The annual report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1959, was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on July 9, 1959. In its discussion of the world economy in 1958–1959 the report noted that the year which ended on April 30 had stood out not only because of the marked changes which had occurred in general business activity and in the international flow of funds, but also because important steps had been taken to consolidate the monetary improvements achieved since the war and to strengthen the financial structure of the world economy. Outstanding events had been the following: a sharp upswing of industrial production in the United States, together with indications of renewed expansion in other industrial countries; the increase of more than $3.5 billion in the gold and foreign exchange reserves of western European countries; the adoption in December 1958 of external convertibility by fourteen European countries and the complementary steps taken by fifteen other countries to adjust their exchange controls to the new conditions thus established; and the agreements reached to expand the financial resources of the Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. On the other hand, the experience of many of the primary producing countries had been much less satisfactory, inasmuch as the decline in the prices of many primary products which had begun in 1956 had continued into 1958, and there had been a reduction in the earning capacity of most of these countries, which had created further difficulties in their payments positions and acted as a brake upon their economic development

The report of the Director-General, Dr. Vittorino Veronese, on the activities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1959 dealt, as usual, with: 1) relations with member states and international organizations; 2) execution of the program; and 3) administrative services. Under the first heading, the Director-General reported that during the year in review the Singapore/British Borneo group associate membership in the Organization had ceased to exist as of December 31, 1959, when Singapore alone had assumed the rights and duties of an associate member, and that relations with the UN, the specialized agencies, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had continued to develop.

Report of the Committee on Contributions: In its report to the eleventh session of the General Assembly The Committee on Contributions stated that in accordance with its terms of reference it had considered the rates of assessment to be recommended for the new Member states admitted at the tenth session of the Assembly; it had also considered the question of the inclusion of those rates in the scale of assessments approved by the General Assembly for the contributions of Member states to the UN budgets for the financial years 1956, 1957 and 1958. In the case of all the new Members, with the exception of Libya, percentage rates had already been established for their contributions towards the 1956, 1957 and 1958 expenses of the UN activities in which they had participated before becoming Members. These rates had been calculated on the basis of information relating to national income estimates comparable to that on which the assessments of the then Members had been computed. The Committee had also applied to these countries the same allowance for low per capita income as for Member states, and had taken into account all the other relevant factors mentioned in its terms of reference; the Committee concluded that the rates established in that manner were appropriate in relation to the rates approved by the General Assembly for the assessment of Members, and on the basis of data available for Libya, found it appropriate to recommend the minimum assessment of 0.04 percent.

The International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was notified in Demember 1962 that, due to the Chinese invasion and the consequent national emergency, India could not host the fifteenth Universal Postal Congress which had been scheduled to open on March 1, 1963, in New Delhi. On January 17, 1963, the Director of the International Bureau, Mr. Weber, received from the Austrian government an official invitation to hold the fifteenth Congress in Vienna in June 1964.

A meeting of the Special Subcommittee of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) on extra-long staple cotton was convened in Alexandria, Egypt, on September 7, 1959. Delegations were present from the principal extra-long staple cotton-producing countries (the Sudan, the United Arab Republic, and the United States), along with observers from Brazil, Peru, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Mr. Abd El Latif Ezzat, Under-Secretary of State for Cotton Affairs of the Ministry of Economy of the United Arab Republic, was elected chairman, and Mr. Robert B. Evans, executive secretary of ICAC, served as secretary. The meeting adjourned on September 12 after eight sessions. Its agenda was devoted to a consideration of production plans and policies, pricing and export policies, and steps needed to encourage consumption.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) entered into a stand-by arrangement with the government of Haiti authorizing drawings up to the amount of $6 million over the next twelve months in currencies held by the Fund. The stabilization efforts of the Haitian government in recent years, conducted with Fund support, had contributed to the maintenance of internal and external financial stability. However, unusual difficulty had been encountered during the fiscal year just closing, when government revenues fell short of amounts anticipated, the inflow of foreign aid dwindled, and Haiti's international reserve position deteriorated. Haitian authorities had taken steps to strengthen the country's public finances. The Fund had granted annual stand-by arrangements to Haiti since 1958; the country's net drawings amounted to $3.75 million.

The third part of the eleventh ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly was opened on January 18, 1960, with a tribute to its President, Mr. John Edward, who had died at Strasbourg on November 23, 1959. At the onset, the Assembly unanimously adopted a motion against anti Semitic outbreaks presented by the Political Committee, which a delegation from the Israeli parliament gratefully acknowledged. A motion to adjourn the election of the President until the opening of the next session was also adopted. Following presentation of a report on the activities of the Bureau and Standing Committee, the second supplementary report to the tenth report of the Committee of Ministers was presented by its chairman, Mr. Pierre Wigny, Belgian Foreign Minister. He noted that the Assembly had been disturbed over the fact that the Council of Europe was no longer fulfilling an adequate role, and stressed the importance of the exchanges of views which the Committee of Ministers had decided could take place at the request of any member state. In the economic sphere he called attention to recent moves toward economic coordination, and, before concluding, asked the Assembly to examine further both the question of Eurafrican relations and that of rationalization of European institutions.

A regular meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the member states of the Warsaw Pact was held in Moscow on March 28 and 29, 1961, according to press reports. Heads of government and military and political leaders of the eight member states were present, although there was considerable comment in the press when Albania sent Deputy Premier Begir Balluku instead of General Enver Hoxha, First Secretary of the Albanian Communist Party. Communist China sent as an observer Liu Hsiao, Ambassador to Moscow. The Council on Mutual Economic Aid of the pact reportedly disclosed a new economic plan at the conference that called for the voluntary coordination of member nations' economic schemes and prospects for a twentyyear period through 1980. The project was to constitute a new form of international cooperation that would be the prototype for the economic relations of the future communist society. The Warsaw Pact nations also reportedly discussed military matters, including the situation in Germany.

The press reported in late October 1960 that an Arab spokesman had announced plans for opening an office of the Arab League in New Delhi, India, in an effort to counteract Israeli overtures toward South Asia. The press report added that the New Delhi office of the Arab League would eventually have under its supervision League branches to be established in Ceylon, Burma, and Indonesia. It was reported that the New Delhi office would concentrate on such League matters as the Arab economic blockade of Israel, the Palestinian refugees, and Arab cooperation in oil and commerce.

In George Orwell's Animal Farm all that finally remains of the animals' plans for a brave new world, a farm without Farmer Jones, a farm to be run by and for the animals themselves, is the slogan “Four feet good; two feet bad.” As one reads the reports from Lake Success and Flushing Meadows one is tempted to say of the brave new world projected five years ago at San Francisco, the world of sovereign equality and greatpower unanimity, that all that is left is the slogan “United Nations good; power politics bad.” But here the analogy ends; for there is no agreement in the United Nations as to who is being good by supporting the spirit and the language of the Charter and who is being bad by playing power politics.

On June 7, 1960, it was announced that the government of Guatemala had entered into a one-year stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund authorizing drawings up to $15 million in support of the country's currency. The purpose of the arrangement was to help Guatemala maintain the traditional stability of the quetzal by providing a second line of reserves to supplement other stabilization measures, such as an increase of reserve requirements against bank deposits, limitations on central bank rediscounts, and a further reduction of government expenditures. Guatemala, with a quota of $15 million, had not previously drawn upon the Fund's resources.

According to the press, a one-day meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact in Moscow on February 4, 1960, was attended by premiers and foreign ministers of the eight pact members (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Romania) and by observers from Communist China, Mongolia, North Vietnam, and North Korea. In a 4,000-word declaration issued after the meeting, the pact members expressed the hope that forthcoming East-West summit talks would be “a turning point in the relations” between the two groups of countries and proposed that the summit agenda include such topics as general and controlled disarmament, a German peace treaty, creation of a free city of West Berlin, a ban on nuclear weapons tests, and amelioration of relations between East and West. The committee also repeated the communist proposal for a non-aggression pact between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact countries and called on NATO members to respond to the Soviet Union's armed forces cut of 1, 200, 000 men by reducing their forces as well. It criticized NATO for maintaining “inflated armies” and for arming West Germany with atomic weapons, adding that the West German government was being given a free hand in the production of these weapons.

Case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand): According to an order of December 5, 1959, the International Court of Justice in the case of the Temple of Preah Vihear fixed January 20, i960, as the time limit for filing the memorial of Cambodia, and May 23, 1960, for filing the counter-memorial of Thailand.

The European Parliament met in Strasbourg on February 5–6, 1963. The session opened with a statement by Mr. Robert Marjolin, French vice-president of the European Economic Community (EEC) Commission, on the economic situation of the Community. Provided that there was no slump in any important country outside the Six, Mr. Marjolin said that satisfactory economic growth was to be expected within the Community during 1963. He forecast that the rising costs of consumer goods would slacken then level off in the present year.

The deputies of the Council of Foreign Ministers resumed negotiations on the Austrian treaty in London on June 10, 1950. The meeting ended in deadlock with the Soviet delegate declaring that so long as violations referred to in the Soviet note of July 8 on Trieste continued, there could be no guarantee that the western powers would not similarly violate the Austrian treaty. After the western delegates denied the allegations on Trieste and maintained that they were irrelevant to the Austrian treaty, it was agreed to hold a further meeting on September 7 subject to the approval of the Soviet government.

Under the terms of the extension of the time limit for the signing of the Torquay Protocol, granted by the sixth session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the protocol was signed by the United Kingdom on December 19 and by Denmark on December 21, 1951, bringing to 31 the number of signatories. On December 27, Brazil notified the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Lie) of its intention to apply the tariff concessions of the Annecy Protocol and on December 31, 1951, India signed the First Protocol of Rectifications and Modifications and the First Protocol of Supplementary Concessions to GATT. The number of the contracting parties to GATT was increased to 34 with the accession, during the sixth session, of Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Peru and Turkey.

The 140th session of the Governing Body of the International Labor Office was held in Geneva from November 18–21, 1958. It decided to place three new items on the agenda of the 44th (1960) session of the International Labor Conference, viz.: contribution of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to the raising of incomes and living conditions in rural communities in countries in process of development; reduction of hours of work; and workers' housing. In general, the Governing Body endorsed the suggestions before it regarding action to be taken on the resolutions adopted by the International Labor Conference at its 42d session, specifically by authorizing the Director-General to communicate to the governments of member states resolutions concerning publication of labor laws, industrial health and safety campaigns, management development, and the expansion of international trade. The resolution regarding the last topic was also to be sent to the UN and to the Executive Secretary of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. A resolution dealing with labor-management relations was to be communicated to governments with the request that they bring it to the attention of employers' and workers' organizations, while a resolution concerning increased technical assistance for the integration of indigenous populations was to be sent to governments, to the UN, and to several relevant specialized agencies.