Secretariat

Extract

Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, in the introduction to his fourteenth annual report on the work of the Organization, June 16, 1958 to June 15, 1959 observed that the year had been characterized by intense diplomatic activities mainly outside the UN, although in some cases within its precincts or in informal contact with the Organization. The dual significance of this intense diplomatic and political activity, exemplified by the meetings in Geneva on a controlled cessation of nuclear tests and on die problem of the status of Berlin, as well as by die increasing number of exchanges of visits of leading statesmen, lay, on the one hand, in its indication that various international problems had been brought to a point where they called for renewed and urgent efforts to find a solution, and, on die other, in its introduction, through the broadening and deepening of personal contacts on different levels, of a new constructive element which might strengthen the hope that ways to reconciliation and to a reduction of tensions might be found. Although such negotiations were encouraged by the Charter of the UN, the Secretary-General continued, diere would be legitimate reason for concern if such developments outside the Organization were to reflect a neglect of the possibilities offered by the Organization, because of a lapse into bilateralism, disregarding third party interests. Likewise, the situation would be a reason for concern if it reflected a view that the Organization was unable to meet the demands which Member nations were entitled to put on it.