The Korean war will no doubt long be regarded as the crucial test of the ability of the United Nations to meet armed aggression with international force. In view of the complexity of the events connected with the war, it may be useful to attempt a tentative appraisal of the United Nations' role up to the point of truce negotiations

“The United Nations was a kind of bridge between past and present conflicts and a happy future. The hopes of the world rested on its successful operations. A tremendous responsibility lay on the Members of the United Nations because if no such bridge existed, it would be difficult to imagine what the state of the world wouldbe like”, said Prime Minister Nehru, recently neatly summing up the Indian attitude towards the United Nations.

The sixth regular session of the United Nations General Assembly was to convene at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris on Tuesday, November 6, 1951. The agenda included: the report of the Committee of Twelve, the problem of the independence of Korea, the report of the Collective Measures Committee, items on China, Palestine, the treatment of people of Indian origin in the Union of South Africa, the report of the Economic and Social Council, relief and rehabilitation, the draft international covenant on human rights, items concerning trust and non-self-governing territories, administrative and budgetary matters and legal affairs.

This issue covers the work of the Security Council from its 549th meeting on July 26 to its 558th meeting on September 1, 1951. During July the President of the Council was the representative of the United Kingdom, Sir Gladwyn Jebb; during August, Warren R. Austin, representative of the United States; and during September, Ales Bebler, representative of Yugoslavia. The 554th meeting and the 557th meetings, devoted to discussion of the Council's report to the General Assembly, were held in private. During debate on the Palestine question the representatives of Israel, Egypt and Iraq were invited to participate without vote in Council proceedings

The thirteenth session of the Economic and Social Council met at Geneva from July 30 to September 21, 1951. President of the Council was again Hernán Santa Cruz of Chile while the vice-presidents were the representatives of Czechoslovakia (Nosek) and of Belgium (Eyskens). The Soviet Union followed its usual procedure and requested that the representative of communist China be given the seat of the representative of Nationalist China. This request was refused

The ninth session of the Trusteeship Council met from June 5 to July 30, 1951. On the opening day of the session the Soviet representative proposed that the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China be invited to participate in the meetings of the Council; a motion by the representative of the United States (Sayre) to postpone indefinitely a discussion of the Soviet proposal was adopted by 11 votes to I. The Council then elected Sir Allan Burnes (United Kingdom) President and Mr. Khalidy (Iraq), vicepresident and adopted an agenda of sixteen items.

A spontaneous movement, among members of the Secretariat, “to do something directly and personally toward helping India in her present dangerous food crisis” resulted in the establishment, on April 17, 1951, of an unofficial committee — the United Nations Secretariat Committee for Food Relief to India. Dr. Ralph Bunche, who was elected its chairman, wrote to the staffs of all United Nations offices, missions, and specialized agencies not located at the permanent headquarters, suggesting that they join in the effort. The committee accepted the offer of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund to use the services of its procurement division in obtaining the wheat. United Kingdom, United States, and Netherlands shipping companies which were members of the India, Pakistan, Ceylon, and Burma Outward Freight Conference in New York had waived transportation costs as a gesture of sympathy with the Secretariat's efforts. The first shipment of wheat reached Bombay on July 16, 1951. By August 1, total contributions were in excess of $20,000.

In a cable dated July 9, 1951, from Foreign Minister Bagher Kazemi to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Iran withdrew its acceptance of compulsory jurisdiction by the International Court of Justice. Referring specifically to the Court's order on interim measures (issued on July 5), the cable stated that the Court “had shaken the confidence” which the Iranian government and people had always had in international justice. The Iranian note made four specific points: first, the Iranian declaration (ratified on September 19, 1932) accepting the compulsory jurisdiction of the Permanent Court, and extended to the International Court of Justice under the latter's Statute, extended such jurisdiction only to disputes relating to the application of treaties and conventions. The Declaration excluded questions within the exclusive jurisdiction of Iran. Agreements or contracts under private and domestic law (such as concessions to work certain sources of natural wealth, commercial matters, and matters relating to Iran's sovereign rights) “were and still are excluded” from compulsory jurisdiction of the Court. Second, the note pointed out that the concession granted the “former Anglo-Iranian Oil Company” in 1933 did not mention the United Kingdom in any capacity and reserved no rights or powers to that government.

The twelfth session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization opened at the new headquarters of the organization in Rome on June 11, 1951. The agenda of the session included detailed studies of long-range objectives of FAO, international investment, full employment, commodity problems, and technical assistance. Preparation for the sixth session of the FAO Conference, scheduled to meet in Rome in November 1951, was also undertaken at this meeting.

The sixth annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to the Board of Governors, covering the period July 1, 1950 to June 30, 1951, was transmitted by the President of the Bank (Black) to the Board on September 10, 1951. During the fiscal year reviewed in the report the Bank was faced with new and changing conditions in the world; while this was true of every other year since 1946, “at no time in the Bank's experience, however, have die economic conditions of the world changed so abruptly as in the year just ended.” These changes had two conflicting results: on die one hand, diey provided underdeveloped countries “opportunities for growth” and “created more favorable conditions for die Bank's lending operations”; on die odier hand, diey raised serious new problems.

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization met in Montreal from May 22 to June 1, 1951 to consider items which needed to be completed before the opening of the fifth session of the ICAO Assembly on June 5, 1951. Annex 14 of the Convention Standards and Recommended Practices for Aerodromes as adopted differed in some respects from that submitted by the Air Navigation Division; the major change was the elimination of recommendations concerning the application and characteristics of the approach lighting system, Type B (high intensity). Unless a majority of the contracting states disapproved the Annex was to become effective on November 1, 1951 and to be implemented on June 1, 1952 in the case of airdromes used by international air services and on January 1, 1954 of other airdromes used by aircraft engaged in international air navigation. Sixteen amendments to Annex 3 of the Convention — Standards and Recommended Practices for Meteorological Codes — were adopted on the recommendation of the Meteorology Division. They were to become effective on October 1, 1951, and to be implemented on January 1, 1952. Action was also taken on the recommendations of the Committee on Performance of the Air and Operations Division. Report of the Air Navigation Division on its review of the implementation of regional plans in North America, South Pacific, South Atlantic, South American, and African-Indian Ocean Regions were approved. It was noted that in the first two regions there were no deficits in air navigation facilities and services which would seriously affect safety, efficiency or regularity of service.

The Governing Body's 116th session was held at Geneva, on June 30, 1951. Having elected its new chairman (Mr. Paul Ramadier) and vice-chairmen (Sir J. F. Watson and Mr. Léon Jouhaux), the Governing Body reappointed its various standing committees for the duration of its three year term of office and appointed its representatives on the Joint Maritime Commission. Delegations were also appointed to attend the Migration Conference (Naples, 2–16 October, 1951), the fourth session of the Inland Transport Committee (Genoa, 4–15 December, 1951), the Meeting of Experts on Women's Work (Geneva, 11–15 December, 1951), the third session of the Asian Advisory Committee (Geneva, 10–13 November, 1951), and the sixth session of the General Assembly.

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1951 indicated a general improvement in balance of payments, world production, and trade, although serious dollar shortages still existed in some countries. The outbreak of hostilities in Korea, however, and the expanded rearmament programs had produced shortages of raw materials and skilled labor, rises in prices and changes in the terms of trade of many countries. The report stressed the importance of using monetary and fiscal measures as well as measures of direct control to combat inflationary tendencies in order to prevent “situations of latent inflation”. It was believed that the present pattern of world payments was not a stable one and that it would become so only following an increase in production outside of the United States and a better relationship between prices of primary and industrial goods.

The Director-General of the International Refugee Organization (Kingsley) announced1 that IRO's Hague mission would be closed on July 31, 1951. The Organization had already closed its missions in eleven other countries, in preparation for the scheduled ending of IRO's “displaced persons” operations on December 31, 1951. The Director-General stated that a Refugee Service Committee, which was being formed in the Netherlands by national relief agencies, would assure the continuity of many of the services to refugees that had been performed by IRO's Hague mission. The mission, itself, had aided in the resettlement of over 5500 displaced persons.

The report of the International Telecommunication Union submitted to ECOSOC on June 11, 1951, was accompanied by a statement by the Secretary-General (Mulatier) in response to ECOSOC's resolution requesting all specialized agencies in the economic and social fields to review their programs with an eye to the concentration of all efforts and resources on the most urgent tasks. Noting that ITU's program of work was governed by the Atlantic City Convention (1947) and that the Union's 1952 activities would relate to its regular task of enabling its members to operate their international telecommunications services and to the holding of any conferences which might be essential for the performance of that task, the Secretary-General expressed the opinion that the program would not appear to include any activities of the kind contemplated in the ECOSOC resolution.

General Policy: Following the mandate of the Fifth General Conference to “pay closest attention to the problems of concentration of efforts and resources”, the Executive Board's draft program for 1952 was evolved under the guiding principle of ‘;dynamic concentration’ — in such a way as to secure effective integration, through subordination, selection, and coordination, of all of UNESCO's manifold activities. As a result, the 1952 draft document contained 147 resolutions, as compared to the 294 resolutions in the 1951 program. The draft program was also meant to reflect the general opinion (first officially expressed in United Nations General Assembly and ECOSOC resolutions) that, in order to realize the optimum effectiveness of the specialized agencies, it was necessary to determine those activities which had priority in the cause of peace and to expend the available resources in the realization of those fundamental goals.

In accordance with the agreement between the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union, UPU submitted a report on its activities for 1950. At the end of 1950, it was reported, the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies had been applied to the UPU by eight governments: Austria, Denmark, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Preparations for the thirteenth Universal Postal Congress, to be held in Brussels in 1952, had been started in the period under review. Member governments were reminded that, according to the regulations of the organization, settlement of transit charges was to be carried out, as a rule, through the general clearing account of UPU and not through separate direct settlement. It was noted, however, that 95 administrations had settled their account through the general clearing account in 1949, 28 more than in the previous year.

Suez Canal Dispute: On July 17, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Assam Pasha, stated that the United Kingdom attitude toward the Suez Canal dispute would have destructive consequences to its prestige and influence in the Arab world. Egypt was faithfully carrying out the Arab League decision to prevent war material from reaching Israel.

A joint meeting of the Research Committee on Agriculture, Fish, Wildlife and Forestry and the Preparatory Fisheries Committee was held in Trinidad on July 9, 1951. The meeting, under the chairmanship of the United Kingdom representative (Frampton), discussed proposals regarding commercial trawl fishing in the Gulf of Paria and the organization of the Fisheries Conference. The committee felt that a survey of commercial trawl fishing should be undertaken at an estimated expense of $2,000. The committee also recommended that the Fisheries Conference, to be held in March 1952 for five days, should meet in Trinidad and have an agenda as follows: occurrence and distribution of commercial fish species in the Caribbean, techniques used in the Caribbean for fish capture, types of fishing craft used, marketing, storing, distribution, conserving methods, and cultivation of fish in ponds.

On August 21, 1951 the Conference on African Defense opened in Nairobi, Kenya with representatives of the Union of South Africa, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Southern Rhodesia and the United Kingdom present at the meeting. A team of United States observers also attended. Egypt had refused the invitation because of the dispute over troops in the Suez Canal zone. The purpose of the conference was to ensure in the event of war an even flow of war materials and troops within Africa. The conference would not be concerned with strategic planning.