On June 3, 1960, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced an agreement with three other investors to invest the equivalent of £2.3 million in the Kilombero Sugar Company, Ltd., in Tanganyika, for a sugar production and refining project estimated to cost £3.2 million, production to begin in 1962. The investment was represented by the equivalent of £1.15 million in debentures bearing 7 percent interest and maturing by 1973; by, £500,000 in convertible income notes maturing by 1975 without fixed interest and bearing returns contingent on earnings; by, £650,000 in share capital; and by an option on ordinary shares. Additional financing for the project was to come from an issue of convertible preferred shares, totaling, £700,000, by the Standard Bank of South Africa and the Colonial Development Corporation, to be offered for sale to residents of Tanganyika.

The twentieth session of the South Pacific Commission was held at Commission headquarters in Nouméa, New Caledonia, from October 13 to 23, 1959. It was attended by representatives of the six member nations, Australia, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States; the Chairman was Dean Knowles A. Ryerson, Senior Commissioner for the United States. The meeting studied progress made during the past year by the Commission in its three main fields of work —economic development, health, and social development—and reviewed its work program for 1960.

It was reported that during a meeting of the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) on February 8, 1960, a debate took place on the alleged violations of human rights perpetuated by the government of General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina of the Dominican Republic. Dr. Falcon-Briceno, Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, who had brought the charge on instructions of his government, contended that a concern for human rights was a basic function of the inter-American system and called upon the Council to investigate the situation. He was challenged by the Dominican ambassador, Mr. Diaz Ordoñez, who insisted that the prevailing situation was a matter of exclusively domestic concern to his government and stressed the fact that non-intervention in internal affairs was a basic principle of the inter-American system. The delegates were urged to action by the delegate of Honduras, who expressed the view that the principle of non-intervention should not close the door to action deemed to be necessary for the preservation of human rights and liberties. After a threehour debate, the Council reportedly decided, by a vote of 20 to none, with 1 abstention (the Dominican Republic), to initiate an inquiry into the matter. To this end, five nations—Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, Peru, and the United States—were appointed as a working group to consider whether and how the organization could conduct an investigation in the case.

The Council of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) held a special informal meeting in Washington, D. C., on September 28, 1959. According to the press, five of the pact's members, Australia, France, Pakistan, Thailand, and the United States, were represented by their foreign ministers, several of whom were in the United States for the opening of the fourteenth session of the UN General Assembly, while the Philippines and the United Kingdom were represented by their ambassadors to Washington. The proceedings were, as usual, closed to the public. At the conclusion of die meeting, the Council issued a communiqué noting, inter alia, that there had been no formal agenda and views had been exchanged on a wide variety of topics, including the uneasy military situation in Laos, a country located within the region of direct interest to SEATO and yet not a member of the organization, inasmuch as it was forbidden by the Geneva treaty of 1954 to join any military alliance. With regard to Laos, the communiqué asserted that the SEATO member nations were united in their determination to abide by their treaty obligations and would continue to follow closely any developments threatening the peace and stability of the treaty area.

The sixth annual meeting of the Council of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was held in Washington, D.C., from May 31 to June 2, 1960, under the chairmanship of the United States Secretary of State, Mr. Christian A. Herter. The inaugural address was delivered by Mr. Richard M. Nixon, Vice-President of the United States. Members of the organization were represented by either their prime ministers or their foreign ministers, according to the press.

The 39th session of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) extended from January 27 to April 14, 1960, during which time the Council considered several questions on air navigation, air transport, and technical assistance, as well as administrative and legal matters. In the field of air navigation, the two subjects that aroused the most interest were Amendment 35 to Annex 10 (Aeronautical Telecommunications), proposing new specifications for distance-measuring equipment, and the Secretariat's reports on investigations of major deficiencies in air navigation facilities and services on the main international air routes. After a debate in which the United States, the Netherlands, and the Federal Republic of Germany strongly supported the aforementioned amendment, with Australia, Canada, the Union of South Africa, and the United Kingdom opposing it, the following were adopted, to be approved or rejected by member states by September 1, 1960: 1) the new Standard making VOR (omnidirectional radio range) the standard aid for air traffic control and other operational purposes en route as well as in terminal areas; 2) the new Standard requiring the installation of DME (distancemeasuring equipment) as a complement to VOR where, for operational or air traffic control reasons, there was need for more precise navigation service than that provided by VOR; and 3) amendments relating to the “protection date” for VOR and DME. To determine whether joint financing might be a possible remedy for specific deficiencies in air navigation facilities and services, the Council established a working body to study the Secretariat's reports and present its findings to the June session of the Council.

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.

The 44th session of the International Labor Conference was held in Geneva from June 1 to 23, 1960, under the presidency of Mr. L. Alvarado Garrido (government delegate and Minister of Labor and Indigenous Affairs, Peru). The Conference was attended by over 900 delegates, advisers, and observers from 78 member countries and 17 territories, including the Ministers of Labor from 31 countries.

The sixteenth session of the contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was held in Geneva from May 16 to June 4, 1960, under the chairmanship of Mr. Edmundo Barbosa de Silva (Brazil). One of the major decisions taken at the session was the creation of a council to expedite business between regular meetings. Membership in the council was to be open to all the countries adhering to the trade pact that were ready “to accept the responsibilities” of such participation. The council was to deal with urgent matters arising between GATT's semi-annual plenary sessions and to take over the work of the permanent committee dealing with import restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons, as well as supervise the work of various other subsidiary units. The terms of reference of the council were said to contain an escape clause to allow a dissenting country not to be bound by decisions taken, in that members might appeal rulings, which would then be suspended and acted upon at a subsequent plenary session.

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.

The twelfth session of the Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) was held in Naples, May 5–13, 1960. Representative Francis E. Walter of Pennsylvania was chairman of the session. A highlight of the meeting was the ceremony honoring the one millionth migrant to be resettled by ICEM, an eleven-year-old Latvian boy named Andrejs Suritis, who subsequently flew to the United States with his father.

The Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) held the second part of its fifth ordinary session in Paris from November 30 to December 3, 1959. The President of the Assembly Mr. Victoria Badini- Confalonieri (Italian Liberal), opened the first sitting with a tribute to the late John Edwards, following with an examination of the history and functions of WEU in the light of proposed changes of the organization's functions. He stated that the European Economic Community (EEC) of the Six and the Union of the Seven were complementary, rather than incompatible, as WEU's Council of Ministers could become a ”clearing house” for relations between the Six and the United Kingdom, the only member of WEU that was not a member of EEC. He expressed the hope that at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers the question of the new political role of WEU would be the chief matter considered. Mr. Giuseppe Pella, Italian Foreign Minister, speaking as Chairman-in-Office of the WEU Council, stated that the Council of Ministers attached great importance to coll-laboration with the Assembly; noting that relations between the Council and the Assembly had improved since the creation of the organization, he went onto list areas that the Council had considered or was considering which concerned both organs, namely: 1) measures which would allow the Assembly a more direct share in the adoption of its budget; 2) the area of armament production; 3) the search for permanent offices for WEU; and 4) the question of transferring WEU's exercise of social and cultural activities to the Council of Europe. Regarding the latter, he stated that, in agreeing to the transfer, the Council wished merely to reduce duplication and not to detract from the Union's independence. Finally, he stressed that consultation among the Six should lead to political consultation with the United Kingdom in the WEU context, rather than ruling it out.

The International Sugar Council, meeting in London early in April 1960, reportedly increased Cuba's export quota by 395,260 metric tons, effective on April 1. This was the biggest single increase made by the Council in reallocating 741,500 metric tons that were expected to be unfulfilled in 1960; a further 42,500 tons of quotas unlikely to be used was not reallocated.

The eleventh annual meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia was held in Jogjakarta, Indonesia, November 11–14, 1959. Besides adopting its eighth annual report, the Committee approved the inclusion of Singapore as a full member and decided to continue the Colombo Plan for another five years from 1961, the date it was scheduled to end, with the understanding that the 1964 meeting of the Consultative Committee would consider a further extension. A communiqu'e issued at the close of the meeting noted evidence of the quickening pace of economic activity, recovery in agricultural production in many countries in the area, and growth in real per capita income. In addition, the Committee observed that the large increase in population was one of the most pressing problems faced by the area and committed itself to seek more information on this problem for inclusion in subsequent reports.

The Executive Board of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held its 56th session in Paris from April 4 to 30, 1960. Under the heading, Execution of the Program, the Board decided, inter alia: 1) to authorize the Director-General to utilize a sum of up to $14,000 to contribute to the carrying out of the International Study of University Admissions; 2) to set up a Consultative Committee to advise the Director-General in preparing his comments to be presented to the UN Economic and Social Council on the conclusions drawn from the survey on the main trends of research and on the dissemination and utilization of scientific knowledge for peaceful purposes; 3) to adopt the proposed agenda for the Intergovernmental Conference on Oceanographic Research to be held in Copenhagen from July 11 to 16, 1960; 4) to authorize the Director-General to advance financial assistance for activities to be undertaken during the summer in the United Arab Republic to safeguard the monuments of Nubia, noting with satisfaction the formation of national and international committees designed to secure contributions for the project; and 5) to communicate to the Economic and Social Council the Board's observations, based on the report of a meeting of experts, on measures for the promotion of further international cooperation in the fields of education, science, and culture.

The International Coffee Study Group, a two-year-old body of the 33 producing and consuming nations, met in Washington during the week of February 9, 1960, for the purpose of establishing itself on a more permanent basis and opening its study of production and consumption problems. It elected as president Mr. Thomas G. Mann, United States Assistant Secretary of State for economic affairs, and as vice-president Mr. Manuel G. Escalante, Costa Rican ambassador to the United States.

The Executive and Liaison Committee of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) met in Berne, Switzerland, from May 16 to 23, 1960, preceded, from May 2 on, by meetings of several subcommittees, and followed, from May 23 to 28, by a session of the Enlarged Executive and Liaison Committee. The report of the activities of the Union for 1959 was approved without opposition, and the discussion was devoted chiefly to examining the reports of the various subcommittees, the recommendations of which were generally accepted, although the conclusions of the Tariffication Subcommittee concerning the weight scale and the rates applicable to each step in the scale were approved by only a small majority. The reports of the Air Mail Subcommittee and the Transit Rates Subcommittee were adopted by large majorities, and the recommendations of the Parcels Subcommittee obtained easy approval, although some of the members defended the old system of calculating rates by the kilogram. The collaboration of UPU with the UN and other agencies such as the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency was mentioned; a report on the work of the Consultative Committee for Postal Studies (CCPS) was noted with interest; and several administrative questions concerning the organization of the International Bureau were also considered.