Students of international organization, like students of domestic government, usually focus their attention on problems of formal organizational structure and arrangements and quite often neglect the substratum of informal operations and relationships. The study of public administration, in its quest for greater depth of perception, has in recent years gained rich insights through analysis of the informal and human aspects of policymaking. But international organization, still a parvenu from the American standpoint, has scarcely felt the scalpel of this particular form of dissection.

It is now three years since the Southcast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was rather hastily established after the French military collapse in Indo-China. What is its present effectiveness, and what are its prospects, as a security organization for Southeast Asia? There has never been any doubt or obscurity about SEATO's over-riding purpose to resist the extension, by whatever means, of communist rule in Southeast Asia. At die Manila Conference diere was some clash of opinion on how the purpose of die proposed body should be officially proclaimed. The United States wanted to limit it to resistance against communist aggression, while the United Kingdom and some odier countries diought it would be more politic to refer to aggression in general terms, since this might make SEATO less unpalatable to the Colombo powers. The United States then agreed to refer to aggression in general terms in the body of the Treaty, but announced its "Understanding" that its own military obligations were limited to die resistance of communist aggression. At the same time Australia insisted on its own proviso diat nothing in the Treaty must be construed as an obligation to intervene in any possible conflict between Asian members of the Commonwealth. Australia diereby sought to make it clear that SEATO was in no way concerned with the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. These verbal skirmishes only made it the more evident diat in fact, if not in form, SEATO was concerned solely widi stemming the advance of communism.

In the Indonesian case, involving contention before the Security Council between Asian nationalism and a western democracy, the UN was a significant influence in a process of political change. The Netherlands, having resorted with apparent success to the use of force, finally agreed to withdraw from Indonesia. Despite the fighting, this case illustrates the perennial problem of peaceful change—how is legitimacy transferred? What non-military pressures and inducements are required to bring about the renunciation of a position which is legally and militarily defensible?

‘Multilateral diplomacy’, like many other terms current in the literature of international relations, tends to serve less as a topic for careful study than as a symbol, evoking generalized reactions of approval or disapproval, confidence or anxiety. In the mind of the public, the mention of those two words today calls up a picture of a big, noisy international conference, complete with committees and chairmen, agenda and rules of procedure, debates and votes, rostrum and gallery, earphones for simultaneous translation and microphones and cameras for world-wide transmission of the proceedings.

Listed below is membership of UN bodies for 1958. Unless otherwise noted, membership expires on December 31 of the year indicated.

The eleventh session of the General Assembly reconvened on September 10, 1957, to consider further for nine meetings the question of Hungary in the light of the report of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary. Prior to the general debate Mr. Shann (Australia), rapporteur of the special committee, pointed out that the members of the committee, as instructed by the Assembly, had directed their attention to the situation created by the intervention of armed forces of the Soviet Union in Hungary on October 24, 1956. Stressing the judicial and fair-minded attitude of the committee, Mr. Shann commented on the converging nature of the evidence it had procured in the testimony of witnesses, documentation provided by Hungarian newspapers and radio reports issued during the uprising, statements of the present Hungarian government, and information provided by governments with diplomatic representatives in Budapest at the time of the occurrence. Speaking on a point of order, the representative of Hungary, subsequently endorsed by the Soviet delegate, asserted that the issue under discussion concerned measures taken by the Hungarian government to crush a counter-revolutionary attack, a domestic issue beyond the competence of an international organization to investigate. He concluded that the establishment of the special committee had been illegal and, therefore, requested the General Assembly to remove the item from the agenda. In accordance with a ruling of the President of the Assembly, however, it was decided to proceed with the debate.

The 24th session of the Economic and Social Council was held in Geneva from July 2 through August 2, 1957. Mr. M. Mir Khan (Pakistan) continued as President of the Council.

The Trusteeship Council held its twentieth session at UN headquarters from May 20 to July 16, 1957, under the presidency of Mr. John D. L. Hood (Australia). The provisional agenda, amended and subsequently adopted by the Council, included the examination of annual reports on the administration of Tanganyika, New Guinea, Nauru, the trust territory of the Pacific Islands, Somaliland under Italian administration, and Western Samoa, as well as the consideration of matters referred to the Council by the General Assembly, petitions relating to the trust territories, and reports from the Council's various committees.

The twelfth annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, covering the fiscal year July 1, 1956, to June 30, 1957, was presented to the Board of Governors on September 23, 1957. Citing the increased economic activity in most of the Bank's member countries as a factor favorable to the operations of the Bank, the report noted that the twenty loans during the year had amounted to $388 million and had brought the gross total of Bank loans to $3,108 million, made up of 170 loans in 45 member countries and territories. Loans for the development of electric power had constituted $108 million, more than a quarter of the amount lent in the year, while loans made to industry had amounted to $95 million, and those for agriculture and transport each had accounted for about $55 million. Concerning the Bank's financial operations, the report stated that the year's net income, exclusive of receipts from loan commissions, had amounted to $36 million, which had been credited to a Supplemental Reserve against losses on loans and guarantees. Receipts from the commission of 1 percent charged on the outstanding balance of all loans had amounted to $17 million and, credited to a Special Reserve, had increased total reserves to $289 million. Gross income for the year, excluding loan commissions, had amounted to $74 million; expenses had been $38 million, of which nearly $30 million had been the interest paid on the Bank's funded debt. During the year under review total principal repayments to the Bank had amounted to $63 million.

The 30th session of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) took place in Montreal from January 28 to April 18, 1957. In its consideration of the problems of air navigation, the Council, upon a recommendation of the Third Air Navigation Conference as endorsed by the Air Navigation Commission, approved the establishment of an Airworthiness Committee and noted the proposal of the Air Navigation Commission for its work program. The Council also agreed that the Air Navigation Commission should on its own authority take action on the provisional AMC's (Acceptable Means of Compliance) prepared by the Airworthiness Committee. A report by the Air Navigation Commission on signals to be used when an aircraft has infringed on restricted airspace was endorsed by the Council, which decided that a paper on the legal aspects of the question should be prepared as soon as practicable. In accordance with a resolution of the tenth session of the Assembly, the Council approved the establishment of a panel of statistical experts nominated by the following countries: Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the legal field, the Council accepted the invitation of the Japanese government to hold the eleventh session of the Legal Committee in Tokyo in September 1957 and referred a report by the Air Transport Committee on the economic aspects of the liability limits on the proposed Convention on Aerial Collisions to the Legal Committee.

The Administrative Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) held its twelfth session in Geneva from April 29 to May 25, 1957, under the chairmanship of Mr. Lázaro Barajas Gutiérrez (Mexico). Reviewing its program of future meetings, the Council decided to hold the Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference in September 1958 and the Administrative Radio Conference in July 1959. In setting the date for the latter, the main consideration was the Atlantic City Table of Frequency Allocations. It was felt that sufficient progress had been made in this area to permit the confirmation of June 1, 1957, as the beginning of the final adjustment period of ten months. At the end of this period a new edition of the Radio Frequency Record was to be prepared.

The 24th meeting of the Caribbean Commission was held in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, from May 22 to May 28, 1957, under the chairmanshipof Mr. N. L. Mayle (United Kingdom). The report of the Central Secretariat, submitted by the Secretary-General, was considered and approved. The United States section reported that negotiations were under way for the continuation and expansion of the Caribbean Training Program. The Puerto Rican government proposed that it assume all of the administrative expenses of the program, which had been financed by the International Cooperation Administration, in order to coordinate more effectively the facilities of the University of Puerto Rico with governmental institutions.

The twenty-third session of the International Wheat Council was held in London at headquarters October 30–31, 1957, under the chairmanship of Mr. F. Sheed Anderson. Present were delegates and advisers from thirty-two countries and an observer from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The appointment of Mr. W. C. Duggan as Secretary of the Council was reported.