in 1955, and that even the increases recommended in this regard represented a realization in 1955 of the goals set for 1954 which had not been met. Ground forces in 1954 were said to have been reduced by the equivalent of two divisions by the reduction in periods of conscription in Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, the failure of Norway to increase its conscription period and the transfer of French units to north Africa; a reported two percent increase in NATO naval forces was recommended for 1955. Total defense expenditures of European NATO members in 1954 were reported to have fallen 2.4 percent below the 1953 level; the eleven European members were reported to have spent $10,865 million in 1954 as compared with $11,133 million in 1953.

Consultative Assembly

The third part of the sixth ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe was held in Strasbourg from December 8 through 11,1954.

Policy of the Council of Europe in the light of recent developments in the international situation: During the third part of the sixth session of the Consultative Assembly, discussion of the policy of the Council of Europe centered on 1) the London and Paris agreements, 2) the organization of the Western European Union (WEU) Assembly and links to be established between it and the Council of Europe, and 3) the Franco-German agreement on the future Statute of the Saar.

Eighth World Health Assembly

The Eighth World Health Assembly met in University City, Mexico from May 10 to 27, 1955, and elected Dr. I. M. Prieto (Mexico) as its president. In presenting his annual report, Dr. Candau, the Director- General of the World Health Organization (WHO) noted the need for a change in strategy in WHO's malaria-control program, and emphasized the possible implications which the new field of the peaceful use of atomic energy might have for WHO. During the general discussion of the Director-General's report, the delegates noted with satisfaction that WHO was placing more emphasis on long-term programs which might be integrated in the public health services of the countries assisted by WHO. Delegates also made suggestions for future programs including such matters as malaria eradication, environmental sanitation, nutrition, and mental health.

The virtual rejection of the European Defense Community (EDC) treaty by the French National Assembly on August 30, 1954, was followed by a period of intensive high level negotiations, culminating with the signature on October 23 of a series of agreements dealing with 1) restoration of sovereignty to the German Federal Republic, 2) admission of the German Federal Republic to NATO, 3) transformation of the Brussels Treaty Organization (BTO) into a broader political and military alliance and the admission of the German Federal Republic and Italy, and 4) the basis for a German-French agreement on the status of the Saar.

Council

At a ministerial meeting of the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Paris on May 9 to n, 1955, the German Federal Republic was formally admitted to NATO, raising total membership to fifteen. The Council reaffirmed the purely defensive character of the organization and expressed gratification on the entry into force of agreements establishing the Western European Union. The Council welcomed declarations by the ministers of NATO members signatory to the Italian Peace Treaty reaffirming their view that various discriminatory aspects of that treaty were considered inconsistent with the position of Italy as an ally.

Consultative Assembly

The first part of the sixth ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe was held in Strasbourg from May 20 through 29, 1954; the second part of the session met from September 13 through 24, 1954. The third part of the session was scheduled to open on December 8, 1954. Mr. Guy Mollet (France, Socialist) was elected President of the session.

Congress

The second Congress of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was held in Geneva from April 14 to May 13, 1955, under the presidency of Dr. F. W. Reichelderfer. Delegates from 83 member states and five non-member states, as well as representatives of several other specialized agencies attended the Congress. The Congress heard reports of the President of WMO, its Secretary- General and the Presidents of the constituent bodies; other agenda items were referred to the Technical Program Committee, the Administrative and Financial I Committee, and the Legal Committee.

Deputies of the foreign ministers of the ECSC members met in Rome from September 22 through October 9, 1953, to examine in detail a draft statute for a European political community prepared by the Ad Hoc Assembly and submitted to the ECSC ministers on March 10, 1953. A meeting of the foreign ministers, originally scheduled to begin on October 22, 1953, opened in the Hague on November 26 under the chairmanship of Joseph Back (Luxembourg). At the conclusion of the meeting on November 28, the ministers issued a communique outlining their decisions. The ministers approved sections of the report of the deputies on their Rome meeting on institutional and economic matters on which unanimous agreement had been reached. An assembly was to be created as the lower house of the community representing the peoples of the community; an upper house representing states was also to be created. While it had been agreed that the lower house would be elected by direct universal suffrage, the methods had not yet been determined. The ministers exchanged views on the organization and powers of the executive branch of the proposed community but reached no decisions. The principle of the creation of a single European court was approved and a committee of jurists established to consider further legal questions involved in the creation of a political community. The ministers also agreed that the community would include, in ways yet to be determined, the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Defense Community. The ministers appointed a committeee to continue discussion of the political community and begin drafting the text of a treaty; it was to report to the ministers at a meeting in Brussels on March 30, 1954.

Representatives of eight central and eastern European nations—Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland and Rumania— met in Warsaw from May 11 through 14, 1955, and concluded a twenty-year treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. In a communique issued at the close of the discussions, the participants stated that they had considered the changes in the international situation resulting from the ratification of the Paris agreements,1 and concluded that the ratification of the agreements meant that a new military group, Western European Union, in which a remilitarized west Germany would participate, increased the danger of war and created a threat to their national security. The treaty signed by the eight participants at the close of the conference was intended to meet the alleged new military threat; under it, the signatories agreed (i) to abstain from threats or the use of violence, and to settle international disputes by peaceful means; (2) to cooperate in all international actions, including attempts to reduce the level of armaments, with the purpose of ensuring peace and security; (3) to hold mutual consultations on all important international problems, particularly in the event of a threat of armed attack against one or several of the signatories; (4) to afford immediate assistance in the case of armed aggression in Europe against one or several of the signatories, which assistance would cease as soon as the United Nations Security Council had taken measures to ensure peace.

Twelfth Session

The South Pacific Commission held its twelfth session at Anse Vata, Noumea, from October 12 to 29, 1953. The Senior Commissioner for the United States, Dr. F. M. Keesing, was chairman until October 24, when Dean K. A. Ryerson (Commissioner for the United States) took his place. The Commission, in deciding to consider the recommendations contained in the report of the fifth session of the Research Council, stated that it regarded the report of the fifth session to be a “model technical review, both in form and content, of the needs and possibilities for welfare and development in the South Pacific region”.

The 23d regular session of the Council of the Arab League met in Cairo from March 27 to 31, 1955; it approved, among other matters, Yemen's request for discussion of its dispute with the United Kingdom. During the session, the League's Political Committee approved the Secretariat's report on the harsh treatment of Arabs living in Israel and recommended that the United Nations consider the matter.

On May 6, 1955, the Western European Union (WEU) formally came into existence.1 On May 7, the WEU Council held its inaugural meeting in Paris. The Council considered various questions relating to the structure of WEU and, after approving the Interim Commission's report and adopting the draft agreement on the status of WEU and its staff, appointed Louis Goffin (Belgium) Secretary-General of WEU. Admiral Ferreri (Italy) was appointed director of the Agency for the Control of Armaments. The Council also decided, on the basis of studies carried out by a working group established at the nine-power conference in Paris on October 21, 1954, to create a Standing Armaments Committee composed of national representatives and served by a small secretariat. The Standing Committee had the task of “the development of the closest possible co-operation between member countries of Western European Union in the field of armaments, in order to seek the most practical means of using the resources available to these countries for equipping and supplying their forces and of sharing tasks in the best interest of all”. In order to promote liaison with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the seat of the Standing Committee was to be Paris; Charles Cristofini (France) was appointed Assistant Secretary-General in charge of the international secretariat of the Standing Committee. The Council further decided that the first meeting of the WEU Assembly should be held in Strasbourg during die same period as the next session of die Consultative Assembly of die Council of Europe and that the WEU Assembly should be composed of die representatives of the Brussels Treaty powers to the Consultative Assembly.

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.

Defense production officials of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) met in Paris on January 25 and 26, 1955 to exchange views on defense production questions affecting the alliance as a whole. Among the subjects discussed were industrial mobilization, correlation of production programs, and standardization of arms. According to press reports, the principal significance of the meeting rested on the fact that many countries preferred this sort of consultation, perhaps developed as a permanent and recognized channel for action in the field, as an alternative to French proposals for a separate supra-national arms production agency.

The twenty-fourth annual report of the Bank for International Settlements was made public in June 1954. In reviewing the period April 1, 1953, March 31, 1954, the report noted that 1953 had been a year of economic progress for most countries, and adjustment and consolidation for the world as a whole. In a great many nations production had reached new record heights; prices had shown a remarkable degree of overall stability; and monetary confidence had been strengthened, as evidenced by the improvement in reserves and in quotations on the exchange markets, and by the fall in the free-market price of gold. These facts were important not only in themselves but also because they had dispelled preconceived ideas and prejudices, such as: 1) the claim that changes in interest rates or other measures in the field of credit were ineffective and outmoded as instruments of economic management; 2) the idea that a small decline in industrial output in the United States would lead to a proportionately greater reduction in American imports and consequently widen the dollar gap; and 3) the notion that a strengthening of monetary reserves and an improvement in the value of individual currencies could be achieved only by a policy of “deflation” and at the cost of large-scale unemployment. At the same time the business trend in the individual countries had been characterized by an exceptional degree of diversity due to the growing strength of most European economies and the pursuit in the western hemisphere of policies designed to lighten the impact of a downward adjustment of levels of business activity.

Council

On July 16, the Council of the North Adantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held its seventeenth ministerial session in Paris under the chairmanship of Stephanos Stephanopolos, Foreign Minister of Greece. According to press reports, the session had been arranged to provide an opportunity for the foreign ministers of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States to exchange views with their NATO colleagues prior to the Geneva Conference. The one-day meeting agreed that the unification of Germany was the issue of primary importance to be discussed at Geneva. Nothing should be done to prejudice the ultimate uniting of Germany by free elections or its right to choose its own foreign policy when unified. Following the remarks of Mr. Spaak, it was agreed that the defense system built around the Adantic coalition was not negotiable, and that the NATO system should not be subject to discussion with die Soviet Union. Germany should remain in this system whatever new agreement on arms limitations might be reached, and a united Germany should have the right to adhere to the system if it so chose. Mr. Spaak urged that the two sides should agree at Geneva not to increase their forces rather than try to agree on immediate major reductions in armaments.

On January 17, representatives of the seven signatories of the Western European Union (WEU) met in Paris to consider French proposals for the creation of a European arms control agency, commonly called an arms pool. According to press reports, the French plan envisaged the creation of an arms community whose functions would extend to standardization of arms, establishment of programs of production and placing of orders for arms in member countries, carrying into force of the programs, and planning and coordination of investments to develop production. It was understood that no extension of productive capacity could take place within the community without the permission of a central authority and that agreements would be made with the United States and Canada to integrate military aid programs and offshore procurement policies into the over-all program. The new organization would come into operation in two stages: the first, to extend to the end of 1956, would be a transitional stage in which decisions would be taken unanimously by representatives of governments choosing to belong to a military standardization committee and an armaments production committee; in the second stage, from the beginning of 1957, a definitive regime of an arms community would come into action, composed of a director and a permanent committee of ministers of defense under the authority of the WEU Council. Decisions of the permanent body would require the consent of two-thirds of its members, except on questions of standardization which would require unanimity. An alternative to the permanent committee envisaged in the second phase of the program would be the appointment of commissioners, independent of governments, by the WEU Council which would make decisions by a majority vote.