The Fourth Session of the Economic and Social Council, which met at Lake Success from February 28 to March 29, 1947, considered matters which were mainly substantive in character, most of its organizational work having been completed at the third session. Questions discussed ranged from urgent short-term problems, such as the reconstruction of devastated areas, to those of a long-range nature such as world freedom of information and an international bill of rights.

The last of the main organs of the United Nations to begin functioning, the Trusteeship Council met for its first session at Lake Success on March 26, 1947. Representatives were present from five powers administering trust territories (Australia, Belgium, France, New Zealand and United Kingdom) and four non-administering states (China, Iraq, Mexico, and the United States); the USSR, although automatically a member of the Council by virtue of her permanent membership on the Security Council, did not designate a representative and took no part in the activities of the Council.

Under Article 23 of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council was to be composed of representatives of five permanent Members — China, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union — plus six non-permanent Members elected by the General Assembly. The election at the First Part of the First Session of the General Assembly of Egypt, Mexico, and the Netherlands for one year terms, and Australia, Brazil, and Poland for two year terms, enabled the Security Council to convene for its first meeting on January 18, 1946, at Church House, Dean's Yard, Westminster, in London. The first 23 meetings were held in London, and the balance of 87 for the period under review either at Hunter College in New York or at Lake Success on Long Island. The first President of the Council was Mr. N. J. 0. Makin (Australia) who held office for one month, and was followed for similar periods by the representatives of the other states members in alphabetical order of the names of their countries in English.

Pursuant to a resolution adopted by the Trusteeship Council on April 24, 1947, concerning the formation of a special mission to be sent to Western Samoa to investigate a petition received from representatives of that area, an ad hoc committee of nine members was established to decide on the composition of the mission. The petition had requested that the territory be granted self-government, that New Zealand as the present administering authority would “see fit to act as Protector and Adviser to Samoa in the same capacity as England is to Tonga,” and that the division of the Samoan islands, with Eastern Samoa as a possession of the United States and Western Samoa under the trust administration of New Zealand, be discontinued.

Recognized by Article 7 of the Charter as one of the principal organs of the United Nations, the Secretariat of the United Nations occupies a key position in the work of the organization. It is entrusted with the essential task of preparing the ground for decisions taken by the policy-forming organs of the United Nations, and with executing those decisions. International in scope, it must “enjoy the confidence of all the Members of the United Nations,” and it serves as a center and integrating body for the multifarious activities of the organization.

By resolution adopted January 24, 1946, at the Seventeenth Plenary Meeting, the General Assembly established the Atomic Energy Commission, composed of one representative of each of the States on the Security Council, and Canada, whose reports, recommendations and rules of procedure were to be given to and approved by the Security Council, which had the additional responsibility both of issuing directives to the Commission and transmitting reports from it to other appropriate United Nations agencies.

Administrative and Budgetary Matters: On April 10, 1947, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions met, in its advisory capacity, to deliberate on the form of the 1948 budget and various matters of a financial or administrative nature falling within its competence. Based mainly on reports from the Secretary-General (Trygve Lie), the committee review covered such subjects as 1) auditing procedure, 2) investments of United Nations funds, 3) commitments against the Working Capital Fund, 4) control of expenditures resulting from Council resolutions, 5) loans to specialized agencies, 6) the fund for self-liquidating purchases and activities, 7) procedure for the final valuation of League of Nations assets, 8) form of the 1948 budget, 9) desirability of strengthening the role of the Bureau of the Comptroller by allowing the Comptroller more specific authority, 10) administrative and budgetary relations with the specialized agencies, 11) the need for greater study of United Nations basic salary scales to determine any necessary adjustments, 12) arrangements to conduct surveys concerning Secretariat efficiency and results of work so far accomplished, and 13) preliminary information on workload in departments, United Nations Appeals Board, staff retirement plans, development of Branch Offices and limitation of staff recruitment.

New Parties to the Statute: Afghanistan, Iceland, Siam and Sweden became parties to the Statute during 1946 when they joined the United Nations. Switzerland, as a non-member of the United Nations, inquired as to the conditions on which Switzerland might become a party to the Court's Statute, and these conditions were established by a resolution of the General Assembly on December 11, 1946.

Corfu Channel Dispute: Following the Security Council's decision of April 9, 1947, to refer the Corfu Channel dispute to the Court, Great Britain submitted an application on May 22, 1947, instituting proceedings against Albania for the destruction of two British destroyers in the Corfu Channel in October, 1946. The dispute was to constitute the first case to come before the Court. As of July 15, 1947, no word had been received from Albania regarding British action, and there had been no decision as to the date on which the case would reach the Court.

Established by the Charter as one of the principal organs of the United Nations, and entrusted with the solution of international economic and social problems and with international cultural and educational cooperation, the Economic and Social Council met three times during 1946 to discuss both organizational and substantive matters. The First Session was held in London from January 23 to February 16, the Second in New York from May 25 to June 21, and the Third in New York from September 11 to October 3. In addition an ad hoc meeting of the Third Session, to confirm appointments to the various Council Commissions, was held on December 10.

International Cereals Conference: Under the sponsorship of FAO and at the request of the International Emergency Food Council, a special cereals conference met in Paris from July 9 to 12. The United Nations, the Economic Commission for Europe, the International Wheat Council, and some fifty-two nations were invited to attend the conference for a general discussion of measures which might be taken to ease the effects of the severe world shortage of grains expected for 1947–48. The Conference reported an “unparalleled” scarcity of grain in Europe and estimated the world's requirements at 50,000,000 tons. Both the Canadian and United States delegations, representing the two greatest grain-exporting nations of the world, criticized this figure as an overestimation and warned that a more “realistic view” should be taken of the export possibilities of their countries which were expected to furnish twothirds of the total 32,000,000 tons of exportable grain for the season. Motions adopted at the closing plenary session of the Conference pledged the grain-importing nations to take drastic steps to conserve available local production and to insure their maximum distribution for “exclusively human consumption.” These motions also described machinery for keeping data collected on a current basis and for the issuance of quarterly reports on the cereal situation in each country.

FAO Preparatory Commission on World Food Proposals

The Second Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Conference, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from September 2 to 13, 1946, created a preparatory commission to consider the proposals of the Conference and any other suggestions relative to the establishment of a World Food Board. The Preparatory Commission, made up of representatives of sixteen member nations of FAO — Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, India, Netherlands, Philippine Republic, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States — and representatives of four United Nations organizations — the Economic and Social Council, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Labor Office and the International Monetary Fund — began its sessions at Washington October 28. Siam, although not a member of FAO, participated as a full member in all the discussions concerning rice; the Soviet Union and Argentina, also non-members of FAO, were invited to participate as full members of the Commission but did not designate representatives, although Argentina named two observers. Fifteen FAO members, not members of the Commission, and the International Emergency Food Council (IEFC) also sent observers. The representative of Australia (Bruce) was appointed by the Director-General of FAO (Orr) to serve as chairman of the Commission.

At the Second Part of the first Session, the General Assembly completed the steps required by the Charter for the establishment of its last remaining organ, the Trusteeship Council, by accepting trusteeship agreements for eight territories formerly held under mandate. The territories brought under trusteeship and their administering authorities are: New Guinea (Australia), Ruanda-Urundi (Belgium), the Cameroons (France and Great Britain), Togoland (France and Great Britain), and Western Samoa (New Zealand).

On January 12, 1946, a list of candidates nominated for membership on the International Court of Justice was submitted to the General Assembly and the Security Council, in accordance with invitations issued by the Executive Committee of the Preparatory Commission.

As a result of elections held on February 6, the following were elected: Alvarez (Chile), Azevedo (Brazil), Badawi (Egypt), Basdevant (France), de Visscher (Belgium), Fabela (Mexico), Guerrero (Salvador), Hackworth (United States), Hsu (China), Klaestad (Norway), Krylov (USSR), McNair (United Kingdom), Read (Canada), Winiarski (Poland), and Zoricic (Yugoslavia).

The first meeting of the Court was held on April 3 at the Peace Palace at the Hague, and the inaugural sitting on April 18. On April 6 the Court elected Mr. J. G. Guerrero as President and M. J. Basdevant as Vice-President. Mr. Edvard Hambro was appointed Registrar and M. J. Garnier-Coignet, Deputy Registrar. On May 3 the Court formed the Chamber for Summary Procedure, provided for by Article 29 of the Statute, composed of the following members: Guerrero (President), Basdevant, McNair, Krylov, Hsu, with Fabela and de Visscher as substitute members.

Mr. Eugene Meyer of the United States, elected June 4, 1946, by the Executive Directors of the International Bank to serve as its President, announced on December 4, 1946, his resignation from that position, effective December 18 or on such earlier date as his successor might be elected. Mr. John J. McCloy, also of the United States, was named as his successor by the Executive Directors on February 28, 1947. Mr. McCloy assumed his duties on March 17.

On April 29, 1947, the International Bank announced that it had received from the Government of the Netherlands a formal application for a loan of $535,000,000 for the financing of the more urgent projects included in its over-all rehabilitation, reconstruction and industrialization plans. On May 12, President Ismet Inonu of Turkey announced the intention of his government to seek the loan of an unstated amount from the International Bank.

On March 11, 1947, the United States Department of State announced that there had been deposited the number of instruments of ratification of the Convention on International Civil Aviation necessary, under the terms of the Convention, to bring it into force. Accordingly, on April 4, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) came into being. The First Assembly of ICAO met in Montreal, May 6, 1947, to take up the problems of air transport which had been handled, pending the establishment of the permanent Organization, by the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO), created June 6, 1945, for a period not to exceed three years.

First Meeting of the Assembly

The Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) convened for its first meeting at Montreal on May 6 and remained in session until May 27. For the most part its activities during this inaugural session were confined to the problems of organizing the permanent agency, which succeeded the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization on April 4. At the Second Plenary Meeting on May 7, the Hon. A. S. Drakeford (Australia) was elected President of the Assembly and six commissions were constituted to deal with 1) constitutional and general policy questions such as structure, relations with non-contracting states, immunities and privileges and amendments to the Convention; 2) technical questions of international standards and recommended practices and international collaboration on research; 3) economic questions including the possibility of a multilateral agreement on commercial rights in international air transport, economic burdens on international air transport, statistics, international air mail and registration of air agreements; 4) legal questions such as the drafting of conventions on international air law, recognition of rights in aircraft and the legal status of commanders of aircraft; 5) administrative and financial questions as to the organization of the Secretariat, publications and general finance; and 6) financial and technical aid to member states through ICAO.

Although closely bound to the League of Nations, the ILO did not go out of existence with its dissolution, but continued functioning as an independent agency during the war, despite the League's breakdown. During the past year, the ILO-United Nations agreement was signed, the ILO thus becoming the oldest of the “specialized” intergovernmental agencies to be brought into relationship with the United Nations. Other activities of the ILO during 1946 included the 29th International Labor Conference, a Maritime Conference, an American States Regional Conference, and the first meetings of four newly created Industrial Committees.

As a result of an agreement concluded with the United Nations, the ILO became the first intergovernmental organization created before World War II to be integrated into the framework of United Nations. The 29th Conference of the ILO effected a revision of the Constitution in order to facilitate a working relationship with the United Nations.