ee Ne . re ‘ - *

\nited Nations Revieu

January 1960 Volume 6 / Number 7 Above: inspecting a well-developed ear of

; corn. Part of the work of the Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United

THE ASSEMBLY’S FOURTEENTH SESSION 5 Nations, with headquarters in Rome, is to

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Assembly Ends

The General Assembly concluded its fourteenth session in a meeting at Headquarters which began on De- cember 12 and ended in the early morning hours of December 13. One cause of the overtime meeting was the inability of the delegates to agree on a candidate for the remaining (Ceylon and Ecuador had earlier been elected) non-permanent seat on the Security Council. The deadlock was broken by a compromise announced by Dr. Victor Andrés Belatinde of Peru, the Assembly President.

By this compromise, approved by the Assembly, Poland was the only candidate for the seat and agreed to resign at the end of 1960. In 1960, the only candidate at the Assembly for the 1961 term will be Turkey. The seat is held for two years. Poland and Turkey will serve one year each.

The Assembly, which dealt with seventy-four items (see page 5), adopted a number of resolutions on disarmament, trusteeship, economic and social affairs, technical assistance, refugees and financial support of United Nations bodies. The Assembly approved a gross budget for 1960 of $63,149,700.

Secretary-General’s Trip

On New Year’s Day, Secretary-Gen- eral Dag Hammarskjold will attend the proclamation of the independence of the Cameroons under French ad- ministration at Yaoundé and on Janu- ary 26 he will be at Tangier for the opening of the second session of the Economic Commission for Africa. These are two stops on a visit to several countries and territories in Africa Mr. Hammarskjold is making during December and January.

Leaving Stockholm on December 21, Mr. Hammarskjold will arrive in Dakar, Senegal, on December 23. Other stops will be made in Liberia, Guinea, Ghana, French Togoland, Nigeria, British Cameroons, French Congo, Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Uru- ndi, Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Ital- ian Somaliland, Ethiopia, Sudan, the United Arab Republic, Tunisia, Mo- Tocco, Spain and Portugal. Mr. Ham- marskjold expects to return to Head- quarters on January 31, 1960.

UNR—January 1960

Africa’s New Nations

During his African journey Mr. Ham- marskjold will see something of the vast changes now taking place in that continent, an evolution reflected in several of the General Assembly’s re- cent recommendations. (See page 17). In addition to the French Cameroons, at least three other territories which the Secretary-General will visit are due to become independent states this year. These are Togoland, Italian- administered Somaliland and Nigeria. A number of others are on the verge of self-rule, among them Tanganyika, largest of the United Nations trust territories, which is expected to attain internal self-rule later this year. The birth of these new African nations is also expected to swell the membership of the United Nations in the next few years.

Commenting on his tour, the Sec- retary-General on December 11 told a meeting of the United Nations Cor- respondents Association: “Africa is, as you know, the great new continent coming to the United Nations. It has started already. It will be much more so one year from now, not to speak of two years from now. It will be a most important group with a very peculiar set of problems.”

Assembly's “New Spirit’

Replying to a question on the recent Assembly at that same meeting with correspondents, Mr. Hammarskjold said that it had been “in a fine sense of the word a peaceful Assembly and an Assembly characterized in many ways by a new spirit, a new sense of responsibility, a new will to listen and a new will to find common ground.” Mr. Hammarskjold singled out as ex- amples the resolutions on disarma- ment, on outer space and on Palestine refugees. He also mentioned as a parallel development the further steps registered at Geneva in the talks among the United Kingdom, the United States and the USSR on a possible ban on nuclear tests.

Ministerial Meeting

In answer to one of the newsmen, Mr. Hammarskjold said that he hoped

the Economic and Social Council

would hold, in the summer of 1960, a meeting of delegates who are Min- isters in their own countries. The meeting would “make an invaluable contribution to the formulation of international economic policies ade- quate to vital requirements for con- certed action,” Mr. Hammarskjold had said when the matter came up in the Assembly. And on December 15 the Council, concluding its resumed twen- ty-eighth session, decided to hold a short meeting of ministerial delegates as part of its regular summer session in 1960. The Council resolution approved Mr. Hammarskjold’s plan in which he suggested that the agenda of the meeting should include “major issues of economic policy” with special refer- ence to the promotion of economic development of underdeveloped coun- tries and the better integration of the world economy.

European Economy

Large increases in the production of the steel, metal-using and chemicals industries and lesser but still impor- tant increases in textiles and food processing mark the rising tide of eco- nomic activity in western Europe, the Economic Bulletin for Europe reports.

The principal factors generating the increased economic activity have been a continuing rise in private consump- tion, particularly of durable goods, and a large amount of residential and other construction, the Bulletin says.

Steel production began to climb early in the year as a result of the revival of expansion in the metal-using industries. Increasing exports of steel, largely as a result of the steel strike in the United States, also contributed to this recovery, particularly in Belgium. Increased competitiveness of western European steel exports with those of the United States constitute a factor of lasting importance, the Bulletin declares.

In other areas of the economy, de- pressed conditions in the coal market and accumulations at pit-heads re- main characteristic features of the coal industries in the countries of the European Coal and Steel Community and in the United Kingdom. Textiles began to recover in Finland, Italy and

Netherlands and Yugoslav production continued to expand at an almost con- stant rate. Total grain harvests have been considerably larger than those of last year and the corresponding decline in import requirements may go some way toward prolonging the depressed state of the shipping freight market, according to the Bulletin.

Only Denmark and Finland have experienced a significant increase in industrial employment. There has been a rise in the numbers employed in building and construction in most countries and the trend in unemploy- ment is downward. The setback to economic expansion in 1958 had a retarding effect on the upward trend of money wages; only now is there any definite sign of acceleration in wage rates, the Bulletin says.

Expansion of trade among the in- dustrial countries themselves was greater than between them and pri- mary producers. Hence the relative export position of the primary pro- ducers in world trade, weakened in 1957/58, was aggravated rather than ameliorated during the initial phase of the trade revival.

In the international liquidity posi- tion during the first three quarters, the Bulletin finds significant the fur- ther deterioration of the United States’ balance of payments, a considerable deficit in West German international accounts and the rehabilitation of the French franc.

There can be little doubt that in most western European countries total investment incomes and consumption will increase in the months ahead, the Bulletin says. There are no product shortages in existence or in prospect. High levels of investment must have created scope for considerable in- creases in output in relation to the admittedly narrowing margin for in- creases in employment. The strong balance-of-payments position of most countries in the area, tariff reductions in several countries and continuing liberation of imports, from North America in particular, are expected to allow a rapid absorption of insurgent excess demand through increasing im- ports, the Bulletin observes.

European Steel Production

In the first nine months of 1959, steel production in eighteen countries of western Europe was 67,400,000 metric tons, an increase of 3 per cent, ac- cording to figures in ECE’s Quarterly Bulletin of Steel Statistics for Europe. The third quarter output topped that of 1958 by 12 per cent.

Output in the USSR was listed at 44,400,000 tons, an _ increase of 3,600,000 tons over the level of the first nine months of last year. Produc-

tion of the other countries of eastern Europe was listed by ECE at 15,900,- 000 tons, up 1,400,000 tons over 1958.

Soviet Gifts

A model of the first sputnik which was launched in the USSR on October 4, 1957, and which completed 1400 revolutions around the earth travelling 60 million kilometres, was one of two gifts formally presented to the United Nations by the USSR on December 4. The other gift is a statue entitled Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares, by the Russian sculptor Evgeniy Vuche- tich. The statue, in bronze, will be placed in the garden.

The model of the sputnik, a silver sphere with four antennas, hangs from the ceiling of the Main Lobby of the

Assembly Hall “as a counterpart to the Foucault pendulum,” Mr. Ham- marskjold said in accepting the gifts, “reminding us of the enormous evolu- tion in science which has taken place in little more than one hundred years.” The gifts were presented by Vassily V. Kuznetsov, First Deputy Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union.

Aid to Refugees

Pledges to United Nations programs for refugees totaled something more than $34 million at a ceremony at Headquarters on December 10. For the more than one million refugees to whose support UNRWA contributes, an allocation was made of $29.7 million. The rest goes to the High Commis- sioner’s Office. The United States con- tribution to UNRWA is $23 million pro- vided that is not more than 70 per cent of the total. The United States will contribute $1.1 million to the High

Commissioner’s office if that is not more than 3314 per cent of the total. Further contributions from other countries are expected before the end of World Refugee Year in June 1960.

The proceeds from the premiéres throughout the world of Babette Goes to War, a new film starring Brigitte Bardot, a French film actress, will be contributed to World Refugee Year. Raoul Levy is the producer of the film, which will be distributed by Co- lumbia Pictures. Expressing his ap- preciation to both, Mr. Lindt, the High Commissioner, said the proceeds would be applied to UNHCR programs.

Burma, Lebanon and the British territories of British Honduras, Gam- bia, Hong Kong and St. Lucia, West Indies, are the latest to join in World Refugee Year, bringing the total par- ticipating to sixty-four countries and five territories.

Handicapped Refugees

A special World Refugee Year scheme to assist resettlement of handicapped refugees under the mandate of the High Commissioner was inaugurated on December 10 with the departure by air from Rome of forty-nine per- sons, who included twenty-four handi- capped persons and their families, for the United Kingdom. Ultimately, two hundred persons, including the handi- capped and their families, will begin new lives in Great Britain. The gov- ernment, which has made visas avail- able, staffed a mission which recently completed selection for this special program in Austria, Germany and Italy. In addition, ten aged refugees of European origin will be accepted from the Far East.

Most members of the first group have spent at least three years in refugee camps, unable to migrate un- der regular criteria because of their own handicaps or those of close rela- tives from whom they did not wish to separate. Among them are eleven persons with tuberculosis, three of whom will enter sanatoria immediate- ly after landing. The program is being carried out by the British Council for Aid to Refugees.

On December 15 twelve more handicapped refugees left Austria for the United Kingdom under the same plan. The group included a number of tubercular and post-tubercular cases, an amputee and a refugee who is partially blind.

Canada is also accepting tubercular refugee families. Accommodations for seventy persons in a group which left Rome by air on December 14 have been found by Canadian federal immigration officials in cooperation with provincial officials and national voluntary agencies. The remainder of

UNR—January 1960

a total group of 400, in each family of which is a tubercular person, are leaving Rome on December 23. Sick refugees from each group will be sent to Mountain Sanatorium in Hamilton and to Toronto Hospital at Weston, Ontario. Skills of the members of the group cover a wide range, including mining, bricklaying, jewelry making, bookkeeping, mechanics, electrical work and making fish rods and nets. Jobs for the healthy are being found. For the families in which the tubercu- lar patient is the breadwinner, main- tenance will be provided for a period long enough to enable the family to become established.

Canadian Soldier Dies

Trooper Ronald Hawthorne Allen of Halifax, Nova Scotia, died on Novem- ber 28 of wounds received when a two-jeep patrol of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, which the United Nations Emergency Force has assigned to the international frontier near Rafah, was fired on. Funeral services were held the next day in the Rafah Protestant Chapel. Burial took place in the Gaza War Cemetery. A protest has been lodged with the United Arab Republic authorities.

The rotation of Indian troops serv- ing in UNEF was completed on De- cember 6. The third contingent of Indian soldiers left Port Said by ship after one year’s service. The contin- gent has been replaced by the Fourth Battalion of the Kumaon Regiment.

Less Expensive Radios

The advantages of broadcasting should be made more easily available to popu- lations of countries where at present the density of receivers is particularly low because of economic, geographic or technical reasons. This conclusion of the International Radio Conference, in session in Geneva in December, was followed by a request from the con- ference to the International Telecom- munication Union, sponsors of the conference, to draw up specifications for a radio receiver suitable for pro- duction in large quantities at the lowest possible cost. The specifications, to be drawn up by 1ru’s Radio Consultative Committee in the shortest possible time, will cover receivers for ampli- tude-modulated transmissions in the low-, medum- or high-frequency bands and frequency-modulated transmis- sions in the very high-frequency band, according to the needs of the countries concerned.

The Conference elected its Acting Secretary-General Gerald C. Gross, United States, as Secretary-General to succeed the late Dr. Marco Aurelio, Argentina. Mr. Gross was appointed

UNR—January 1960

a Vice-Director in 1TU’s Radio Divi- sion in 1945 and became Assistant Secretary-General in 1947.

Radio on Farms

Use of radio as a means of inform- ing Indian farmers about the latest methods in farming and rural devel- opment has proved to be a success, a study recently released by the Unit- ed Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization reports. In the experiment, carried out in 150 vil- lages of Bombay state by All-India Radio and UNESCO, specially prepared materials helped to attract radio lis- teners to receive counsel on problems including guarding their health and caring for their flocks and to hear vil- lage headmen and teachers lead dis- cussions.

Villagers in the area covered, many of whom could not read or write, gathered regularly to hear the pro- grams and followed them with their own discussions. The forums were particularly effective in arousing com- munal spirit in the village.

Tariffs and Trade

Governments represented at the fif- teenth session of the Contracting Par- ties to the General Agreement on Tar- iffs and Trade, which ended in Tokyo on November 20, firmly declared their intention of dismantling trade restric- tions following an improvement in the financial situation. The development was strongly aided by the guidance of the International Monetary Fund. The Tokyo session gave new impetus to the GATT program for trade expan- sion, in particular toward solving the trade problems of agricultural and food-producing countries as well as of the less-developed countries.

Tunisia became a provisional mem- ber of GatT’s Contracting Parties, Yugoslavia became an associate mem- ber and an arrangement was concluded for the association of Poland. Studies in the near future will be made of treaties of a European free trade as- sociation and a free trade area in the southern states of Latin America.

Asian Highway

Construction of an Asian highway stretching from Singapore to Turkey within five years was recommended by a conference sponsored by the Eco- nomic Commission for Asia and the Far East concluded in Karachi on December 5. The conference recom- mended that ECAFE assist in obtaining aid in the form of equipment, com- modities, advisory and _ consultant services and training facilities.

Leslie Carver

Leslie J. Carver, who died in an auto- mobile accident in Beirut on Novem- ber 18, was one of the most able

officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refu- gees. Driving his own car, Mr. Carver collided with a military armored car on the road to the airport. He was killed instantly. Mr. Carver, fifty-three, was appointed to the post of Deputy Director of UNRWA in 1952 after serv- ice to his own country, the United Kingdom, in World War II. He was a keen, Arabic-speaking student of the Middle East. His wife and three chil- dren survive.

Honorary Degree

The Fairleigh-Dickinson University of Rutherford, New Jersey, awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws to Dr. Belatinde, the President of the Assembly, on December 15.

Coffee and Rice

Increased world trade, at lower prices, is reported by the Food and Agricul- ture Organization in coffee and rice.

World retail coffee prices have fallen by an average of about 20 per cent. The first nine months of 1959 saw a substantial increase in coffee produc- tion and an 11 per cent rise in world coffee trade, FAO reports. Prospects for further increase in production and ac- cumulation of stocks would have brought much greater pressure on prices had it not been for export regu- lation under the Latin American agree- ment negotiated in 1958.

World rice trade also expanded in July, August and September of 1959 compared with the early part of the year, FAO reports, with recovery likely to continue as export prices of lower grades fall and a strong demand for imports continues in Pakistan, India and Indonesia. Mainland China has continued to export large quantities of rice, FAO reports, even though last season’s production is officially re-

ported to have been one third below the original official estimate and the 1959 crops have been adversely af- fected by both drought and floods.

WHO Doctors Die in Accident Two physicians of the World Health Organization were killed in an auto- mobile accident on December 3 on a road near Ibadan, Nigeria. They were Dr. Manuel Gauthier and Dr. Jean Fraisse, both of France. The phy- sicians were responsible for a yaws campaign centred on Enugu.

Directory of Reactors

Detailed information on seventy-seven research, test and experimental reac- tors in twenty-two countries is con- tained in the second volume of a Directory of Reactors, published by International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. All reactors described are either currently in operation or under construction. The information includes physics data and data on the core and fuel element, core heat transfer, con- trol, reactor vessel, over-all dimen- sions, reflector and shielding, contain- ment and cost estimates for one representative reactor in each of six groups and for those reactors having little similarity with any other. The reactors are located thirty-seven in the United States, seven in the United Kingdom, five in France, four in the Federal Republic of Germany, three in Canada, two each in Belgium, Den- mark, Italy and Sweden and one each in Australia, Austria, Belgian Congo, Brazil, Greece, Iran, Israel, the Re- public of Korea, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain and Venezuela. A third volume covering remaining re- search reactors will be issued in 1960.

Special Fund

The program recommended by the Special Fund’s Managing Director, Paul G. Hoffman, calling for thirty- one projects totaling $23,710,910 for assistance in the economic develop- ment of 35 countries and territories, was unanimously approved by the Fund’s Governing Council at its third session which ended on December 10. The Review will carry in the February issue an article by Johan Kaufmann, the Netherlands, who was Acting Chairman of the Governing Council, and a summary of the latest projects approved by the Council.

Monetary Fund

The Dominican Republic has entered into a standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund which authorizes drawings up to $11,250,000 during 1960.

Aqaba Port

Aqaba, Jordan’s port on the Aqaba Gulf of the Red Sea, has increased its shipping traffic twelve-fold during the past seven years by means of new installations and facilities developed with United Nations technical assist- ance. In 1952, 50,000 tons of cargo were handled by the port. In 1959, the amount has risen to 600,000 tons. One result has been the expansion of the capacity to ship phosphates, the coun- try’s major export.

As a result of the port development program, dating back to 1952, a deep- water berth is available for direct un- loading from ship to shore for ships up to 20,000 tons deadweight capacity. A transit shed and open storage facili- ties have been added. Other additions include a small petroleum terminal, a tank farm, a master plan for develop- ment of the town, construction of a radio station and a reliable meteoro- logical service.

Human Rights Day

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not only a culmination of the creative process of the United Nations but it is a determining and de- cisive factor in the evolution of hu- manity, Dr. Victor Andrés Belatinde said at the Human Rights Day concert held at Headquarters on December 9.

Jascha Heifetz, world-renowned vio- linist, made his first public appearance in several years playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. The orchestra was the Detroit Symphony.

The eleventh anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration—Decem- ber 10—was noted in a message by Mr. Hammarskjold, who called it a practical instrument which has served to guide and illuminate action at vari- ous levels along many lines. “The in- fluence of the Declaration is reflected in national constitutions drafted since 1948, in national legislation, in court decisions and in international treaties,” Mr. Hammarskjold said.

Report on Laos

Following a four week study of the economic and social situation in Laos, Sakari Tuomioja, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe and Mr. Hammarskjold’s rep- resentative in Laos, has recommended a program for coordinated action by the United Nations and the specialized agencies concerned.

Mr. Tuomioja suggests aid in de- velopment of the natural resources of the country; creation of a comprehen- sive transport and communications network and improvement of com- munications between Laos and the out- side world; improvement of health conditions; development of an educa- tional system suited to the needs of the country; development of rural communities, paying special attention to the hill population and their prob- lems; and improvement of the entire public administration system.

Besides these long-term programs, a series of short-term projects should be undertaken to obtain quick results and produce a favorable local climate for further developmental efforts, Mr. Tuomioja recommends. He suggests that international technical assistance from the United Nations and the agencies to Laos could develop through advisory services, training facilities, surveys, fellowships and the provision of essential equipment and supplies.

After a preliminary study of Mr. Tuomioja’s report in the Secretariat, Mr. Hammarskjold requested Roberto M. Huertematte, Commissioner for Technical Assistance, to go to Laos to discuss the various technical and or- ganizational questions raised with Laotian authorities.

Lead and Zinc

A review of the current situation in lead and zinc, including steps to ob- tain internationally comparable data, are on the agenda for the first session of the International Lead and Zinc Study Group opening in Geneva on January 27.

Suez Loan

To help finance a program of improve- ments to the Suez Canal, the Inter- national Bank for Reconstruction and Development has loaned the Suez Canal Authority the equivalent of $56.5 million. When the program is completed in 1961, the canal will be widened and deepened to accommo- date ships with a draft of 37 feet (about 46,000 deadweight tons) com- pared to the present maximum of 35 feet (about 36,000 deadweight tons). The Authority will also have the modern plant and equipment it will need to provide ships using the canal with efficient service.

UNR—January 1960

The Assembly’s Fourteenth Session

It Found ‘A Common Ground’

for Decisions on Mayor Problems

_ the seventy-four items dealt with by the four-

teenth session of the General Assembly Dr. Victor Andrés Belatinde, of Peru, the Assembly President, in a closing speech to delegates mentioned especially the “unanimous resolutions on disarmament, on outer space and on matters of greatest importance relating to the social and economic order and to the sacred trust of trusteeship.” The session ended at Headquarters in the early hours of December 13.

After those items, the subject which aroused the keenest interest was economic and technical assistance to the less-developed countries, Dr. Belatnde said. “Our technical assistance programs are inspired by the idea of fostering a sense of vocation, of encouraging effort, of—in a word—mobilizing the energies of youth and at the same time directing them toward mastery over nature and the jealous cultivation of spiritual values. The increasing growth of population and the justifiable eagerness for a better life make it necessary to arouse in the new generations a zest for work and a pioneering spirit not for utilitarian ends alone but in their mysteri- ous and fecund manifestations as vocation, duty and destiny,” Dr. Belatinde said.

The Assembly President said that at the end of his inaugural address he had prayed to God that this As- sembly would pass into history as the Assembly of Peace. “The general feeling is that it will do so,” he said. “May the closing of this Assembly of Peace be the best augury for the work to be done by the great powers at meetings which they are to hold on vital prob- lems and which will be followed anxiously by all hu- manity,” Dr. Belatinde said. “May these words be re- ceived by the peoples of the world as a brotherly mes- Sage at this time of Christmas which God wished to be a time of joy and hope for all men and all peoples.”

The session was described by Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, speaking to correspondents, as having been “characterized in many ways by a new spirit, a new sense of responsibility, a new will to listen and a new will to find a common ground.”

UNR—January 1960

At the session, which opened on September 15, the Assembly set up a United Nations committee for inter- national cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space and called for a United Nations-sponsored scientific conference to discuss all phases of this subject. It ex- tended the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and acted on questions related to Tibet, Hungary, Korea and the Union of South Africa. A resolution on Algeria failed of adoption.

In the economic field, the Assembly approved resolu- tions on financing aid to underdeveloped countries, world trade, technical assistance (to be called technical cooperation), agrarian reform, industrialization and the United Nations Special Fund and the program for pro- viding operational and executive personnel on a tem- porary basis to underdeveloped countries requesting it.

The Assembly approved a plan to set up prizes to be awarded by the United Nations for cancer research, adopted a Declaration on the Rights of the Child, au- thorized aid in narcotics control, sought further help for refugees, considered questions of low-cost housing, juvenile delinquency and capital punishment and called for an international conference to draft a convention on diplomatic intercourse and immunities.

In considering trust territories, the Assembly recom- mended that, upon the attainment of their independence in 1960, Togoland under French administration and Somaliland under Italian administration be admitted to the United Nations. It also asked administering au- thorities to propose timetables and targets for inde- pendence for Tanganyika and Ruanda-Urundi. And it recommended technical assistance and other aid for territories emerging from trust status. Resolutions were adopted on the mandated territory of South West Africa and a series of measures on non-self-governing ter- ritories.

In the administrative field, the Assembly adopted a resolution on financing the United Nations Emergency Force, requested a review of the activities and organiza-

tion of the Secretariat, asked for appointment of a panel of experts on United Nations information programs and accepted a gift of $6 million by the Ford Foundation for a new library building at United Nations Headquarters.

The gross budget approved for 1960 is $63,149,700.

Distinguished visitors who addressed the Assembly during the session were Nikita S$. Khrushchev, Chair- man of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, President Adolfo Lépez Mateos of Mexico and President Sekou Touré of Guinea.

Concluding one of its longest series of votes on a single subject (there were fifty-two ballots), the As- sembly decided to split the occupancy of the remaining non-permanent seat on the Security Council for 1960- 1962 between Poland and Turkey, each to serve for one year. Poland will serve in 1960. As a result of a com- promise announced by Dr. Belatnde after consultations among delegations had led to an understanding, Poland will resign at the end of 1960 and Turkey will be the only candidate for the seat for the year 1961. Earlier in the session Ceylon and Ecuador were elected to the two other non-permanent seats. In the Trusteeship Council Bolivia, succeeding Haiti, and India, re-elected, were named to three-year terms beginning January 1, 1960. On the Economic and Social Council, Brazil, Denmark and Japan, serving until 1963, will replace Finland, Mexico and Pakistan. Poland was re-elected until 1963.

In this and earlier issues, the REVIEW has carried articles on the debates and voting on a number of items before the Assembly. In the following paragraphs are brief comments on other items disposed of at the As- sembly’s fourteenth session.

Outer Space

United Nations action on the peaceful uses of outer space, which had been hampered by the absence of three members of the committee which the Assembly established in 1958, will be fully implemented by a committee of twenty-four members, approved without formal vote. The committee will review the areas of international cooperation and study feasible and prac- tical means for giving effect to programs in the peaceful uses of outer space which can be undertaken under United Nations auspices. The resolution also decides to convene, in 1960 or 1961, an international scientific conference sponsored by the United Nations for the exchange of experience in the peaceful uses of outer space.

The Assembly in 1958 set up an ad hoc committee of eighteen members to report on programs of peaceful uses of outer space which could appropriately be under- taken under the auspices of the United Nations to the benefit of states irrespective of the state of their eco- nomic or scientific development, on related legal prob- lems and on future organizational arrangements to facili- tate international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations. The committee held meetings and

issued a report. Czechoslovakia, Poland, the USSR, India, and the United Arab Republic did not participate. (See the Review, October 1959.)

The committee established in 1959, which is ex- pected to meet early in 1960 with all members partici- pating, consists of Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslo- vakia, France, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Sweden, the USSR, the United Arab Republic, the United Kingdom and the United States. One of the committee’s tasks is to work out details for the conference.

Special Political

Two items discussed by the Special Political Com- mittee were treatment of people of Indian origin in the Union of South Africa, a subject under discussion by the Assembly for several years, and the question of equitable geographical representation in the election of an Assembly president, new on the agenda in 1959.

India and Pakistan have repeatedly complained in the United Nations that the Union of South Africa has forced persons of Indian origin to live in segregated areas and has practiced other forms of discrimination against them. The Assembly once again appealed to the Union of South Africa to enter into negotiations with India and Pakistan concerning the treatment of these people; and it expressed deep regret that the South African Government had not replied to India and Pakistan on the question of negotiation. The Union of South Africa, maintaining that the question is one of domestic jurisdiction with which the United Nations has no competence to deal, did not participate in con- sideration of the item.

Speakers favoring a resolution asking the consistent application of the principle of equitable geographical representation in the election of the president of the General Assembly pointed out that since 1945 repre- sentatives of all the geographical areas except Eastern Europe had held in turn the office of Assembly presi- dent, five coming from Western Europe, five from Asian and African states and four from Latin America.

The principle of equitable representation is one of the fundamental principles on which the United Na- tions is based, it was argued, and a direct expression of the principle of the sovereign equality of all member states. The sponsors suggested that in the next four years Assembly presidents should be elected successively from Eastern European states, Asian and African states, Western European and other states and Latin American states.

Opponents argued that the office of president of the Assembly is unique in both character and status, re- quiring the highest personal qualifications and attention to personal contribution to the life and work of the United Nations. Account should be taken of the need for balanced geographical representation, they granted.

UNR—January 1960

This view prevailed in a resolution adopted in the Committee but rejected by the Assembly, by a vote of 36 to 40, with 6 abstentions, short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval in plenary.

Social Affairs

Juvenile delinquency and capital punishment were among the items debated in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee. A resolution asked the Secre- tary-General to give the problem of worldwide juvenile delinquency and its related forms of social maladjust- ment the urgent attention which its increasing gravity deserves when preparing studies for consideration by the second United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders to be held in London in 1960.

The wide variety of views on capital punishment were expressed in debate and exemplified in the vote when the Assembly invited the Economic and Social Council to initiate a study of the question, and particularly whether it is a deterrent to crime. The vote was 57 to none. with 22 abstentions.

Also in social affairs, a forward-looking document adopted by the Assembly is the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which states in its preamble that mankind owes to the child the best it has to give and thereafter lists ten principles dealing with living condi- tions, medical care, parental care, education, protection and relief, employment, brotherhood, all to be applied without distinction or discrimination.

Legal

The protocol of intercourse among the persons rep- resenting their countries in the diplomatic service as well as the privileges and immunities of diplomats are covered by a variety of rules and regulations drawn up by each state individually, sometimes in reciprocal agree- ment with another state. The subject of diplomatic in- tercourse and immunities is regarded as a fit one for a convention setting up uniform rules and the Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an international con- ference to prepare a convention. The Assembly said that the conference, to be based on draft articles pre- pared by the International Law Commission and dis- cussed by the Assembly in 1958, should be held in Vienna not later than the spring of 1961.

A second international conference on the Law of the Sea, to deal with the breadth of the territorial sea and the question of fishery rights, questions not decided by the conference held in Geneva in 1958, will be considered at a second conference to be held in Geneva in March 1960.

After considering the report of the International Law Commission, the Assembly decided to ask the Com- mission to consider codification of the principles and tules relating to the right of asylum as soon as it con- siders advisable. Another task requested