Report to the General Assembly: In accordance with a resolution adopted during the fourth regular session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the fourth report of IAEA to the UN General Assembly consisted of the annual report of the Board of Governors to the General Conference, covering the period July 1, 1959, to June 30, 1960, together with a supplement dealing with developments, including action taken by the General Conference, during the period July 1 to September 30, 1960. The report noted that during the period under review the preparatory activities of the Agency had begun to bear fruit and that in most domains the year had been the first full year of normal operations. One of the main goals of the Agency, the report continued, was to foster the safe use of nuclear power under economically competitive conditions, but in this area there were still innumerable problems to overcome. Since the cost of generating electricity from nuclear power plants, although steadily declining, was still substantially higher than that of producing conventional power except in a few special cases, the earlier nuclear power plans of a number of countries had been revised and construction of plants was not proceeding at the rate foreseen some years ago. With regard to reactor technology, the Board reported that work was being done to improve the performance of reactors and to reduce their costs of operation by detailed technical modifications, although the cost of research on advanced reactor concepts was so high that only a very few major industrial countries had the necessary material resources to conduct such research. While the Board considered it unlikely that nuclear—propelled ships would become economically competitive with conventional ships in the near future, progress had been made in this sphere in the year under review, as witnessed by the commissioning of a nuclearpropelled ice-breaker and the launching of the first nuclear merchant ship.

In accordance with a decision taken at the first part of its thirteenth session, the General Assembly reconvened on February 20, 1959, to consider exclusively the question of the future of the trust territories of the Cameroons under French administration and the Cameroons under United Kingdom administration. The Assembly referred the question to its Trusteeship (fourth) Committee which discussed the matter from its 844th meeting on February 25 to its 880th meeting on March 18. The Trusteeship Council had submitted a special report to the General Assembly concerning the future of these trust territories. The Council had also transmitted to the Assembly the reports of the UN visiting mission to trust territories in West Africa, 1958, and the observations of the administering authorities on the reports.

Available data on the activities of the multinationals and other aspects of international economic relations have rendered traditional approaches to the study of international politics, international organizations and the international system obsolete. The political and economic facts of international life are so intertwined that it has become compulsory to resort to the findings of political economy to discuss the international system and its functions and to assess properly the role and functions of the United Nations within it.

The fourth South Pacific Conference was held at Rabaul, New Britain, in the territory of Papua and New Guinea, from April 20 to May 13, 1959. Sixty-five delegates and advisers attended from sixteen Pacific territories and the Kingdom of Tonga. The Conference was divided into two standing committees, one dealing with social and health questions, and the other with matters affecting the economic welfare of the island peoples. For the second time in the history of the conferences, the delegates themselves elected the chairman and vice-chairman of each committee, but for the first time a woman was elected chairman of one of them, i.e., the social committee. The Conference proceedings were governed by a general committee, on which each of the six governments forming the membership of the South Pacific Commission was represented by a member of a territorial delegation; the chairman of the Conference, Mr. J. R. Halligan, Australia's Senior Commissioner on the South Pacific Commission, was the only European member of the general committee.

The 28th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1067th to the 1089th meetings inclusive, was held in Geneva from June 30 through July 31, I959.1 Mr. Daniel Cosío Villegas (Mexico) presided. After it was announced that Mr. Zahiruddin Ahmed (Pakistan), who had been elected second Vice-President at the 27th session, would be prevented by certain duties in his own country from attending the 28th session, Mr. Faruqi (Pakistan) was elected to that position.

The tenth session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was held in Rome from October 31 through November 20, 1959. In its review of the world situation and oudook the Conference noted with satisfaction that in 1958 a 4 percent increase in world agricultural production had followed the temporary pause in expansion of the previous year, when harvests in many areas had been reduced by bad weather. The information available to the Conference indicated that world production would again rise in the 1959 season, though the increase would probably not be so great as in 1958, and that variable weather conditions were likely to result in considerable differences between regions and between individual commodities. The Conference expressed concern, however, over the fact that the greater part of the 1958 increase had been contributed by the technically advanced countries and that, apart from a substantial increase reported in mainland China, gains had generally been small in the less developed regions, where a rapid increase of agricultural production was urgently needed. In addition, much of the increase in production had not moved into consumption. The large cereal crops of 1958, especially in the United States, had led to a sharp rise in unsold stocks of wheat and coarse grains, and coffee and sugar stocks had also increased markedly. Thus, despite the existence of surplus stocks, the less developed countries could not afford to import sufficient food to ensure the adequate nutrition of their rapidly growing populations, and the problems of rural poverty and inadequate food supplies which characterized most of them could be overcome only by a build-up of dieir agricultures and a balanced development of their economies. Another adverse factor affecting the less developed countries had been the recession in economic activity in most of the industrialized countries in the two years since the previous session of the Conference, for the volume of exports of industrial raw materials had fallen by some 8 percent in 1958, thus decreasing the needed export earnings of the less developed countries. The Conference also expressed its concern at the slackening in the increase of production in relation to population, particularly in the less developed regions, during the last few years, as the average annual increase in world food production had recently been only about 0.5 percent above the average population growth of 1.6 percent, in contrast to the margin of some 1.5 percent that had been achieved in the earlier part of the postwar period.

Forty-seven nations were represented at the third annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was held in Washington from September 27 to October 1, 1948. Yun-wu Wang, Minister of Finance of China, acted as chairman of the joint sessions with the International Monetary Fund and also presided at other Bank meetings.

Report to the General Assembly: The third report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the UN General Assembly covered the period from July 1, 1958, to June 30, I959. The report noted that the period under consideration had been characterized by the fact that member states had begun to make substantial requests to the Agency for assistance, which the Agency had in fact been able to furnish. Furthermore, the Agency had begun to carry out its regulatory tasks, organize its first meetings, conferences, and symposia, enter upon its own research, and greatly expand the collection and publication of technical information. Whereas on June 30, 1958, membership of IAEA had stood at 66, one year later it stood at 70, Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, and the Sudan having in the meantime deposited instruments of ratification of the Statute. In the broadest terms, according to the report, the production of radioisotopes and their use in industry, agriculture, medicine, and research, and the eventual production of economic nuclear power, under safe and secure conditions, continued to be the main objectives of most of the Agency's work. For the attainment of these aims IAEA had been employing a variety of means, including technical assistance, the diffusion of information, the formulation of regulations and recommendations, the supply of nuclear fuels, the promotion of research reactor development, the elaboration of safeguards, the organization of training courses, and the award of fellowships and research contracts. A notable development was cited as being the completion of the Agency's first supply operation, three tons of natural uranium in metallic form having been supplied to Japan.

On June 6, 1961, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced a $15 million loan to Ceylon for the expansion of Ceylon's electric generating capacity and for the extension of electric power distribution in western Ceylon. The loan, the third made by the Bank to Ceylon for the purpose of developing an integrated electric power system under the Department of Governmental Electrical Undertakings (DGEU), was to cover the foreign exchange requirements of the project; local currency costs were to be met from government contributions and from DGEU's earnings. The loan was a 25-year term loan at 5%¾ percent interest, with amortization to begin on November 15, 1964. Six commercial banks participated in the loan, without the International Bank's guarantee, for a total amount of $1.1 million.

Australia is a nation small and vulnerable enough to need great power guarantees of territorial integrity, yet at the same time strong and stable enough to constitute an asset in any joint undertaking. The quality of being a small power dependent on the support of the great powers Australia shares with the countries of Southeast Asia, and in particular with the Southeast Asian states linked up with the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). But it is less exposed to immediate dangers, is more modern and industrialized than its near-northern neighbors, and hence is also capable of serving as an independent source of strength and of assuming a role somewhat akin to that of the great powers in SEATO. Australia's membership role in SEATO is, in effect, defined by these two basic conditions.

The Administrative Council of ‘the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) held its fourteenth session in Geneva from May 19 to June 12, 1959, under the chairmanship of Mr. Alfred F. Langenberger (Switzerland). In preparation for the 1959 conferences, the Council decided to prepare a report for submission to the forthcoming Administrative Radio Conference relating to the implementation of the Atlantic City Table of Frequency Allocations; the report summarized the action taken by the Council with respect to the situation prior to the Extraordinary Administrative Radio Conference, held in Geneva in 1951, and with respect to that arising from the decisions of that Conference. As usual during the session of the Council prior to a Plenipotentiary Conference, the Council also drew up its report to the 1959 Conference on the recent activities of the Union, including questions calling for special attention by the Conference. In its final form, the report was in three parts: Part I related to the activities of the Council and ITU from 1953 to 1959; Part II dealt with the staff and finances of the Union; and Part III covered the various questions to be brought to the attention of the Plenipotentiary Conference. Chief among these matters were the possible assimilation of Union salaries, allowances, and pensions to those of the UN common system, the possible introduction of a consolidated budget and a Working Capital Fund, and problems set by the “ceiling” for the ordinary expenses of the Union.

Case concerning the Guardianship of an Infant (Netherlands v. Sweden): In an order of April 17, 1958, the International Court of Justice fixed the following timelimits for the filing of further pleadings in the case concerning the guardianship of an infant: for the reply of the government of the Netherlands, June 18, 1958; and for the rejoinder of the government of Sweden, August 28, 1958.

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) held its 32d session from September 30 to December 16, 1957. The Council devoted considerable attention to the planning of meetings. Since the sum appropriated by the 1956 Assembly for meetings in 1958 was approximately half of the amount required for carrying out the planned program, the Council approved the convening of only nine meetings and recommended to the next Assembly that budgetary provision should be made to permit additional ones. During its next session the Council would consider the problem of the tendency towards longer meetings and the resulting increase in cost.

The Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held its 54th session in Paris, June 1–12, 1959. Under the heading, Execution of the Program, th Board took the following decisions, inter alia:1) to appoint a rapporteur, commissione to follow the successive discussions of the Director-General ‘s reports by the Board, for the purpose of assisting in the preparation of comments by the Board on these reports for information to the General Conference at its forthcoming session; 2) to authorize the Director-General to request the Technical Assistance Committee to contribute for 1960 a sum of $505, 779 toward the Headquarters costs of administering the Technical Assistance Program; 3) to designate twelve Member States— namely, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States—which were to be entitled to appoint a representative for two years on the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee for the Major Project on the Extension of Primary Education in Latin America; 4) to request the Director-General to accept the invitation of the government of Denmark to hold in Denmark in i960 an intergovernmental conference on international oceanographic research and training vessels; 5) to approve the celebration of the anni- 1 Document 54 EX/Decisions, June 22, 1959. For a summary of the 33d session, see International Organization, Spring 1939 (Vol. 13, No. 2), p. 324. versaries of the great personalities (Frederic Chopin and Charles Darwin) listed in one of the documents before the Board; and 6) to authorize the Director-General to signify UNESCO&'s agreement in principle to the proposals by the government of the United Arab Republic concerning international action for the study and protection of the archaeological monuments of Nubia threatened by submergence as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

The fourth session of the Council of the Baghdad Pact was held in Ankara, Turkey, January 27–30, 1958, under the chairmanship of Mr. Adnan Menderes, Prime Minister of Turkey, and was attended by delegations from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well as by an observer delegation from the United States. It was reported that at the opening meeting the delegates from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan stressed the need for more economic aid to the pact area, while the United Kingdom and United States speakers expressed the belief that member nations should concentrate on completing economic projects already under way. Mr. Dulles, Secretary of State of the United States, in his opening address pointed out that Congress had authorized the President to use armed forces to assist any nation or group of nations in the Middle East, including the Baghdad Pact nations, that requested assistance against armed aggression by any communist-controlled country. On the second day of the session the Council approved reports of the military, liaison, and countersubversion committees. The report of the military committee recommended a longterm defense building project, which would include a communications system from west Turkey to Pakistan with trunk and lateral highways, harbor and storage facilities at seaports on the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea, and civil airports that could be readily converted for military use. In the meeting on January 29 Mr. Dulles announced that, subject to funds being made available by Congress, $10 million would be provided by the United States for the improvement of telephone and radiotelephone links between the capitals of Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, in addition to $8 million already provided for surveys being carried out.

In a communique issued by the Inter-national Tin Council on January 27, 1959, it was announced that the Soviet Union had agreed to limit its tin exports outside the socialist countries to 13,500 tons in 1959, a reduction over the exports in 1958. According to the press, the Council had been in conflict with the Soviet Union over the amount of the latter's exports in 1958, which were believed to have been 18,000 tons. As stated in the communique, the result of the negotiations between the Council and the Soviet Union was no more than an understanding.

The Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held its 26th session in Madrid, June 3–14, 1957, under the chairmanship of S. A. Hasnie. During its discussion of current FAO activities the Council 1) decided to accept the invitation of the United States government to act as host to the fifth World Forestry Congress in 1960; 2) agreed to the proposed procedures for organizing the second session of the joint Food and Agriculture Organization/Economic Commission for Europe Committee on Forestry Working Techniques and the Training of Forest Workers, which was to be held in Moscow in September 1957; 3) established the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission to promote improvements in inland fisheries and to give advice on the matter; 4) approved certain budgetary amendments to the constitution of the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease; 5) received the report of a mission which had been appointed in 1951 to examine the Moroccan agricultural and food supply situation arising from drought conditions, noted subsequent developments and the intentions of several governments to assist Morocco, and requested the Director-General to keep the situation under review and to take further steps which might be necessary; and 6) requested the Director-General to examine the advisability of establishing a committee on settlement, resettlement, and agrarian reform, as proposed by the government of Israel.

Case concerning the Arbitral Award Made by the King of Spain on December 23rd, 1906 (Honduras v. Nicaragua): On July 1, 1958, Honduras filed an application instituting proceedings against Nicaragua concerning an arbitral award made by the King of Spain with regard to the demarcation of the limits between the two countries. According to Article 5 of the Bonilla-Gamez Treaty which determined the limits, certain points in dispute might, in certain circumstances, be referred to the decision of the government of Spain. Thus an arbitration was requested from the King of Spain in October 1904, and the award was made on December 23, 1906. The application stated that, when the time came to proceed to the delimitation, Nicaragua contended that the arbitral award was a nullity and that it was not possible to resolve the dispute by diplomatic means or through the mediation of friendly nations and governments. Under the resolution adopted by the Organization of American States on July 5, 1957, the governments of Honduras and Nicaragua concluded an agreement at Washington on July 21, 1957, by virtue of which their dispute should be referred to the International Court of Justice. In its application Honduras requested the Court to declare that Nicaragua's failure to give effect to the arbitral award of 1906 constituted a breach of an international obligation and that Nicaragua was under an obligation to carry out the award.

The ninth session of the Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) met in Geneva, November 13–19, 1958. At the opening meeting of the Council the government of Panama was welcomed as the 28th member of ICEM. On November 14, the Council approved two pilot projects for developing services to assist migrants and the governments of emigration and immigration countries. One was the establishment of an international vocational training center at Cattolica vocational training center at Cattolica in Italy to train workers for emigration to overseas immigration countries, as well as for intra-European emigration. The second project was the organization of a training course for immigration and placement officers to be set up by migration officials of the Canadian government; the task of this course was to give theoretical and practical training to officials of various immigration countries to fit them for selection, counselling, and placement of immigrants. At the same meeting, the Council decided to make fresh appeals for further financial contributions from its member governments to pay for transport of European refugees from the Far East to countries of asylum.