The United Kingdom, which as the Mandatory Power in Palestine was also responsible for Palestinian relations with the Universal Postal Union, informed the United Nations Palestine Commission in March 1948 that it could not assume responsibility for mail reaching Palestine after certain specified dates: March 15 for parcel mail, April 15 for letter mail sent by surface routes, April 15 for parcel mail sent to Palestine in transit to countries beyond, and February 29 for money order service. The Commission relayed this information to the International Bureau of the Union, which stated that the Palestine Commission or any agent it chose to appoint during the transitional period prior to the establishment of independent states might enter into relationship with the Union. The Commission instructed its advance party in Jerusalem to determine the best method for establishing emergency postal arrangements.

The annual report of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union for 1947, made public in April 1948, showed that the resumption of postal relations had continued so that with few exceptions international postaFservice could be considered as reestablished in all the countries of the Union. It was estimated that the total figures of area and population which was currently being served were roughly the same as before the war: 131.7 million square kilometers and 2,079 million inhabitants. The Bureau, which had established direct mail connections with all the Administrations of the Union, also published a listing of postage stamps of all sorts. A new edition of the List of Addresses of Postal Administrations was produced and the Directory of Postal Offices begun in 1945 was continued. No communications concerning past or present disputes under Article 11 of the convention had been received. The total expenditures of the International Bureau for 1947, less receipts, were 701,932.35 Swiss francs.

On April 7, 1948 the World Health Organization came into existence as a specialized agency of the United Nations with the ratification of its constitution by the Byelorussian SSR and Mexico. These ratifications brought the total number of ratifying States (Member governments of the United Nations) to 27, or one more than were required by the WHO Constitution to bring the Organization into existence. The Member states who had ratified the Constitution at that time were Australia, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Haiti, India, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Siam, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, Ukrainian SSR, Union of South Africa, USSR, United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia. In addition, Albania, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Transjordan had also joined the organization.

Program and organization were the most important questions discussed at the First Assembly of the World Health Organization, which was held in Geneva from June 24 to July 24, 1948. Dr. Andrija Stampar (Yugoslavia), who had been chairman of the Interim Commission, was elected president by acclamation. An Executive Board of eighteen members representing the following countries was chosen: Australia, Brazil, Byelorussia, Ceylon, China, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Union of South Africa, USSR, United Kingdom, United States, and Yugoslavia. A system was adopted whereby the Board Members would draw by lot for the duration of their terms of office. Dr. Brock Chisholm (Canada) was elected Director-General of the organization, which had a membership of 52 countries.

Questions concerning Palestine and United Nations action regarding its future governmental structure were the chief concern of the Arab League during the latter part of 1947.

Although members of the Arab League had earlier cooperated with the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, the presentation of the committee's report on September 3, 1947, brought forth a change of policy. On September 19, the League's political committee, meeting at Sófar, Lebanon, adopted a series of resolutions which denounced the UNSCOP report and threatened armed resistance if it was implemented. The committee not only inveighed against the majority recommendations, which called for a creation of independent Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, but also against the minority recommendation, which suggested a federal state with ‘parity’ between Arabs and Jews.

On May 18, 1948, the United Nations Security Council approved a questionnaire which asked the Arab League states to report whether they had troops in Palestine, and if so, where such troops were located, what their military objectives were, and whether negotiations were going on with the Jews. Lebanon, Syria, and Saudi Arabia replied on May 22, and Yemen and the Arab Higher Committee within the next two days, that their troops had been sent in to protect the Arab inhabitants from Zionist aggression and terrorism, and that they would not negotiate with Israel for an end of the Palestine war. The Council followed the questionnaire with a request on May 22 for a cease-fire in Palestine. The Arab League's Political Committee met in Amman, Transjordan, May 25, to discuss the cease-fire appeal and indicated the acceptance of the Arab states on the condition that there would be a cessation of Jewish immigration, a condition which was unacceptable to the representatives of Israel. On May 29, the Security Council passed a resolution calling for a four-week truce which was accepted on June 2 by the Provisional Government of Israel and the seven member nations of the Arab League, the latter stating that the suspension of hostilities was merely a means of finding the just solution of the Palestine problem. The truce, to go into effect on June 11, was accepted unconditionally by both parties on June 9. United Nations' Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte announced that no military advantage was to accrue to either side under the cease-fire and the truce.

The fifth meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics was held at Petropolis, Brazil, from August 15 to September 2, 1947. The main task of the conference was to translate into more permanent form the system of inter American collective security established by the Act of Chapultepec. This act, drawn up as a temporary war measure by the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace in March 1945, had for the first time envisaged the use of force by the inter-American system.

The Conference of Directors of the International Meteorological Organization, meeting in Washington, D.C., on September 22, 1947, formulated and opened for signature on October 11, 1947, the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization, an intergovernmental body which as a specialized agency was to continue the functions of the semi-official International Meteorological Organization. The Final Act of the Conference suspended the rights of the Director of the Spanish Meteorological Service in accordance with the resolution of the General Assembly of December 12, 1946, and provided for the convening of the first meeting of the Congress of the World Meteorological Organization immediately upon the coming into force of the Convention. The projected organization was to consist of 1) the World Meteorological Congress, which would convene at least every four years to adopt technical regulations covering meteorological practices and procedures, and to determine general policies for the fulfilment of the purposes of the organization; 2) the Executive Committee, which would meet at least once a year to supervise the execution of the resolutions of the Congress, adopt resolutions arising from the recommendations of the technical commissions of the organization, provide technical information and assistance in the field of meteorology, and study matters affecting international meteorology and the operation of meteorological services; 3) regional associations meeting as often as necessary to promote the execution of the resolutions of the Congress and the Executive Committee in their respective regions, to coordinate meteorological and associated activities and to make recommendations to the Congress and the Committee on matters within the purpose of the organization; 4) technical commissions to be established by the Congress to study and make recommendations on any subject within the scope of the organization; and 5) a permanent secretariat. The future status of the organization as a specialized agency was provided for in Article 25 of the Convention.

General Occupation Affairs: On July 25, 1947, the four High Commissioners for Austria reached formal agreement on occupation costs to be assessed against Austria for the remainder of 1947, a decision which represented considerable reduction of costs and equalization among the powers. The costs for the second quarter of 1947 were fixed at a total of 131 million schillings, the Soviet share amounting to 50 million with 27 million for each of the other zones. For the third quarter occupation costs were to total not more than 120 million schillings, divided equally among the occupying powers. It was also agreed that the amount for the fourth quarter was not to exceed 110 million schillings, to be similarly distributed. Under terms of the United States “pay-as-you-go” plan, the United States was expected to purchase its schilling requirements with dollars, thereby reducing the financial burden to the Austrian Government.

The Caribbean Commission met for its sixth session at San Juan, Puerto Rico, from May 24 to 29, 1948. Among the subjects discussed were tourism, industrial, development, transportation and communications, population movements, water supply, and the establishment of a scientific and technical information service: and a statistical unit to serve research needs on Caribbean topics. The Commission decided to make a six-month survey of all existing research institutions, projects, and personnel in the region, to serve as a basis for a permanent research information service to be maintained by the secretariat.

Because of serious dissension within Arab policy-making groups, the Arab League reportedly made attempts to straighten out the differences between Haj Amin el-Husseini, the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem, and King Abdullah of Trans jordan regarding military procedure in the proposed Palestine invasion. On January 15, 1948 Assad Dagher Bey, Chief of the press section of the Arab League, announced that regular armies of the Arab countries were planning to occupy all of Palestine as soon as the British withdrew, and he further stated that intervention by an international police force or any large body of foreign troops would be considered as an unfriendly act by the Arab states. At this same press conference it was disclosed that the Arab governments had sent notes to the United States and Great Britain informing them that the Arab League had decided to give all possible aid to the Arabs of Palestine. Up to that time, the League, while encouraging action against the establishment of a Jewish state, had taken no official recognition of the guerrilla warfare; it had been reported, however, that Fawzi el-Kawukji, commander of the Arab People's Army in Syria, was pressing for more active assistance from the members of the Arab League. Shortly thereafter, on January 23, it was announced that he had crossed the border into Palestine from Syria to carry out a reorganization of Arab forces.

Fifth Meeting of the Caribbean Commission: Resolutions adopted by the Caribbean Commission which met in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, from December 8 to 13, 1947, assigned Guadeloupe and November 1948 as the place and date for the third biennial session of the West Indian Conference, planned the conference agenda, and gave publicity to the recommendations of the Caribbean Research Council which had met in Port-of-Spain the week before. The Commission, under the chairmanship of Governor William H. Hastie (United States) set its budget at $343,537, which represented a reduction of $27,800 from its budget of the previous year. The Commission discussed a reorganization of its machinery and personnel, and suggested that the personnel of the central secretariat be strengthened by gradual addition of scientific and technical staff.

General Occupation Matters: In the period under review, relatively little of significance in the way of four-power agreement issued from the Allied Control Council for Germany. After agreements had been reached in June, 1947, on 1) freedom of exchange of public information in all four zones; 2) the resignation of Dr. Ostrowski and the appointment, on a temporary basis, of Frau Schroeder as Oberburgermeister of Berlin; 3) plans for the democratization of education; and 4) the opening of telephone and telegraph communications between Germany and most of the rest of the world, relatively few agreements were secured except amendments to the property tax law, a general non-mandatory series of recommendations on adult education, and specification of the time and date at which Germany would change from winter to summer time. British and United States representatives submitted lists of plants to be allocated for reparations removals, but no approved action was taken. The Council, however, agreed to make available to Poland, without prejudice to the ultimate question of legal title, seven ships of non-German ownership registered at the Port of Danzig.

A Permanent Joint Military Committee of the Consultative Council of Western Powers was formed on April 30 in London following a one-day conference of the defense ministers and top military leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The committee, which established its headquarters in London, planned to commence work at once on the drafting of joint plans for intelligence, operations, and standardization of equipment among the five nations. The ultimate object of the group was to compile an overall defense scheme which could then be coordinated with a United States-European military cooperation plan in case of war. Such a plan was considered a vital concomitant to economic collaboration under the European Recovery Program. The committee which was set up consisted of fifteen senior officers representing the combined land, sea and air staffs of the five powers. The chairmanship of the group was to rotate at three-month intervals.

In addition to the Charter of the Organization of American States, the American Treaty of Pacific Settlement (the Pact of Bogotá), the Economic Agreement of Bogotá, the Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Civil Rights to Women, and the Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Political Rights to Women, the conference approved several resolutions and recommendations. Among these were included a resolution which established the Inter-American Juridical Committee as the Permanent Committee of the Inter-American Council of Jurists; one which provided for a survey of inter-American specialized organizations in order to determine which ones should be discontinued and which ones maintained; an agreement to convoke an Economic Conference of the Organization of American States in Buenos Aires in late 1948 or early 1949; and a resolution calling for a meeting of representatives of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America to draft a formula for the functioning of the two organizations Mid to outline their respective fields of activity. Recommendations were made concerning working conditions, improvement of social services, and the achievement of social justice in the American republics; an Inter-American Charter of Social Guarantees to protect workers was adopted by the conference, as well as the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. The conference also approved the statute of the Inter-American Commission of Women; Two further resolutions were passed, one condemning international communism, or any other totalitarian doctrine, and a second creating an American Committee on Dependent Territories.

On August 17,1947, W. McMahon Ball, the British Commonwealth representative on the Allied Council for Japan, announced his resignation, due to disagreement on certain occupation policies. On September 2 General Douglas Mac-Arthur appointed William J. Sebald as chief of Allied Headquarters' Diplomatic Section and chairman of the Allied Council, succeeding the late George Atcheson, Jr.

The Ninth International Conference of American States convened in Bogotá, Colombia, on March 30, 1948, to consider a seven-topic agenda: 1) reorganization, consolidation, and strengthening of the Inter-American system; 2) regulation of the dependent organs and specialized Inter-American agencies; 3) economic cooperation; 4) recognition of de facto governments; 5) “defense and preservation of democracy in America in face of the possible installation of undemocratic regimes on the continent”; 6) European colonies in America; and 7) development and improvement of inter-American social services.

On January 16,1948, the United States High Commissioner for Austria (Keyes) proposed to the other members of the Allied Commission the restoration to the Austrian Government of numerous controls previously exercised by the Commission. To assist the Austrian Government in assuming such controls as soon as possible, the United States suggested that the Directorates of the Commission examine the controls within their spheres of authority and decide which might be passed to the government. Functions suggested for transfer under the United States proposal included: civil aviation; allocation of food and electric power; control of the movement and distribution of indigenous food supplies; control over travel into and out of Austria; administration of the educational system; control of the operation, arming and equipping of Austrian police and frontier control agencies; and internal and international communications. The United States also proposed a reduction of occupation costs and occupation forces and the abolition of censorship.

Organizational and procedural problems occupied the greater part of the business of the first session of the South Pacific Commission which was held in Sydney, Australia, from May 11 to May 21, 1948. Although formal ratification of the agreement creating the commission had not been received from France and the Netherlands, both countries had stated that ratification was to be formalized as soon as possible, and their commissioners were empowered to act as though ratification had taken place.