On April 5, 1949, the second part of the third session of the General Assembly opened at Lake Success. Items which were to be considered at the session included the disposition of Italian colonies, Israeli admission to the United Nations, the problem of voting in the Security Council, treatment of Indians in the Union of South Africa, creation of a United Nations guard, and violation by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of fundamental human rights. Reports of the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, the question of Franco Spain, promotion of international cooperation in the political field, refugees and displaced persons, freedom of information, discrimination against immigrant labor, Indonesia, religious freedom in Bulgaria and Hungary, and adoption of Russian and Chinese as working languages were also to be discussed.

On July 29, 1948, the Security Council devoted two sessions to a further consideration of the Indonesian question. The occasion for the discussion was the receipt from the Committee of Good Offices of a previously requested report on restrictions of trade in Indonesia and the reason for the delay in the implementation of Article 6 of the Renville Truce Agreement. The committee reported that, six months after the Truce Agreement, Republican controlled areas of Java and Sumatra suffered from “grave deficiencies” of transportation equipment and supplies which acted to cause local dislocations and shortages of all categories of materials needed for rehabilitation reconstruction. Factors creating these shortages were listed by the committee as 1) the division of Indonesia into two separate administrative compartments; 2) the damage of World War II followed by political dispute, military conflict and scorched earth policies; 3) the inadequate implementation of Article 6 of the Truce Agreement arising, primarily, from the “regulations governing domestic and international trade promulgated by Netherlands Indies civil and military authorities between January 1947 and the signing of the Truce Agreement and which have been continued in effect to date.”3 After summarizing Dutch and Indonesian positions on these regulations, the committee, after declining to allocate responsibility as between the two parties, concluded that it was “indisputable” that pending an agreement restoring economic and political unity to Indonesia the economic plight of Republican controlled areas could not be substantially ameliorated “until a way is found to relax existing regulations,” and that this development would require a basic improvement in the attitude of the parties.

This issue covers the work of the Security Council from the 429th meeting on June 24,1949 to the 448th meeting on September 27, 1949.

At ten meetings, the Security Council considered the question of admission of new members to the United Nations in connection with two items on its agenda: the application for admission of the government of Nepal, and reconsideration of previous applications for membership.

Application of the Republic of Korea: The report of the Committee on the Admission of New Members concerning the application of the Republic of Korea for admission to the United Nations was considered at the 423rd meeting of the Council on April 8, 1949. Attacked by the Soviet and Ukrainian representatives as a puppet regime illegally established by the intervention of an illegally constituted Interim Committee of the Assembly, the Republic of Korea was strongly defended by the representatives of the United States, China and Argentina as an independent state willing and able to assume the obligations of membership. The vote on the Chinese resolution to recommend the admission of Korea recorded nine members in the affirmative, with the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR in the negative. The resolution therefore failed to pass because of the negative vote of the Soviet Union.

The ninth session of the Economic and Social Council opened in Geneva on July 5, 1949. The provisional agenda of 52 items for the session included the consideration of the various reports of the Council's functional and regional economic commissions; reports by the Secretary-General on a wide range of subjects among which were the promotion of training in public administration, the status of stateless persons, housing and town and country planning, the economic development of underdeveloped areas, measures to increase the availability of food, and forced labor and measures for its abolition; relations with and coordination of the specialized agencies; relations with other inter-governmental organizations; and the reports submitted in accordance with agreements between the United Nations and ILO, FAO, UNESCO, WHO, ITU, UPU and IRO. In addition, ECOSOC was to elect three members of the Economic Board for Palestine, one-third of the members of eight of its functional commissions and fifteen members of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

The seventh session of the Economic and Social Council was held in Geneva from July 19 to August 29, 1948, with the President of the Council, Charles Malik of Lebanon, presiding. The Council originally had an agenda of some 50 items before it for consideration, but following the report of the Council's Agenda Committee eleven of these topics were postponed until the eighth session. To deal with its work the Council created three committees of the whole, on economic and social matters and on human rights, and two committees of smaller membership, on procedures and organization and on matters relating to coordination.

On December 12, 1948, the Committee of Good Offices submitted a special report on the direct talks between the representatives of the governments of the Netherlands and the Republic of Indonesia which, together with its appendices, made available previously confidential documentation that had been the subject of Security Council discussion. Of special interest were the so-called Crichtley-DuBois Memorandum of June 10, 1948, and the Cochran Memorandum of November 10, 1948. In the former, the Australian and United States' representatives had submitted to both parties a working paper for the resolution of differences containing the following suggestions: 1) that the extent of the Republic's representation in the Provisional Federal Government be determined on the basis that Republican territory would include all those portions of Java, Sumatra and Madura in which, through a plebiscite, the population expressed a desire to be incorporated into the Republic; 2) that it would be possible to create a fairly representative Provisional Federal Government through machinery which would consist of a Joint Commission of Technical Experts to delineate boundaries of states; a Constituent Assembly elected upon the basis of one delegate for each 500,000 inhabitants and given power to accept the report of the Technical Commission making changes in proposed state boundaries only by majorities of both the Assembly and the delegates from the areas affected by changes; and a Provisional Parliament. The memorandum proposed that the powers of the Lieutenant Governor-General be limited, in the provisional period, to a veto over acts of the Provisional Federal Government which were contrary to the Charter of the United Nations or to the Union Statute and to the direction, after consultation with the provisional authorities, of the employment of federal armed forces in cases of civil conflicts which the provisional authorities were unable to control.

The ninth session of the Economic and Social Council met in Geneva from July 5 to August 15, 1949. The Council took action on 50 agenda items, having decided to postpone consideration of the establishment of an Economic Commission for the Middle East, the report of the Transport and Communications Commission on inland transport in the Middle East, and the election of three members of the Economic Board for Palestine. One supplementary item was added to the agenda relating to the earthquake disaster in Ecuador on August 5, 1949.

The fifth session of the Trusteeship Council was held at Lake Success from June 15 to July 22, 1949, with Roger Garreau (France), president of the Council, presiding, and Luis Padilla Nervo (Mexico) serving as vice-president. The president was elected by a vote of 9 to 3 and the vice-president by a vote of 10 to 2 on June 16.

The Council decided not to follow procedure adopted at the second session whereby four informal groups were appointed to study the major functional fields covered by the reports, but to examine the annual reports in full session with close examination of the four broad functional fields of political, economic, social and educational advancement. A drafting committee would then be appointed to formulate comments and recommendations on conditions in the territory concerned for inclusion in the report of the Council to the General Assembly. In accordance with this decision, the Council considered three annual reports submitted by the administering authorities – reports on the administration of Ruanda-Urundi and Tanganyika for the calendar year 1947, and the continuation of the consideration of the report on the administration of New Guinea for the period from July 1, 1946, to June 30,1947.

The eighth session of the Economic and Social Council was held at Lake Success from February 7 to March 18, 1949, to consider an agenda of 53 items. At the Council's first meeting James Thorn (New Zealand) was elected as president for 1949, while V. V. Skorobogaty (Byelorussian SSR) was chosen as first vicepresident and Carlos Eduardo Stolk (Venezuela) as second vice-president.

The Trusteeship Council met at Lake Success for its fifth session on June 15, 1949 to consider a thirteen point agenda: 1) adoption of the agenda; 2) report of the Secretary-General on credentials; 3) election of a president and vice-president; 4) examination of annual reports on the administration of trust territories — New Guinea, Nauru and the first report on the Pacific Islands; 5) examination of petitions; 6) arrangements for the visiting mission to trust territories in West Africa; 8) revision of the provisional questionnaire; 9) revision of the rules of procedure; 10) administrative unions affecting trust territories; 11) educational advancement in trust territories; 12) adoption of the report of the Council to the General Assembly; and 13) adoption of a report to the Security Council.

Four reports on administration of West African trust territories during 1947, which had been deferred from the third session, were before the Council for consideration. In addition to these reports, covering Togoland and the Cameroons under British and French administration, a report on Western Samoa for the year ending March 31, 1948, had also been submitted. Following a new procedure suggested by its president, the Council reports were presented by the special representatives of the administering authorities, and members submitted both written and oral questions. Following general discussion a Drafting Committee on Annual Reports, consisting of representatives of all Council members, was appointed to prepare the Council's report on each territory.

According to the Secretary-General's report on the work of the organization, during the year July 1, 1948 to June 30, 1949, the principal organizational problems of the Secretariat had involved missions, information centers and other offices away from headquarters. An attempt had been made to adopt uniform procedures for the visiting missions in Palestine, the Balkans, India and Pakistan, Korea and Indonesia. The program of United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees was organized using the machinery of existing relief agencies and specialized agencies.

Progress in the field of organization and structure of the Secretariat was itemized in the annual report of the Secretary-General, submitted on July 5, 1948. Noting tightening of budgetary and administrative controls and simplification of personnel procedures, the report also took cognizance of the comprehensive review of administrative questions concerning the United Nations and the specialized agencies which had been undertaken by the Consultative Committee on Administrative Questions of the Coordination Committee, problems which had arisen in connection with special United Nations missions, and organizational changes brought about as a result of a management survey by the Bureau of Administrative Management and Budget. Major changes had taken place in several departments, particularly the Department of Public Information and the Department of Conference and General Services.

On April 9, 1949, the International Court of Justice gave its judgment in the Corfu Channel Case. By eleven votes to five the Court gave judgment that the People's Republic of Albania was responsible under international law for the explosions which occurred on October 22, 1946, in Albanian waters and for the damage and loss of life resulting therefrom; by ten votes to six it reserved for further consideration the assessment of the amount of compensation; by fourteen votes to two it gave judgment that the United Kingdom did not violate the sovereignty of Albania by reason of the acts of the British Navy in Albanian waters on October 22, 1946; and it unanimously gave judgment that the acts of the British navy during the course of the minesweeping activities on November 12 and 13, 1946 did constitute violation of the sovereignty of Albania.

On November 5, 1948, the International Court of Justice began oral hearings on the merits of the Corfu Channel case between Albania and the United Kingdom. By a decision on March 25, 1948, the Court had affirmed its competence in the case, and the following day had fixed time-limits for the subsequent pleadings; the last document of the written procedure, the Albanian rejoinder, had been filed with the Court on September 20, 1948. For the oral pleadings Professor B. Ecer of Czechoslovakia acted as judge ad hoc chosen by the Albanian government, replacing Judge Igor Daxner who was ill. Counsel for the United Kingdom were Sir Hartley Shawcross, Sir Eric Beckett, and Sir Frank Soskice, while Kahreman Ylli, Pierre Cot, and Joë Nordmann represented the Albanian government.

On July 27 the Security Council by 9 votes to 0 with 2 abstentions, recommended that the Principality of Liechtenstein be permitted to become a party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice. By this decision the Security Council endorsed the opinion of its Committee of Experts that Liechtenstein was a state under the provisions of Article 93 (2) of the Charter and that the same conditions should apply to it as to Switzerland: acceptance of the provisions of the Statute, acceptance of all the obligations of a Member of the United Nations under Article 94 and agreement to contribute to the expenses of the Court upon assessment by the General Assembly after consultation with the government. The recommendation was to be considered by the General Assembly at its fourth session.

A report containing 57 proposals for expanded activities in technical assistance for economic development was transmitted by Director General N. E. Dodd to member governments of the Food and Agriculture Organization. The report contained portions of the general cooperative program agreed upon by the executive heads of the United Nations and the specialized agencies which referred particularly to work in FAO's field. The projects did not constitute an inclusive list but were rather a series of concrete examples of fields of activities in which technical assistance was needed for economic development. The projects were considered as part of an expanded program of general economic development and were to be closely related to the present program of work, but because the regular working program included little continuing assistance to governments in particular problems, the supplementary projects were to concentrate on that kind of aid. FAO proposed work in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, rural services and economic and statistical services. The proposals totaled in cost about $9.5 million for the first year and about $11.5 million for the second year, while actual programs and cost would depend on the degree of participation by beneficiary governments, who would be expected to bear a considerable part of the total cost.

After the General Assembly confirmed in November 1948 an agreement for the transfer of certain funds and activities of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to the United Nations, Byron Price, Assistant Secretary-General for Administrative and Financial Services of the Secretariat, announced in January 1949 that the Communications and Records Division of the Secretariat would be responsible for administrative supervision of the UNRRA history project, which was prescribed by the agreement and which contemplated the completion, publication and distribution of a history to be compiled by March 31, 1949. Also this division would supervise both administrative and substantive matters in respect of the records and archives project contemplated by the liquidation agreement. The Department of Administrative and Financial Services was to perform the financial services required under the terms of the agreement, including the establishment of a special fund to record the financial transactions, the receipt and transfer of funds, provision of periodic financial reports regarding the history and records projects, processing of all payments from funds transferred, collection of accounts receivable transferred prior to and consequent on assumption of accounting functions from the Administrator for Liquidation and transfer of final residual amounts to the International Children's Emergency Fund, and arrangements for external audit of the liquidator's accounts. The Legal Department was to be responsible for examining and approving settlement of marine claims assigned by UNRRA to the United Nations for the benefit of ICEF, for the execution of the general releases required in the settlement of claims, and for such action with respect to legal proceedings as might be necessary.