The sixth session of the Economic and Social Council convened at Lake Success on February 2, 1948, to deal with record work load of some forty agenda items. With the adoption of the Council's agenda on February 2, five new items were added to the list of those which the Council would consider. The Council remained in session until March 11. Immediately upon the opening of the session, the Council turned to the election of its president and two vice presidents to succeed Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar (India), Jan Papánek (Czechoslovakia) and Herman Santa Cruz (Chile). The Council unanimously selected the representative of Lebanon (Malik) as its new president. The Council elected Mr. Santa Cruz as first vice president and named Mr. Kaminsky (Byelorussian SSR) as its second vice president

Protection of the City of Jerusalem: The third part of the second session of the Trusteeship Council met from April 21 to May 4, 1948, to consider measures for the protection of the City of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. The USSR sent a representative (Tsarapkin) to the Council for the first time. On March 10, 1948, the Council had passed a resolution stating that the Statute for the City of Jerusalem was in satisfactory form and that the question of its formal approval should be considered by the Council not later than one week before April 29, 1948. In view of the action taken by the General Assembly and the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council, on April 21, carried the proposal of the representative of the United States (Gerig) that the Statute be transmitted to the General Assembly, together with the resolution of March 10, for such further instructions as the Assembly might see fit to give. On April 26, the General Assembly requested the Council to study and report on suitable measures for the protection of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. In consultation with the Mandatory Power and representatives of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the Arab Higher Committee, the Council considered several proposals. The French delegate' (Garreau) proposed sending a United Nations official to Jerusalem with powers to recruit and organize an international force of 1,000 police, the United States proposed placing Jerusalem under temporary trusteeship, and Australia and the Jewish Agency favored the adoption of the draft Statute of Jerusalem.

The second part of the second session of the Trusteeship Council was held from February 18 to March 10, 1948 for the primary purpose of studying the draft Statute for the City of Jerusalem and related matters in accordance with the plan for the future government of Palestine which had been approved by the General Assembly on November 29, 1947. Additional agenda items for the session included 1) the procedure to be established for examining annual reports from administering authorities; 2) continuation of consideration of the report on the trust territory of New Guinea for the period of July 1, 1946 to June 30, 1947; and 3) discussion of the use of summary records of Council meetings

The Trusteeship Council convened for its second session on November 20, 1947, with the added participation of the Philippines and Costa Rica, which were elected to the Council on November 13 by the General Assembly. These elections were required to preserve the balance between administering and non-administering members, since the United States became an administering member when the trusteeship agreement for the former Japanese-mandated islands was approved.

Budget Estimates and Management Survey: Part III of the Report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions was considered by the administrative and budgetary committee of the Assembly in its deliberations on the Secretary-General's budget estimates for the Secretariat. In addition, the committee had before it the revised budget estimates based on the Secretariat management survey, which had been instituted by the Secretary-General after the first session of the Assembly for the purpose of remedying defects in the structure of the Secretariat; its reports were internal administrative documents. At the time the Assembly committee considered the survey it was noted that the summary report was incomplete, notably with regard to the Geneva Office, the Languages Division and the Editorial Division. During discussion the Assistant Secretary-General for Administrative and Financial Services (Price) explained that the Secretary-General had studied the recommendations of the management survey and had accepted the general conclusions reached, and that he supported the recommendation of a reduction in the expected costs of maintaining Secretariat departments. Although the report of the survey made proposals for consolidations and transfers of functions, it was the opinion of the Secretary-General that no final decisions could be reached on administrative matters without full discussion among officials of the Secretariat; such discussions were not feasible during the second session of the General Assembly. A proposal to create a subcommittee to examine the survey met with considerable opposition in the administrative and budgetary committee, since it was felt by many delegates that the report should be left to the Advisory Committee and the Secretary-General for their consideration in the matter of administration on a restricted budget.

Staff Rules: Pursuant to a General Assembly resolution of November 20, 1947, the Secretary-General (Lie), on May 13, 1948, reported on codification of staff rules for members of the staff of United Nations Secretariat. Specifically, there were provisions relating to duties and responsibilities, salaries and allowances, appointment and probation, promotions, leave, separations, travel, disciplinary measures, staff welfare, and permanent and temporary personnel. The rules became effective on July 1, 1948 and superseded all other provisions in force before that date.

Management Survey on United Nations Headquarters: The Management Survey on headquarters, submitted to the second regular session of the General Assembly in conjunction with the original 1948 budget estimates and the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, was an analysis of the internal administration of the departments of the Secretariat initiated by the Secretary-General in order to remedy defects in the administrative structure. The survey, intended chiefly as an aid to the Secretary-General and the Advisory Committee in operating within a restricted budget, made general comments on the overlapping of work within the Secretariat, the over-expanded program of projected activities and the need for personnel reduction. In addition to specific recommendations regarding reorganization of the Secretariat departments, the survey suggested that the United Nations Weekly Bulletin be converted into a semi-monthly publication and that the film and visual education program planned for 1948 be reduced to more manageable proportions.

Corfu Channel Case: Following the resolution of the Security Council on April 9, 1947, recommending that the United Kingdom and the Albanian governments should immediately refer the Corfu Channel question to the International Court of Justice, the United Kingdom on May 22, 1947, filed an application with the Registry of the Court instituting proceedings against Albania. By a reply dated July 21, filed July 23, 1947, Albania accepted the jurisdiction of the Court, protesting against the unilateral act of the British government in its application. On December 9, 1947, the Albanian government filed a document entitled “Preliminary Objection”.

Advisory Opinion on Conditions of Admission of a State to Membership in the United Nations: A General Assembly resolution of November 17,1947, requested the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on the following question: “Is a Member of the United Nations which is called upon, in virtue of Article 4 of the Charter, to pronounce itself by its vote, either in the Security Council or in the General Assembly, on the admission of a State to membership in the United Nations, juridically entitled to make its consent to theadmission dependent on conditions not expressly provided by paragraph 1 of the said Article? In particular, can such a Member, while it recognizes the conditions set forth in that provision to be fulfilled by the State concerned, subject its affirmative vote to the additional condition that other States be admitted to membership in the United Nations together with that State?”

Corfu Channel Case: Public sittings of the International Court of Justice on the preliminary objection filed by Albania on the Corfu Channe Case1 were held on February 26, 27, 28 and March 1, 2 and 5, 1948. The decision of the Court was given on March 25,1948.

The Third Session of the Conference of FAO was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from August 25 through October 11, 1947. In addition to representatives from 48 member nations, observers from six non-member countries, 16 intergovernmental organizations and 10 non-governmental groups attended.1

The second session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization, which met in April 1948, reached the conclusion that the problem of increasing production of food supplies was still the crucial one in the world food situation. In a report submitted to the seventh session of the Economic and Social Council it was pointed out that conferences at the regional and national levels were needed to define shortages which had impeded increased agricultural production. Following the Council's decision, consultations were continued with the regional economic commissions of ECOSOC and several specialized agencies, including ILO, WHO, UNESCO, the International Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. In February, a representative of FAO brought the subject of increased food production to the attention of the WHO Interim Commission. The commission recommended that a mass attack on malaria in selected areas of major food-producing countries should be carried out as soon as possible. It was proposed that further discussions be held between FAO and UNESCO on promoting, through UNESCO's mass media and information services, awareness for the need of increased food production. Representatives of the International Bank stated that they were keenly aware of the need for greater production and hat the Bank was prepared to give consideration to requests from its member countries for loans designed to increase food production.

A special session of the FAO Conference was convened in Washington in April 1948, in conjunction with the second session of the FAO Council, under the chairmanship of Sir Carl Berendsen (New Zealand). The session, which lasted only two days, was called to name a successor to Sir John Boyd Orr as Director-General of the Organization, and to act on membership applications submitted by Ceylon and Turkey.

The United Nations Maritime Conference, convened by the Economic and Social Council in Geneva from February 19 to March 6, 1948, drew up the Constitution of an Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization. The Constitution was to enter into force when ratified by 21 nations, seven of which were to have a total tonnage of not less than 1,000,000 gross tons of shipping. A preparatory committee was created by the conference, to make preliminary arrangements for the first session of the Assembly of the organization, and a draft agreement designed to bring IMCO within the framework of the United Nations as a specialized agency was also formulated.

The Convention and Regulations adopted at the International Conference on Safety-of-Life at Sea, held in London in April 1948, established responsibility I in that field for the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization. The Conference, called by the United Kingdom, revised the International Convention for Safety-of-Life at Sea which had been drawn up in 1929. IMCO was recognized as the central bureau for the handling of maritime safety measures. It was also to receive from contracting governments copies of relevant documents = and reports as to marine casualties, suspensions of the convention, exemptions, I equivalents and interventions by governments arising from the control provij sions. Except in specified circumstances, the organization would be the agency for the study, circulation and development of amendments to the Convention and Regulations, and for recommending such amendments to governments.

The second annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development convened in London on September 11, 1947. On September 12 the Board adopted a report presented by John J. McCloy, president of the Bank, in which were included an outline of the activities of the Bank since the first annual meeting of the Board a year before, financial statements covering the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1947, and the administrative budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1948.

On May 25,1948, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced that arrangements had been completed for the sale of an issue of 2½ per cent Swiss franc serial bonds, maturing in 1953 and 1954, with a total value of 17 million Swiss francs (approximately $4,000,000). The entire issue was purchased by the Bank for International Settlements, the proceeds to be made available to the Netherlands Government for the purposes of the loan granted it in August 1947. According to the Bank's announcement of the issue, the original loan agreement with the Netherlands would be adjusted to provide for repayment in Swiss francs in the amounts and on the dates corresponding to the maturities of the issue; the principal purpose of the sale was “to make currencies other than dollars available to the Bank for use in its lending operations.” As the first sale of Bank securities outside the United States, the Swiss franc issue was considered by Bank officials as a pilot issue foreshadowing future sales in order to replenish the Bank's reserves of foreign currencies.

On January 15, 1948, John J. McCloy, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, announced that the Bank proposed to cooperate with any agencies created to implement the European Recovery Plan. He pointed out that for a few years the Bank's role in European economy would differ from the role envisaged for it by the Bretton Woods conference, and that the European Recovery Plan while overshadowing the activities of the Bank would also make it possible for the Bank to concentrate on financing specific “productive projects” by relieving it of the pressure of making loans intended primarily to meet “balance of payment deficits.”

The second session of the ICAO Council convened in Montreal on September 2, 1947. In the course of its session, the Council received reports on ICAO's activities during the summer of 1947 and on two regional air navigation meetings: that for the South American region which met in Lima and that for the South Atlantic area held in Rio de Janeiro. Stuart Graham (Canada), Henri Bouche (France) and P. David (US) were named to the chairmanships of the Air Navigation Committee, the Air Transport Committee and the Committee on the Convention on International Civil Aviation, respectively. Members were also designated for the Finance Committee and for the Committee on the Joint Support of Air Navigation Services.

Regional Conferences:The ILO Preparatory Regional Asiatic Conference which convened in New Delhi on October 27,1947, considered such topics as problems of social security, enforcement of the social standards embodied in the ILO conventions and recommendations not yet applied in the individual Asiatic countries, and a report of the preliminary mission to Asiatic countries which the 99th session of the Governing Body established at Montreal in September, 1946.