The ninth session of the International Telecommunication Union Administrative Council was held in Geneva from May 1 to 20, 1954, under the chairmanship of Charles J. Acton (Canada). It was reported that the Council had kept the ITU budget within the limits set at the Buenos Aires Conference, although it had not been easy to strike a balance between the desire of the staff to improve its lot and the desire of ITU members to cut their financial burden as far as possible. In the interests of economy, the Council decided to postpone consideration of the proposed convening of the Telegraph and Telephone Conference until the Council's tenth session; it would, therefore, be impossible for the Conference to meet before 1956. The Council also reported that it was impossible to foresee when the Radio Conference could be convened; the question was to be reviewed by the Council in 1955. The question of postponing the next Plenipotentiary Conference of ITU, which would normally meet in 1957, for one or two years was discussed during the Council's ninth session; further discussion was scheduled for the tenth session.

Council

The 19th session of the Council of the Arab League met in Cairo on September 7, 1953. It was announced that delegations at the United Nations of member states, in concert with delegations of Asian and African countries, would continue efforts to bring the Moroccan and Tunisian complaints before the General Assembly. The Council expressed the hope that the General Assembly could “persuade France to respond to the legal aspirations of Morocco and Tunisia” and thus enable the Arab League to avoid “taking certain measures which Arab public opinion is insisting on”. The Council added that the member states did not recognize “the illegal conditions imposed by the French authorities in Morocco”. The Council endorsed agreements signed by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan for the exchange of agricultural and animal products without customs duties, for the exchange of industrial products at favorable rates, and for the transfer and investment of capital between Arab countries. It was also reported that the Council had agreed to a suggestion of the Jordanian government that members of the Arab League help finance the Jordan National Guard with a sum of £1 million, one-half from League funds and the other from subscriptions from members on the basis of their contributions to the League. A further request from Jordan for £2 million to raise living standards in villages bordering Israel and for £0.5 million for reconstruction in Jerusalem and reclamation of agricultural lands was reported to be under consideration.

At its thirteenth session, which was held in Geneva from January 12 to February 2, 1954, the Executive Board of the World Health Organization had some 80 items on its agenda. It examined a) reports on the work of expert and special committees concerned with such subjects as malaria, poliomyelitis, rabies, drugs liable to produce addiction, bioligical standardization, environmental sanitation, alcohol, public-health administration, rheumatic diseases, quarantine measures, and yellow fever; b) progress being made in a number of projects, such as a campaign against smallpox, the selection of international non-proprietary names for drugs, standardization of laboratory tests of foods, and a study on international medical law; and c) a variety of administrative and financial matters, including the Director-General's proposed program and budget estimates for 1955, the scale of assessments for member countries, and the revision of the staff rules proposed by the Director-General. Decisions taken by the Board included a recommendation that the seventh World Health Assembly request the Board at its fifteenth session to continue the study of program analysis and evaluation and report to the eighth Assembly, concurrence in certain transfers proposed by the Director-General between sections of the 1954 appropriation resolution of the sixth Assembly, and recommendations as to the procedure for considering the 1955 program and budget estimates at the seventh Assembly. Noting that the financial problems facing WHO in implementing the 1954 program arose because the known amount of technical assistance funds to be made available to the organization in 1954 fell substantially short of amounts expected and was inadequate to meet the minimum requirements, the Board authorized the Director-General to: continue all projects and activities then in operation, implement those projects not yet started where the government concerned had proceeded to the extent that funds spent or set aside would be lost if the project did not go forward or where the project was an essential element of a program planned in stages which had been agreed with WHO and the government concerned, defer starting new activities wherever possible, and report to the seventh Assembly on further developments.

The principal item of discussion at the third part of the fifth ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, which was held in Strasbourg from September 15 through 26, 1953, was “defining the policy of the Council of Europe in the light of recent developments in the international situation”, which had been scheduled for debate in June but postponed until after the Bermuda Conference between the United Kingdom, the United States and France.

International Trade, 1953: A report on international trade developments during 1953 was issued by GATT in June 1954. During the year 1953, a significant change had occurred in the prevailing post-1950 pattern of trade; the unfavorable position of the western European industrial areas with the accompanying dollar deficits had been largely redressed, with a gradual reversion to the pre-Korean price structure. Important shifts in the flow of goods between the industrial areas had contributed to a more balanced trade pattern than at any other time in the post-war period. The level of trade among the three non-industrial areas had remained remarkably constant, but there had been a significant slowing down of the exchange of goods between the areas producing primary products and the industrial areas of the world; while the volume of exports of the primary producers had increased, the prices of their commodities had fallen to an extent that made export proceeds decline heavily. However, there had been an intensification of exchanges between each industrial area and the particular primary producing region with which it was most closely associated.

The third part of the fifth ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe was held in Strasbourg from September 15 through 26, 1953.

The future position of the Saar: After considerable debate, the Consultative Assembly adopted a resolution submitted by Mr. van der Goes van Naters (Netherlands, Labor) on the future position of the Saar. In submitting a report on this question from the Committee on General Affairs, the rapporteur (van Naters) stressed the importance of finding a solution to the Saar question since the dispute between France and the German Federal Republic threatened to impede if not prevent progress toward European integration and cooperation. He emphasized that the problem was of concern to the whole of Europe and should be solved as a European problem rather than as a matter of concern only to Germans and French. During the debate, support of the van Naters' proposal came from representatives of the Saar, from Mr. Eugen Gerstenmaier (German Federal Republic, Christian Democratic Union), and Mr. Julian Amery (United Kingdom, Conservative). Mr. Amery, while unable to commit his government, announced his belief that the United Kingdom would not shirk its duties in this matter although unable to agree in advance to a particular time-table of action or to be bound to a particular procedure. Mr. Karl Mommer (German Federal Republic, Social-Democrat Party, SPD) felt that the question of the Saar was part of the larger problem of the reunification of Germany; the Saar, he argued, had not ceased to be a part of Germany.

The eleventh session of the South Pacific Commission was held from April 28 to 30, 1953, immediately following the Second South Pacific Conference, at Commission headquarters in Anse-Vata, Noumea, under the chairmanship of Sir Henry M. Scott, Q.C., alternate Senior Commissioner for the United Kingdom. All agenda items were considered in Committee of the Whole, which was the only committee established at this session. Two plenary meetings were held; at the second the reports of the committee, which included recommendations and draft resolutions, were considered.

Council

The twelfth session of the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was held in Paris, December 14 to 16, 1953, under the chairmanship of French Foreign Minister Bidault. Prior to the opening of the Council session, the permanent representatives of the NATO members and the Military Committee held a series of meetings in Paris preparing the annual review of the military situation of NATO and estimates and recommendations for future action. According to information appearing in the press, the military experts of NATO did not emphasize in this report, as they had done in the past, the need or desirability of numerical increases in NATO armed forces; instead, they were reported to emphasize the need for improving the quality, maintenance, and supplies of existing forces. At a press conference on December 11, Admiral Qvistgaard (Denmark), Chairman of the Military Committee, said that the committee was “satisfied” with the military progress of NATO in 1953 and that force goals set at the April 1953 meeting of the NATO Council had been “substantially achieved”. The Committee shared the view, however, of the Supreme Commander, Allied Forces, Europe (SACEUR, Gruenther) that the Supreme Command (SCAP) was deficient in airpower. In analyzing current Soviet strength, Admiral Qvistgaard said that the Committee saw no sign of a slackening of Soviet strength. Studies on the effect of atomic weapons on NATO defense plans were not yet completed, the Admiral continued. He added that it was the view of the Committee that NATO had nearly reached a state of preparedness which represented what most countries considered their maximum effort.

Rumania applied for membership in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in June 1954. On August 12, the UNESCO agreement exempting educational films from customs duties entered into force; the agreement was in effect in eleven countries. The UNESCO convention exempting books, newspapers, works of art, scientific equipment, and other educational material from import duties was being applied in nineteen countries.

Annual Report: The fifth annual report of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, which was released in January 1954, stressed three developments:) the elimination of inflationary trends of recent years;) the improvement of west Europe's balance of payments, both over-all and with the dollar area; and) the continued failure of western European production to expand at a satisfactory rate. After a brief look at the causes and consequences of the first two of these developments, the report turned its attention to the third and concluded that, unless specific proposals were implemented and if world conditions remained generally the same, European production as a whole would increase only slightly, and Europe's exchange reserves were likely to increase. Several factors which led to these conclusions were:) internal demand was not likely to expand without more expansionary policies by governments;) since export earnings of primary producers were not likely to increase, external demand for European production was similarly not likely to increase; and) United States over-all current surplus, exclusive of all military transactions, would be offset by a new military expenditure abroad of $2.5 billion in 1953 and $2.1 billion in the first half of 1954.

In the first four months of 1954, four signatories of the EDC treaty either deposited instruments of ratification or completed parliamentary action on ratification; the instrument of ratification of the German Federal Republic was deposited on March 31 and the parliaments of Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg ratified the treaty on January 20, March 12, and April 7, respectively.

The fifth meeting of the Consultative Committee on Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia was held in New Delhi from October 13 to 17, 1953, under the chairmanship of Sir Chintaman Deshmukh, Indian Minister of Finance. The meeting was attended by delegations from Australia, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, Ceylon, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Viet Nam. A communique issued at the end of the meeting stated that the main purpose of the session was to review progress under the Colombo Plan during 1952–1953, including the achievements of countries in south and southeast Asia in their development programs. The Committee recognized the desirability of stimulating increased understanding of, and interest in, the Colombo Plan and its aims and objectives. It accepted a proposal for the establishment of a small information unit in Colombo; this unit was to collect information relating to the Colombo Plan, arrange for distribution of this information to all member governments, and serve as a central pool of information which would be available to the press and the public. At its final meeting the Committee unanimously adopted a progress report, on which preliminary work had been done by officials of the participating governments in New Delhi from September 28 to October 8.

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization held its 14th session i n Geneva on May 27 and 28, 1954. Dr. H. Hyde (United States) was elected Chairman of the Board. Many of the decisions taken by the Executive Board implemented recommendations approved at the seventh World Health Assembly..

The following summary covers the activities of the Council of the Organization of American States from its 118th meeting on December 3, 1952, through its 129th meeting on April 1, 1953.

On January 7, 1953, the Council approved the report of the Finance Committee on the budget for the fiscal year 1953–1954: $2,939,030 for the expenses of the Pan American Union, $219,524 for the Inter-American Defense Board, and $1,377 for repayment of advances from the Working Capital Fund. Of this amount, members would contribute $3, 159, 941; making allowance for income from miscellaneous sources, the budget was $225, 782 higher than for the pre-ceding fiscal year. The Council also approved the scale of assessments for the coming fiscal year; contributions by members ranged from 66 percent for the United States, 8.81 percent for Brazil and 7.42 percent for Argentina to 0.24 percent each for Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay. The attention of member governments was drawn to a report submitted to the Council on March 4, 1953, by the Finance Committee on the status of members' contributions; the report revealed that six countries had paid in full their quotas for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1953, four countries had paid in part while eleven had as yet made no payment. Two members still owed part of their quotas for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1952 while four had made no payment on that quota. Three members still owed their quotas of the budgets of fiscal years before 1951–1952.

The Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community held an extraordinary session in Strasbourg on March 11, 1953, to adopt a budget for the organization for the coming year. At a session on May 12, 1953, the Common Assembly elected its officers, re-electing Paul-Henri Spaak president.

In his foreword to the Annual Report of the World Meteorological Organization for 1953, the Acting Secretary-General (Swoboda) stated that the publication combined the anual report of the Organization to the United Nations with the annual report to its members, and therefore contained highly technical as well as general information. Part I of the report constituted a general review of WMO's activities; it noted that, as compared with previous years, there had been an increase in technical program activity; six of the eight Technical Com-missions and three of the six Regional Associations had met during the year and had adopted resolutions and recommendations for making international cooperation closer in such fields as exchanges of weather data and standardization of meteorological methodology and the application of meteorology to agriculture.

The twenty-third annual report of the Bank for International Settlements was made public in June 1953. In reviewing economic developments during the period of April 1, 1952, to March 31, 1953, the report noted that, despite the initial dislocations resulting from the Korean conflict, there had been real progress since 1952 towards economic and financial balance and a normal course of domestic and international economic development. More specifically, the report noted that: 1) the upward trend in world-market prices had been reversed, and the course of domestic inflation halted in most countries; 2) during 1952 and the early months of 1953 there was an improvement in the balance of payments position of the non-dollar world; 3) monetary reserves had recovered in a number of countries during the same period; 4) the aggre-gate amount of net deficits (and net surpluses) in the settlements of the European Payments Union had contracted from an average of $207 million per month in 1951 to $102 million by the last quarter of 1952 and the first quarter of 1953; and 5) there had been many signs of increased confidence in various currencies, notably an increased firmness of their free market quotations.