The main purpose of this article is to try to make clear what in the present condition of the world we can legitimately expect the United Nations to do: a) as regards the maintenance; and b) if aggression should unfortunately recur, as regards the restoration of world peace. These are two very different matters; and it is possible to believe that the first is more important than the second. For the United Nations will certainly have achieved its major purpose if there is no third world war; whereas, if there is, the issue will only to a comparatively minor degree be decided by the United Nations. I know that, stated so bluntly, this thesis may not be accepted by everybody; but the general trend of any argument will be that prevention is better than cure, more particularly if the cure involves the indiscriminate plastering of large areas with atomic bombs and “other weapons of mass destruction”.

That politics, and especially international politics, is the art of compromise is a cliché of ancient standing. This, however, does not deprive it of a certain value if we make it our task to examine the factors of ideology and interest which were responsible for the introduction of radical innovations into the structure of international organization. The story of the acceptance of the Mandate System is a case in point.

International Organization, no longer the exclusive preserve of dreamers and idealists, is now, for better or for worse, one of the palpable realities of world politics. Whether we choose to consider it our best hope or a snare and a delusion or something in between, we are compelled to reckon with its effects, one of which is the foreseeable cost of non-participation in it. Its characteristic features – public debate, parliamentary procedures and resolution, majorities and voting blocs – all have become instruments of undeniable and indeed often painful efficacy in international relations. A review conference for the purpose of evaluating the experience of the first ten years of Charter operations is scheduled for 1955. Meanwhile, institutional developments within the framework of the Charter occur constantly, and call for policy decisions based on a profound understanding of how this or that change is likely to affect the international scene. In this situation, the publication of the first comprehensive history of the League of Nations must be considered a significant event.

The seventh regular session of the United Nations General Assembly convened at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, October 14, 1952, to consider an agenda which included, in addition to administrative, legal and financial items, the reports of various organs and agencies of the United Nations, and the continuing problems of Korea, the limitation and reduction of armaments, economic development and the admission of new Members, certain new problems such as the questions of Morocco and Tunisia, minorities in the Union of South Africa and the complaint of violation by Arab states of their obligations under the Charter.

This issue covers the work of the Security Council from its 577th meeting on June 18 to its 591st meeting on July 9, 1952. No meetings were held during May when the representative of Turkey (Derinsu) was scheduled to serve as President of the Council. In June, the representative of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Malik) presided over the meetings of the Security Council and the representative of the United Kingdom (Jebb) was President of the Council during July.

The fourteenth session of the Economic and Social Council met at United Nations headquarters in New York from May 20 to August 1, 1952. Mr. S. Amjad Ali (Pakistan) was elected president, Mr. Jiri Nosek (Czechoslovakia), first vice-president and Mr. Raymond Scheyven (Belgium), second vice-president. After a proposal by the United States that discussion of a Soviet motion to seat the representative of the Central Government of the People's Republic of China be adjourned for the duration of the session had been adopted by a vote of 14 to 4, the Council turned to consideration of an agenda containing some 46 separate items.

Mr. Khalidy (Iraq) and Mr. Forsyth (Australia) were elected President and Vice-President, respectively, of the eleventh session of the Trusteeship Council. The first part of the session was held in New York from June 3 through July 24, 1952, with the second part scheduled to open not later than November 7, 1952. Annual reports from trust territories in Africa and reports from the visiting mission to east African trust territories formed the bulk of the work of the first part of the session; the second part was to be devoted to consideration of a special report from the visiting mission to west African trust territories concerning the problem of Ewe and Togoland unification.

Annual Report of the Secretary-General: Speaking on the development of public understanding during the year under review, the Secretary-General ex-pressed his conviction that public understanding of the United Nations as an institution for world peace and progress had continued to grow in most areas of the world. Although the United Nations might, however, be almost universally regarded as “the main hope for peace in the long run”, the Secretary-General felt that there was then a general tendency to consider that the organization was not the “sole or main instrument for peace”. He remarked on the wide areas of misunderstanding and the lack of knowledge about the United Nations and its work which persisted in most parts of the world, but he coupled this view with the impression of notable progress during the previous year toward a more realistic appraisal of the organization's potentialities for the solution of basic problems. The Secretary-General pointed out also that, as in previous years, the course of events had had a direct bearing on prevailing public opinion and had caused fluctuations in both positive and negative directions. The situation in Korea during the past year had exerted particularly strong influence on the attitude of the public toward the United Nations.

The Minquiers and Ecrehos Case: On June 26, 1952, the International Court of Justice fixed October 6, 1952 as the time-limit for the filing of the reply of the government of the United Kingdom and February 6, 1953 as the time-limit for the filing of the rejoinder of the French government in the Minquiers and Ecrehos case. However, at the request of the United Kingdom, and with the acceptance of the extension by France, the Court, on August 27, fixed November 6, 1952 and March 6, 1953 as the time-limits for the filing of the United Kingdom reply and the French rejoinder, respectively.

The Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization held its fifteenth session in Rome from June 9 to 14, 1952 under the chairmanship of Josu6 de Castro (Brazil); Sir Ralph Enfield (United Kingdom) and Dr. G. B. H. Barton (Canada) were elected vice chairmen of the session. Focusing its attention on questions discussed at the Sixth Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the council reviewed progress reports on the reform of agrarian structures, the Expanded Technical Assistance Programme, commodity problems, locust control and plans for increasing food and agricultural production; studied the problem of food shortages and famine; and considered matters of procedure, administration and finance.

The seventh annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to the Board of Governors, covering the period July 1, 1951 to June 30, 1952, was transmitted by the President of the Bank (Black) to the Board on September 3, 1952. During the fiscal year reviewed in the report, the Bank continued to help its members to draw up long-term programs of economic development, which were designed to raise the level of productivity and to increase the standard of living through the dispatch of general survey missions, primarily, and through the appointment of a number of specialized missions to study specific development problems in member countries. Although it was considered too early to attempt any general appraisal of the impact of the technical assistance program, the Bank reported its encouragement with evidence that the work done by the survey missions was achieving results in most countries to which they had been sent. The Bank also indicated that survey missions could often have the effect of changing the attitude of the country toward development problems.

The Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization held its sixth session in Montreal from May 27 to June 12, 1952. Mr. John Paul Barringer (United States) was unanimously elected president of the assembly and Col. B. M. Amarante (Brazil), Mr. A. Kofoed-Hansen (Iceland), Dr. R. Sugoto (Indonesia) and Mr. E. Bisang (Switzerland), vice-presidents. The question of economy overshadowed the entire session and Canada's offer of a $130,500 reduction in annual headquarters rental, subject to parliamentary approval, was clearly “the highlight in savings”. Although certain delegations considered that the organization's activities should be curbed, the prevailing opinion of the conference was that the scale of effort for past years should be sustained in 1953. The Assembly adopted a gross budget of $3,259,384 for the fiscal year 1953 with assessments to contracting states amounting to $2,817,167, as compared with a net budget of $2,824,994 for 1952.

The thirty-fifth International Labor Conference was held in Geneva from June 4 to 28, 1952 under the presidency of Mr. de Segadas Vianna (Brazil), with Mr. J. B. Pons (Uruguay), Mr. V. V. Dravid (India) and Mr. G. P. Delaney (United States) as vice-presidents. The agenda was composed of nine items; 1) information and reports on the application of conventions and recommendations; 2) holidays with pay in agriculture; 3) objectives and standards of social security; 4) cooperation between public authorities and employers' and workers' organizations; 5) revision of the maternity protection convention of 1919; 6) protection of the health of workers in places of employment; 7) regulation of the employment of young persons in underground work in the coal mines; 8) the Director-General's report; and 9) financial and budgetary questions.

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1952 was presented to the Board of Governors by its chairman (Rooth) on June 24, 1952. The report indicated that, despite a remarkable growth in production and one widespread adjustment of exchange rates over the previous seven years, international payments were still far from having attained a state of balance and exchange difficulties and restrictions existed again over large parts of the world, for countries constituting a large part of the world had followed policies aimed at achieving higher levels of consumption and investment than could be covered out of real resources available. This had resulted in a situation of inflationary pressures that in certain countries had been aggravated by rearmament programs, pressures which created excessive demands for imports and reduced the quantities of goods available for export. In this situation the use of exchange restrictions and quantitative import controls, frequently of a discriminatory nature, seemed inevitable to many countries; and during the past year there had been a tendency to extend and intensify these restrictions and controls.

The seventh session of the Administrative Council of the International Tele-communication Union met in Geneva from April 21 to June 6, 1952. The council studied the report of the Extraordinary Administrative Conference held at the end of 1951 in Geneva, considered that the conference had contributed greatly to the solution of the frequency assignment problem, accepted the extensive long-term responsibilities resulting from the agreements that the conference had adopted and decided to examine at each of its sessions until 1956 arrangements for the final implementation of the Atlantic City Frequency Allocation Table. Decisions were not unanimously taken, because a minority of the delegates were of the opinion that the principles adopted since 1948 for the preparation of a new international frequency list were “fallacious” and that the problem should be tackled from another angle.

The seventh session of the Contracting Parties to GATT met at Geneva, Switzerland from October 2 to November 10, 1952 under the chairmanship of Johan Melander (Norway). Participating were delegates of the 34 countries which were contracting parties and observers from other governments and intergovernmental organizations. The seventh session was concerned primarily with items arising out of the operation of GATT, including items falling under the complaints procedure, tariffs and tariff negotiations, miscellaneous items proposed by governments and non-governmental organizations and the administration of GATT. Apart from an agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria concerning reciprocal concessions to the tariff agreement which had been concluded in 1951 within the framework of the Torquay Tariff Conference, no tariff negotiations were undertaken during the session. In connection with the reduction of tariff levels, the contracting parties reexamined the French plan for lowering tariffs by 30 percent on a worldwide basis in three yearly stages and the contracting parties instructed working parties to continue studies of the question.

The thirtieth session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization met at UNESCO House in Paris from May 26 to June 6, 1952. The board approved a provisional agenda for the seventh session of the UNESCO General Conference, which was scheduled to open on November 12, as well as proposals concerning the organization of its work. The board decided that the fourth meeting of representatives of national commissions should be held on November 8 and 10 and December 11, and approved the Director-General's proposals regarding the agenda for this meeting. Draft amendments to the rules of procedure of the General Conference, to the financial regulations, and to the directives concerning relations with international non-governmental organizations, necessitated by adoption of the system of biennial sessions of the General Conference, were approved.

From May 5 to 22, 1952 the Fifth World Health Assembly met in Geneva. In his opening remarks, Dr. Leonard A. Scheele, president of the Fourth World Health Assembly, summarized events during the first four years of the World Health Organization and stressed the central importance of the problems of the education of public health and related personnel and personnel shortages to the accomplishment of WHO's aims.1 The remainder of the first plenary meeting was devoted to speeches by representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Meteorological Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, who stressed the need for cooperation between their respective organizations and WHO. Dr. Juan Salcedo (Philippines) was elected president by acclamation at the second plenary meeting. On May 6, the Assembly voted to admit the United Kingdom of Libya to membership in the organization, and on May 12, Tunisia and Morocco were admitted as associate members, subject to notice of acceptance of associate membership on their behalf.

Under Article VII of the tripartite security pact between the United States, Australia and New Zealand which entered into force on April 29, 1952, the parties were to establish a council to “consider matters concerning the implementation of this Treaty”. The foreign ministers of the United States (Acheson), Australia (Casey) and New Zealand (Webb) met in Honolulu, Hawaii, from August 4 through August 6, 1952, in the Council's first session. Statements by the participants prior to the opening of the Council indicated that the meeting would be exploratory only and would endeavor to establish more permanent machinery of consultation.

The Arab League Collective Security Pact entered into force on August 23, 1952, following the deposit of the instrument of ratification of Iraq. Saudi Arabia signed the pact on August 18.

During the period reviewed, both the Council and Political Committee of the League held several meetings to consider such political matters as the boycott against Israel, possible united action by the Arab League members against the German Federal Republic if an indemnity treaty with Israel were ratified, and policies to be pursued by Arab League members in the seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly. The sixteenth session of the Council, which had opened on March 16 only to adjourn immediately sine die, resumed meeting in Cairo from September 10 to 23. The agenda of the meeting, over which Aly Maher (Egypt) presided, included 1) general Arab political problems, 2) proposals for the establishment of an Institute of Arab Studies at Columbia University, 3) the budget, 4) organization of Arab propaganda, 5) education of children of Arab refugees, 6) Lebanon's proposal to reorganize the Council's inner structure, 7) the question of opening Council meetings to the public, and 8) the founding of an Arab Court of Justice. The Council decided to hold its meetings in secret.