The tenth plenary meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Committee met at Lahore, Pakistan, from February 1 to 9, 1951. The meeting was attended by representatives of nineteen member governments and by observers from seven other governments and the Organization for European Economic Cooperation. An increased budget and work program for the 1951–1952 fiscal year was approved and the secretariat was instructed to continue publication of the “Monthly Review of the World Cotton Situation” and the “Quarterly Statistical Bulletin” as well as undertaking certain other projects. Members were requested to provide the secretariat with cotton statistics and to consider the possibility of “further practical measures for the improvement of their raw cotton price information.” The secretariat was further requested, under the supervision of the Standing Committee, to continue its statistics and research on an international cotton agreement by preparing information on prices, production, exports, imports, consumption and stocks, and by consideration of the problem of the constitution of buffer stocks of cotton. The Standing Committee was requested to keep the balance of payments situation under review and to report to the eleventh plenary meeting in case of a serious deterioration. In connection with the cotton shortage, the meeting resolved to call the attention of the agencies concerned with technical and financial assistance, to the fact that the promotion of increased yields in cotton production in underdeveloped countries “would be very beneficial.”

Delegates from nineteen governments including the newest member, Mexico, and observers from six other governments attended a meeting of the International Sugar Council in London on June 26, 1951. The council adopted the report of its Statistical Committee which contained an estimate of the statistical position for the crop year ending August 31, 1951. Governments which had signed the protocol extending the international sugar agreement of 1937 to August 31, 1951 were asked to sign another protocol extending the agreement for one additional year. The new protocol, however, was to contain a provision terminating the protocol if a revised sugar agreement should come into force during the year. Other items dealt with by the council were the budget and administrative matters.

The second annual report of the International Wheat Council reviewed operations under the International Wheat Agreement for the crop year 1950–1951. It was stated that prices for transactions under the agreement had not fallen much below the agreement maximum and that prices for wheat and flour bought outside the agreement had generally remained above that maximum. The structure of the agreement had been “severely tested” due to continued trading at the “ceiling” price, and most of the operational problems with which the council had been faced had been due to the restricting elements incident to trading at the maximum price. Had prices moved between the maximum and minimum of the price range these problems would not have arisen.

On October 23, 1951, it was announced that, following informal discussions regarding the North Pacific Fisheries, Canada, Japan and the United States had agreed to participate in negotiations for a North Pacific fisheries convention. The conference was held at Tokyo from November 4 to December 14, 1951. All three countries had expressed desires to conclude a fisheries convention: the United States, to safeguard its major conservation programs in the North Pacific, to provide the facilities for cooperative research and management of joint fisheries not yet covered by treaties, and to avoid friction between United States fishermen and those of other countries which threatened to increase with the expansion of Japanese fishing operations; Canada, to safeguard its conservation programs without complicating or restricting its participation in the exploitation of stocks of fish along the adjacent coasts of the United States or complicating its past fishery relations with the United States; Japan, to satisfy the terms of article 9 of the Treaty of Peace, to show its willingness to cooperate with other countries in fishery conservative programs, and to reiterate its claim to the right of Japanese fishermen to exploit stocks of fish anywhere on the high seas. The delegations, which were composed of representatives of industry in each of the three states as well as governmental representatives, spent most of the first week in explaining and answering questions with respect to certain conservation proposals which the United States had offered as a basis for the talks. The conference then turned to a consideration of the Japanese counterproposals and, on December 14, representatives of the three countries signed a document entitled “Resolutions and Request of the Tripartite Fisheries Conference” which expressed their mutual concern in the development and proper utilization of fish stocks in the North Pacific, recommended the adoption of a convention conforming to the draft agreed to by the conference, and recommended that, in negotiating with other governments in respect to problems similar to those covered by the convention, the contracting parties should give full consideration to the spirit and intent of the convention.

Following extensive discussions in London during July of 1951, the Tripartite Commission on German Debts, whose members were Sir G. Rendel (United Kingdom), F. D. Gregh (France) and W. L. Pierson (United States), met again in London on November 26, 1951, with the delegation of the German Federal Republic, headed by H. J. Abs. The meeting was held to discuss the question of the settlement of Germany's debt in respect of postwar economic assistance received from the governments of the United Kingdom, France and the United States and, in addition, to discuss matters relating to the preparation for the international conference on prewar German debts which was to be held in London early in 1952 with the representatives of creditors from all countries having a significant interest in the matter. At the beginning of the meetings the German delegation was informed of the details of the tripartite postwar claims, the totals of which were as follows: United Kingdom, £201,000,000; France, $15,700,000; and United States, about $3,200,000,000. The priority of these postwar economic assistance claims over all other claims had been recognized in an exchange of notes of March 6, 1951, between the Allied High Commission and the government of the Federal Republic. The three governments had already made it clear, however, that they would be prepared to modify that priority in order to make possible a comprehensive and equitable settlement of the remainder of Germany's external debt. They expressed a willingness to make important concessions, both in respect to priority and the total amounts of their claims, on the clear understanding that the concessions were conditional on the achievement of a satisfactory and equitable settlement of Germany's prewar debts.

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