United Nations Review 1956-08: Vol 3 Iss 2

August 1956 + Volume 3 + Number 2

IN TWO SECTIONS — SECTION ONE

1956

AUGUST

UNITTED

CHARTER OF

ENCOURAGING PROGRESS IN MID-EAS1

INTERNATIONAI

WATER AND THI

SECURITY COUNCIL DECIDES Not

IN REMEMBRANCE OF

[HE

TRUST

ro CONSIDER THI

[TERRITORY OF

VOLUME NUMBER 2

NATIONS
{VIEW

THIS

THREE,

ISSUE

The News in Review

STRIKING RISE IN TECHNICAL AID

THE Postwar ECONOMIC RECORD

NeEwW FINANCE CORPORATION NOW IN FORCI

ECONOMIES

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN AFRICA

PATHWAYS TO HUMAN PROGRESS

Wor_LD Topay—Part II

ALGERIAN QUESTION

THOSE WHo DIED

CHALLENGE IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

DISARMAMENT TALKS

DEATH OF EMINENT OFFICIALS

SOMALILAND PREPARES FOR 1960

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON FAMILY SUPPORT

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INFORMATION

Secretary-General’s Trip

oe DAG HAMMAR-
SKJOLD concluded a two-week visit
to United Nations member countries
in Eastern and Central Europe on July
12, when he arrived in Geneva for the
summer session of the Economic and
Social Council. Mr. Hammarskjold’s
itinerary included Warsaw, Stockholm,
Helsinki, Moscow, Kiev, Minsk,
Prague, Vienna and Belgrade. He was
accompanied by Lennart Finnmark,
Personal Assistant and Chief of the
General Assembly Affairs Section, and
William Ranallo, Personal Aide. Un-
der-Secretary Ilya Tchernychev joined
the Secretary-General’s party in Mos-
cow, and Dragoslav Protitch, Under-
Secretary for Political and Security
Affairs, joined for the Vienna-Belgrade
portion of the trip. Under-Secretary
Ralph Bunche met with Mr. Hammar-
skjold in Geneva, to attend meetings
on the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

On July 19 the Secretary-General
began a short series of visits to Jerusa-
lem, Cairo and Amman, following
which he returned to Geneva.

Before his departure from New
York, the Secretary-General noted that
he had received invitations from other
countries, such as Albania, Hungary,
Bulgaria and Rumania. He said that
he would not have time to visit them
on this trip, but that he hoped he
would be able to do so at a later date.

Security Council

B* a vote of two in favor, seven
against and two abstentions, the
Security Council on June 26 decided
against taking up the question of a
“threat to peace” in Algeria. Thir-
teen Asian and African Members
of the United Nations had requested
that the Council consider what they
regarded as a “grave situation” in
that country. They said that the situa-
tion in Algeria had worsened since
April 12, when the matter had been
called to the attention of the Council
as involving a threat to peace and se-
curity, infringement of the basic right
of self-determination, and violation of
other fundamental human rights.
France held that the matter was
strictly within her domestic jurisdic-
tion and that there was no threat to
international peace and_ security.

UNR—August 1956

Therefore France said, the Council
was not competent to intervene. (See
page 41.)

Morocco and Tunisia

{> Security Council voted unani-
mously on July 20 to recommend
the admission of Morocco to the
United Nations. The recommendation
will be considered by the General As-
sembly at its next session, scheduled
to begin on November 12. Also on the
Assembly’s agenda at that time will be
the membership of the Sudan, which
was approved unanimously by the Se-
curity Council last February.

Morocco applied for membership
on July 13, and the Security Council’s
vote was on a resolution submitted by
France.

Another north African state, Tu-
nisia, applied for United Nations mem-
bership on July 20.

World Economic Survey

HE problem of mass poverty in a

large part of the world continues
to be as stubborn as ever, according to
the “World Economic Survey, 1955,”
published in July by the United Na-
tions. The study (see page 14) raises
the question of whether present pro-
grams represent the best that can be
done toward world-wide economic de-
velopment.

The “Survey,” which provided back-
ground for discussion of the world
economic situation by the Economic
and Social Council’s twenty-second
session, held in Geneva, also reviews
the ten-year period following World
War II. It notes that:

. . » The total volume of output of
factories, farms and mines in the
private enterprise economies rose by
about two-thirds from the prewar pe-
riod to 1954.

. . . The gap in production between
the developed and underdeveloped
areas has been growing.

. . . The expansion of world trade
during the past ten years has been
much more rapid than in the corre-
sponding years after World War I.

. . » Increases in industrial produc-
tion in the centrally-planned econo-
mies have been relatively large, but
not directly comparable to the growth
in private enterprise economies.

Two United Nations regional stud-
ies also supplied basic economic infor-
mation for ECosoc’s Geneva meetings,
reviewing conditions in Africa and the
Middle East. (See pages 24 and 27.)

Speaking before the Council on
July 16 as it began debate on the
world economic situation, Secretary-
General Dag Hammarskjold declared:

“Never in the history of man has
his economic pulse been so quick,
never has he shown so great a degree
of flexibility or so rapid and continu-
ous an increase in work efficiency.”
But, he said, unfortunately “the
achievement in stabilizing the national
economies of the developed countries
finds no parallel in the stabilization
of the national economies of the
underdeveloped countries. Nor has
sufficient progress been made in sta-
bilizing and integrating the world
economy as a whole.”

Disarmament Talks Called

EW disarmament talks between

Canada, France, the Soviet
Union, the United Kingdom and the
United States are called for in a reso-
lution adopted on July 16 by the
United Nations Disarmament Com-
mission. The purpose of the talks is
to widen the areas of agreement be-
tween the various disarmament pro-
posals made so far. (See page 53.)

Ten countries voted for the resolu-
tion, submitted by Peru, with the
Soviet Union voting against it and
Yugoslavia abstaining.

Earlier, the Commission had heard
an announcement by the Soviet Union
that it was ready to accept, as a first
step, manpower ceilings of 2.5 million
men for the United States and the
U.S.S.R., and of 750,000 for France
and the United Kingdom.

Atomic Energy

HE next meetings of the Secretary-

General’s Advisory Committee on
the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy
are scheduled to begin on September
28 at United Nations Headquarters.
The principal item on the Commit-
tee’s agenda is discussion of plans for
a second international technical con-
ference like that held last year in
Geneva.

The Advisory Committee is com-
posed of representatives of seven na-
tions: Brazil, Canada, France, India,
the U.S.S.R., the United Kingdom and
the United States.

Pacific Islands Trust Territory

A FOUR-MAN Visiting mission which

studied conditions in trusteeship
areas in the Pacific early this year re-
ports that laudable political advances
have taken place in the Pacific Islands
Trust Territory, but that a number of
“major problems” remain to be solved.
The Territory is administered under
the authority of the United States. (See
page 46.)

The Mission’s unanimous report says
that one of the problems concerns the
Marshall Islands, and stems from the
displacement of islanders as a result
of atomic and thermo-nuclear tests.
In the case of the Rongelap people,
the displacement has been temporary,
and their return home is expected to
take place before the end of the year.
People of Eniwetok, transferred to the
island of Ujelong, appear to be making
a satisfactory adjustment. But people
from Bikini, transferred to Kili, appear
to have grievances “of a serious na-
ture.” Their new site, the Mission re-
port declares, has “obvious disadvan-
tages”—among them the fact that Kili
is a high island without a reef, hazar-
dous for the landing of boats, with
fishing facilities forty miles away at
Jaluit Atoll. Another problem is the
division of the administration of the
Territory between civil and naval au-
thorities, which has created travel
difficulties for the Islanders.

During one of the public meetings
held by the Mission with members of
the Palau Congress, a light touch was
provided by a woman member of the
Congress. She said there was a Palauan
who had studied under a United Na-
tions Technical Assistance Fellowship,
and who subsequently became assistant
public defender. But on the other hand,
she said, there was no comparably
trained public prosecutor, and her com-
plaint was that too many defendants in
the local courts were being acquitted.

The Visting Mission was composed
of Sir John Macpherson (United King-
dom), Chairman; Daniel Massonet
(Belgium); Jose Rolz (Guatamala);
and M. E. Chacko (India).

New Guinea

bb task of integrating the indigen-
ous people of New Guinea into the
modern world “represents a challenge
and an opportunity that are perhaps
without parallel in the history of under-
developed dependent areas.” This is
the view of the Visiting Mission to
Trust Territories in the Pacific, which
paid a ten week visit to the Trust

Territory of New Guinea in February,
March and April this year. The Ad-
ministering Authority of the Territory
is Australia.

The Mission’s report takes note of
the rugged terrain of New Guinea, and
the lack of extended contact between
most of the region’s 1,241,615 inhabi-
tants and the outside world. Even now,
the report says, some New Guineans
are only just emerging from stone age
conditions.

However, ther are a number of posi-
tive factors “which throw a new and
encouraging light on the situation,” the
Mission believes. In the newly-pene-
trated areas of the country there are
no old colonial traditions regulating
the relations of the indigenous and
non-indigenous peoples. The residents
of the highlands and the interior are
impressed with the wealth and techni-
cal knowledge of the newcomers, but
have no sense of inferiority. And they
are “full of enthusiasm and confidence
about the wonderful avenues of change
and development which the new ways
are opening up for them.”

The unanimous report of the Mis-
sion warns, however, that this enor-
mous wealth of enthusiasm and good
will; which could make the transition
from stone age ways to modern ways
painless, “runs the risk of drying up if
development is not sufficiently rapid.”
Australian officials are aware of the
situation and “clamoring for more per-
sonnel, administrators, educators, doc-
tors, agricultural extension people,
equipment and funds.” The Mission
feels “that at this time in history when
the Charter of the United Nations and
the Trusteeship system have intro-
duced new ideas and new ideals, the
international community has a special
responsibility to help the Administering
Authority” to fulfil its task.

Nauru

[gee of New Guinea in the Pacific,
165 miles from Ocean Island, the
nearest land, lies the tiny Trust Terri-
tory of Nauru, an island of slightly
more than 5,000 acres surrounded by
a coral reef. The primary economic
problems of the islanders center around
Nauru’s phosphate deposits, on which
the population is almost entirely de-
pendent. The Australian Government
supervises the affairs of the Territory
under agreement between the three
administering powers—Australia, New
Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The Pacific Visiting Mission found
that the material rehabilitation of the
island, which was badly damaged dur-
ing World War II, has been completely
achieved. But the problem of the fu-
ture of Nauruans is a vexing one. Only
eleven percent of the land area is suit-
able for crop cultivation, and it is
estimated that the phosphate deposits

will be exhausted in forty or fifty years.

The Administering Authority and
Nauruans themselves recognize that
eventual resettlement of the population
may be the only answer. Nauruans are
tending toward resettlement as a group
in Australia rather than on another
island. Australian officials noted that
the search for an adequate resettlement
area is continuing. They observed that
it would not be possible for Nauruans
to preserve their identity in Australia,
which follows a policy of assimilation.

During Trusteeship discussion of the
question, the Administering Authority
estimated that phosphate royalties paid
into the Nauruan Community Long-
Term Investment Fund will amount to
three million pounds by the year 2000.
The Special Representative of Australia
declared that the Administering Au-
thority “accepts without reservation”
the responsibilities connected with re-
settlement of the Nauruan people, such
as buying land, buliding houses and
schools, and the provision of any as-
sistance they might need until they are
firmly established in their new homes.

Somaliland

F egenney Trust Territories whose prog-

ress came under the review of the
Trusteeship Council at its eighteenth
session, Somaliland under Italian Ad-
ministration received its share of close
scrutiny. The Council had before it the
annual report of the Administering
Authority, and a report of the United
Nations Advisory Council for Somali-
land. Present as the discussion began
were Enrico Anzilotti, Administrator
of the Trust Territory; Vittorio Zadotti,
Special Representative of the Adminis-
tering Authority; and four indigenous
members of the Somali Government—
Abdullah Issa (Prime Minister), Aden
Abdullah Osman (President of the
Legislative Assembly), Abdi Nur
(Vice-President of the Assembly), and
Omar Mohallim (Assembly Secretary).
Stressed throughout the discussion were
progress toward independence (sched-
uled for 1960) achieved by the Terri-
tory and the considerable social and
economic problems that remain to be
coped with.

The Trusteeship Council particularly
commended the Administering Author-
ity for efforts toward political develop-
ment and self-government in the Terri-
tory. It took note of limitation of
powers which exist in regard to the
Executive and Legislative branches of
the Somali Government, and wel-
comed the explanation that these were
in large measure temporary in charac-
ter. The Council also expressed the
hope that direct elections would be
feasible by 1958, and that further
consideration be given to the use of
the Somali language in primary educa-
tion. (See page 60.)

UNR—August 1956

South West Africa

ep General Assembly’s Committee
on South West Africa again took
up the question of South West Africa
in a series of meetings which began on
June 28. The territory is administered
by the Union of South Africa under a
League of Nations mandate. All other
such mandated territories have either
become independent or have been
placed under the International Trustee-
ship System. Following refusal of the
South African Government to propose
a trusteeship agreement for South West
Africa, the General Assembly in 1953
established the Committee on South
West Africa. The Committee’s rules of
procedure provide that if no annual
report on the territory has been re-
ceived from the South African Gov-
ernment by May 20 of each year, the
Committee shall examine such infor-
mation as is available.

In its report to the General Assem-
bly, the Committee states: “For the
third year in succession, the Commit-
tee has been unable to escape the
conclusion that conditions in the terri-
tory after nearly four decades of ad-
ministration under the Mandates Sys-
tem, are for the most part—and par-
ticularly for the ‘Native’ majority —
still far from meeting in a reasonable
way the standards of either endeavor
or achievement implicit in the pur-
poses of the Mandates System. . . .”

The report declares that the indigen-
ous inhabitants of South West Africa
have no part whatsoever in the man-
agement of the territory’s affairs, that
their opportunities are limited by re-
strictive law as well as inadequacy of
technical facilities, and that the main
efforts being made by the Administra-
tion are “directed almost exclusively
in favor of the ‘European’ inhabitants,
often at the expense of the ‘Native’
population.”

The Committee approved a letter to
be sent to the South African Govern-
ment expressing continued readiness
to negotiate the question of placing
South West Africa under the Trustee-
ship System.

Korean War Dead Honored

A BRONZE plaque commemorating

the men of sixteen nations who
lost their lives while fighting with the
United Nations Command in Korea
was unveiled in the General Assembly
Building on June 21. The plaque is on
a wall next to a tablet honoring Count
Folke Bernadotte, United Nations me-
diator in Palestine who was assassi-
nated in 1948 while carrying out his
mission. On the other side of the Ber-
nadotte tablet is a plaque dedicated on
June 19 in memory of United Nations
military observers and staff members
who lost their lives in pursuance of
their duties. (See page 44.)

UNR—August 1956

Charter Revision Asked

be General Assembly has been
asked by a number of Latin Amer-
ican states and Spain to consider
amending the United Nations Charter
and the Statutes of the International
Court of Justice and the International
Law Commission, with a view to in-
creasing the membership of four
United Nations bodies. Increases were
proposed for the Security Council, the
Economic and Social Council, the In-
ternational Court and the Law Com-
mission.

The requests were made in four
separate letters made public on June
28. In explanatory memoranda, the
sponsoring states drew attention to the
“substantial increase” in United Na-
tion membership last year and added:
“It is probable that more Members
will be admitted in the near future.”
The request was made, they said,
“with a view to maintaining a satis-
factory distribution in the membership
of some
the United’ Nations, and to facilitating
the participation of new Members in
the work of those organs.”

Technical Assistance Increase

PN cone ny of the Expanded Pro-
gram of Technical Assistance
reached an all-time high in 1955.
Measured in dollars, the Expanded
Program expended $25.8 million dur-
ing that year compared with $19.5
million in 1954. There were 2,108
technical experts at work in 1955,
twenty per cent more than in the pre-
vious highest year. Fellowships num-
bered 2,431, fifteen per cent greater
than the previous record number. One
hundred one countries and territories
received assistance in various fields;
among them were thirty-nine terri-
tories with dependent status.

These facts were presented to the
Technical Assistance Committee of the
Economic and Social Council in Ge-
neva by David Owen, Executive Chair-
man of the Technical Assistance Board,
in introducing TAB’s annual report.
(See page 6.) It was felt by the Ex-
ecutive Secretary that the increase in
the activities of the Expanded Program
was a reflection of larger financial
resources and greater efficiency in ad-
ministration.

Convention on Family Support

.NEW international convention on
family support was signed on
June 20 by representatives of fifteen
governments at a ceremony at United
Nations Headquarters, with six other
countries announcing their intention to
sign in the near future.
The Convention on the Recovery
Abroad of Maintenance, as it is offi-

f the principal organs of °

cially known, is designed to alleviate
the lot of dependents abandoned by
bread-winners who have moved to an-
other country. It will enable depend-
ents to obtain and enforce judgments
from abroad. (See page 65.)

The new instrument, adopted unani-
mously by the Conference on Mainte-
nance Obligations, was hailed as a
significant step towards the solution of
a grave humanitarian problem. The
President of the Conference, Serenat
Gunewardene of Ceylon, said it would
help “a large number of people affect-
ed by the want of some machinery
which would bring relief to their door.”

The fifteen signatories at the Head-
quarters ceremony were: Bolivia,
Cambodia, Ceylon, Cuba, the Dom-
inican Republic, Ecuador, El Sal-
vador, the Federal Republic of Ger-
many, Greece, Israel, Mexico, Monaco,
the Netherlands, the Philippines, and
Vatican City. The six others which an-
nounced their intention of signing
shortly were: Denmark, Norway, Swe-
den, Japan, Italy and France.

Refugees

tpn Economic and Social Council
on July 13 discussed the Annual
report of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees and
adopted a resolution urging all gov-
ernments to continue their support of
the refugee agency. The resolution
deplored the premature death of the
late High Commissioner, Dr. G. J.
van Heuven Goedhart, who died in
Geneva on July 8 (see page 59); re-
affirmed the Council’s interest in solv-
ing permanently and as soon as possi-
ble the refugee problem; and asked
governments to do all in their power
toward this end.

James M. Read, Deputy High Com-
missioner, ennumerated achievements
of the past year, but stressed the diffi-
culties resulting from insufficient in-
ternational contributions. For 1956,
he noted, contributions failed by $3.4
million to meet the target of $5,549,-
553. If there were no improvement
before the end of the year, he feared
that more than sixty per cent of the
program planned could not be put
into effect.

The United States announced that
it would pay $1.5 million as its 1956
contribution. Norway declared that
if necessary funds were forthcoming,
refugee camps in Europe could be
liquidated by 1958, and with this ob-
jective in view it was prepared to in-
crease its contribution.

Bank Anniversary

UNE 25 marked the tenth anniver-
J sary of the official beginning of
operations of the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development.

During those ten years the Bank
made 149 loans totaling $2,645 million
for postwar reconstruction or eco-
nomic development in_ thirty-seven
countries and six territories.

African regions received fifteen
loans amounting to $347.2 million;
Asia received twenty-seven loans total-
ing $386.2 million; Australia was the
recipient of four loans amounting to
$258.5 million; European countries
had forty-three loans adding up to
$979.3 million; and the Western Hemi-
sphere, sixty loans aggregating $673.9
million.

Forced Labor

cf International Labor Organiza-
tion’s 39th General Conference,
meeting in Geneva in June, agreed
unanimously that a new international
convention should be drawn up to out-
law forced labor, concentration camps,
and deportation of national minorities
for political and other reasons.

Representatives of governments, em-
ployers’ organizations and workers’
organizations who comprise the mem-
bership in the International Labor Or-
ganization adopted a set of conclusions
on forced labor, placed final adoption
of a new convention on the subject on
the agenda of the 1957 Conference,
and asked the 110 Governing Body to
consider revision of the 1930 Conven-
tion on forced labor.

Among the conclusions of the Con-
ference were the following:

. .. A new international instrument
on forced labor should take the form
of a convention.

. . . The preamble should affirm the
principle that forced or compulsory
labor constitutes a violation of the
rights of man as ennunciated in the
United Nations Charter.

. . . The convention should provide
that every 1Lo member that ratifies it
undertakes not to make use of forced
or compulsory labor, concentration
camps, or the deportation of national
minorities as a means of political coer-
cion or education, as a punishment for
political views or ideological opposition
to the established system, as a method
of mobilizing or disciplining labor, or
as a means of discrimination against
racial, social, national or religious
minorities.

The 110 General Conference also
adopted a series of conclusions on the
need for international action for the
protection and integration of indigen-
ous peoples in independent countries.
The Conference unanimously adopted
a resolution recognizing the “profound
impact” of automation on all aspects
of social and labor policy, and urging
action to help the world adjust itself
in an orderly manner to technological
advances.

4

Technical Aid by ILO

4 he International Labor Organiza-
tion, in its tenth report to the
United Nations, declares that 1955 set
a record in the volume of assistance
provided by the Organization to its
member countries. According to the
report, the year was “the best since
the Organization began to participate
in the Expanded Program of Technical
Assistance.”

At the end of 1955, mo had 165
experts in the field compared with
ninety-four at the end of 1954. Equip-
ment worth $287,000 was provided or
ordered during the year for use on
technical assistance projects, “almost
double the value of the equipment sup-
plied in 1954.” Fellowships, worker-
trainee awards and study grants totaled
573 in 1955, compared with 496 the
previous year.

Besides sharing in the Expanded
Program, ILO is continuing its own
technical assistance projects, financed
under its own budget.

Korea

HE Republic of Korea’s only re-

finery for treating gold- and silver-
bearing sulfide ores of copper and lead
will receive equipment that will prac-
tically double the value of some of the
ores processed and affect the develop-
ment of the country’s entire metal-
mining industry. The refinery is the
Chang Hang Smelter at Kunsan. With
an allocation of $1,460,000 from the
United Nations Korean Reconstruction
Agency, the plant will be modernized
to reduce smelter costs, permit the
processing of lower-grade ores, and
eventually enable the miners to get
more money for their output.

UNnKRA has also allocated funds
which will help double the enrollment
of a nursing school in Seoul. The pres-
ent facilities of the school accommo-
date a maximum of thirty students.
The projected new building, made pos-
sible by contributions of $5,000 from
UNKRA and $3,000 from the National
Catholic Welfare Conference, will pro-
vide all the necessary class-room space
and an additional dormitory.

Rice for East Pakistan Relief

HE United Nations Children’s Fund

has approved an emergency alloca-
tion of $594,000 to provide a daily
rice ration for children and mothers
in famine-threatened East Pakistan.
The appropriation will buy 7,862,000
pounds of rice to feed 116,000 persons
from late June through most of Sep-
tember. In addition to this assistance,
skim milk powder previously shipped
to Pakistan by UNICEF for relief feed-
ing is being used to help meet the
emergency.

Conditions in East Pakistan are be-
lieved to be the worst since 1943, when
over 2,000,000 people died in the
Province of Bengal. The shortage of
rice is estimated at about 700,000 tons,
compared with 200,000 tons in recent
years, and starvation has been reported
in many villages. The crop crisis is the
result of devastating floods in the area
in 1954 and 1955, and of destruction
by insects during the latter year. The
emergency is expected to continue
through November.

East Pakistan will spend about $4
million on emergency relief, and has
already bought 155,000 tons of rice
from the United States and Burma.
The United States is contributing
60,000 tons of rice, the Soviet Union
20,000 tons, India 5,000 tons, and the
U. S. National Catholic Welfare Con-
ference 4,000 tons. In addition, India
has loaned 15,000 tons of rice, 9,000
tons have been purchased from private
sources, and 70,000 tons have been
transferred from West Pakistan.

Eradication of Malaria

A STRATEGY for total war against
malaria, with the aim of eradi-
cating the disease throughout the
world, has been drawn up by the
World Health Organization’s Commit-
tee on Malaria, which recently ended
its sixth session in Athens.

The nine-member group is of the
opinion that malaria eradication is
feasible. The sums needed to achieve
the objective in a definite time, al-
though substantial, would be much less
than the cost of continued malaria
control on a less intensive basis, the
Committee said. Several international
and national agencies, such as UNICEF,
the United Nations Technical Assist-
ance Program, and the United States
International Cooperation Administra-
tion, are prepared to assist govern-
ments that join in such an effort.

The Committee noted that malaria-
carrying mosquitoes are developing a
resistance to insecticides such as DDT,
and this is one of the factors in favor
of an overall attack on the problem.
The Committee declared that tech-
niques are available to wipe out ma-
laria before insecticides in use cease
altogether to be effective.

Meanwhile, a $227,000 allocation
for malaria eradication in Ecuador
has been approved by the United Na-
tions Children’s Fund. Approximately
1.5 million persons, more than half of
Ecuador’s population, live in areas
subject to the disease. The Govern-
ment has provided a malaria service
to carry out the eradication campaign
and has given assurance of financial
and legislative support.

The UNICEF appropriation, for the
first year of a four-year campaign,

UNR—August 1956

will provide dieldrin, vehicles, out-
board motors, sprayers, protection
equipment and miscellaneous labora-
tory supplies. Total UNICEF assistance
for the four-year period is expected
to be approximately $680,000, while
Ecuador will expend about three times
that amount.

Inland Navigation Convention

A" international convention to facili-
tate inland navigation between
Asian countries was signed on June
22 at the Sala Santitham (Peace Hall)
in Bangkok under the auspices of the
Economic Commission for Asia and
the Far East. Nations whose repre-
sentatives signed the Convention were
Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos,
Thailand and Viet Nam. Other Asian
countries have indicated their willing-
ness to join the agreement at a later
date.

Dr. P. S. Lokanathan, ECAFE’s retir-
ing Executive Secretary, observed that
the Convention marked “a new chap-
ter” in the Commission’s history. It is
the first convention drafted and signed
under ECAFE auspices.

Under the terms of the Convention,
the signatory nations agree to measure
inland waterway vessels operating un-
der their flag according to certain
standard principles, to accept certifi-
cates of foreign vessels issued by other
contracting states, and to organize
their services in such a way that the
Convention can be put into effect with-
in a year of signature.

Dr. Lokanathan, scheduled to retire
from his post as Executive Secretary
of ECAFE at the end of July, left Bang-
kok on June 30 to attend the summer
session of the Economic and Social
Council in Geneva.

It was announced at United Nations
Headquarters on July 6 that Chakra-
varthi V. Narasimban of India has
been appointed as the New Executive
Secretary of ECAFE.

Air Navigation “Task Force”

HE Assembly of the International
Civil Aviation Organization meet-
ing in Caracas, has accepted a United
States proposal for creation of an
international air navigation panel of
experts as a means of meeting urgent
problems along the world’s airways.
The plan calls for a special panel
of six or seven specialists to function
under the authority and direction of
the 1cao Council, with the President
of the Council as Chairman of the
panel.

In proposing the “Task Force” plan,
the United States representatives said
that plans would have to be made to
meet the future navigation require-
ments for jet aircraft with cruising
speeds approaching 600 miles per

UNR—August 1956

hour and weights approaching 300,000
pounds. Such aircraft are expected to
be in service in three or four years.
In twenty years, the spokesmen said,
an airplane with a range of 125,000
miles and a maximum weight of one
half million to one million pounds
should be in service. And air freighters
with atomic power might be expected
within a decade.

The cost of establishing the panel
will increase the Icao budget by
$100,000.

Antibiotics for Fisheries

"ho possibility of using long-range
trawlers as floating laboratories
for testing the usefulness of anti-
biotics in preserving fish has been
discussed by a meeting of experts from
thirty countries, sponsored by the Food
and Agriculture Organization.

The proposal was made at the In-
ternational Meeting of Fish Processing
Technologists held in Rotterdam,
which heard papers from technologists
of various countries where experiments
with antibiotics, bacteriostatic ices,
and dips have been carried out.

The papers showed that the use. of
antibiotics may help considerably in
keeping fish in a fresh condition over
periods two or three times as long as
is possible with conventional ice stor-
age methods.

One problem was to devise a meth-
od which would ensure that any anti-
biotic residue left in processed fish
would be so small as to be harmless
to human beings. The use of trawlers
as experimental laboratories on long
fishing trips was suggested for the
purpose of testing the efficacy of the
antibiotic treatment and the element
of health risk due to residue.

Tariffs Cut

| enemy countries have reduced
import duties on educational, sci-
entific and cultural materials in tariff
negotiations at the recently concluded
conference of contracting parties to
the General Agreement on Traiffs and
Trade, held at Geneva. The Director-
General of UNESCO had asked the con-
ference to consider tariff reduction on
such materials.

Under the new schedule of con-
cessions, duties have been reduced by
the United States on maps and charts;
by Chile and Sweden on films; by
Belgium, the German Federal Repub-
lic, Italy, Luxembourg and the Nether-
lands on sound recordings; by the
German Federal Republic, Norway,
Sweden and the United Kingdom on
radio receivers or parts; by Japan on
television receivers; by Sweden, the
United Kingdom and the United States
on certain musical instruments; by

Australia, Canada, France, Italy,
Sweden and the United States on vari-
Ous scientific instruments; by Canada
on newsprint; and by the United
Kingdom on printing paper.

Mathematics Teaching
W AYs of teaching mathematics in
secondary schools were discussed
by the 19th International Conference
on Public Education jointly convened
in Geneva on July 9 by UNESCO and
the International Bureau of Educa-
tion. The selection of mathematics for
consideration by the Conference,
along with other agenda items, re-
flects a growing feeling that much
improvement is required in teaching
methods in this field, UNESCO officials
said. They noted that the teaching of
mathematics is getting added attention
today because of the growing demand
for scientists and technicians to staff
industrial and research plants.

U. N. News Seminar

TWO-WEEKS seminar for news per-
sonnel, conducted by the United
Nations, opened in Geneva on July 23.
Twenty senior editors and radio di-
rectors from twenty countries partici-
pated in the course, which was to be
addressed by Secretary-General Dag
Hammarskjold and other -officials.
The seminar is the first of its kind
organized under United Nations ad-
visory services in the field of human
rights established last year by the Gen-
eral Assembly. It is part of a news
personnel program initiated by the
Economic and Social Council to help
develop “wider knowledge of the work
of the United Nations, of foreign
countries, and of international affairs
with a view to promoting friendly
relations among nations,” with due
emphasis given to the promotion of
freedom of information. (See page 69.)

Milk Technicians’ Centre
oe and prospective milk-

plant managers from central and
southeastern Europe and the eastern
Mediterranean area have begun work
at a training centre in Zagreb, Yugo-
slavia, sponsored by the Food and
Agriculture Organization in coopera-
tion with the Yugoslav Government.
The centre is designed to encourage
greater production and consumption
of milk products in a region where
there is now an overall shortage.

Participants will study latest de-
velopments in the production, process-
ing and distribution of milk. Instruc-
tion will deal with feeding, breeding
and health of livestock; management
of milk plants; testing, processing,
marketing and distribution of milk
products; and public health aspects
of production and distribution.

STRIKING RISE IN ‘TECHNICAL AID

HE year 1955 witnessed a striking increase in the

general level of activities carried out under the tech-
nical assistance program which is operated by the
United Nations and seven specialized agencies and
financed from voluntary contributions by governments.
A total of $25.8 million was set aside for the year—the
highest annual figure yet recorded during the five years
in which this joint skill-sharing operation known as the
expanded program of technical assistance had been in
existence. Contributions to the amount of $27.9 million
were pledged by 71 governments, as compared with $25
million in 1954,

Technical aid in one form or another was rendered
to 101 countries and territories during 1955, and about
1,400 experts were at work by the end of that year to
help promote better living conditions through improve-
ments in agricultural and industrial production, in
health and educational services, in the fields of public
administration and communications.

These facts are given in the latest report of the Tech-
nical Assistance Board which coordinates activities un-
der the expanded program. The eighth of its kind, the
report was prepared for the eighteen-member Technical
Assistance Committee, a standing subsidiary organ of
the Economic and Social Council.

Scope and Accomplishments

[he amount of technical assistance provided by the
United Nations Technical Assistance Administration
and the seven specialized agencies sharing in the funds
for the expanded program, the report also notes, is
small in relation to the priority needs of the less de-
veloped countries. The technical assistance projects
made possible under the program, moreover, form part
of the larger national development plans of the govern-
ments aided. It is therefore not possible to isolate the
impact of the aid rendered on the economic develop-
ment of the assisted countries. Nor can it be measured
in precise terms. Nevertheless, the scope of the program
and some of its accomplishments to date may be illus-
trated by the following examples.

Progress Reviewed in Suri ey

of Operations for 1955

In Yugoslavia, expert assistance resulted in doubling
one plant’s output of cylinder blocks for internal com-
bustion engines and in reducing production costs at an
electrical equipment factory by more than 50. million
dinars a year. In Jordan, the monthly production of
phosphate from the Ruseifa mines has been raised from
2,000 tons to 20,000 tons. Venezuela has been helped
to establish what will eventually be the largest fertilizer
and insecticide factory in South America. In the farm
mechanization plan of the State of Uttar Pradesh in
India some of the field workshops have increased their
output by nearly 300 per cent and more than 500 in-
structors and operators have been trained by interna-
tional experts.

In East Pakistan work is proceeding on a pilot area
of 230,000 acres on the right bank of the Ganges where
approximately one-fifth of the main irrigation canal has
been excavated in cooperation with the United States
International Cooperation Administration and the Co-
lombo Plan; it is expected that irrigation water will
be available in the Kushtia area by the end of the
present year.

Agricultural Advances

In Egypt programs for increasing wheat and rice pro-
duction have been undertaken, and in Ethiopia a de-
velopment scheme for coffee cultivation has been
started. Cotton cultivation experiments in Yugoslavia
have given a substantially increased yield per acre. In
Central America and Mexico, technical assistance ex-

perts have helped the local authorities to keep the locust
plague under control everywhere but in Northern Hon-

UNR—August 1956

duras. Supplies of vaccine to control animal diseases
have been built up in Afghanistan, Austria, Burma,
Ceylon, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Iraq, Pakistan,
Thailand and Yugoslavia.

In Colombia, an educational program of radio broad-
casts is in operation. In Somaliland, the education of
nomads is being introduced. In Haiti, over 1,000 rural
teachers attended courses.

UNR—August 1956

The development of air communications is one of Ethiopia’s

answers to its transport problems. Technical assistance for

this effort has been obtained from the International Civil Aviation
Organization, Picture shows scene in aircraft maintenance class where
Ethiopian students are being trained by ICAO instructor from Denmark.

Technical assistance provided under the program
helped the Government of Burma to launch a social
security scheme, assisted Iran in the adoption of a new
social insurance law and Mexico and Turkey in estab-
lishing training centres in labor administration.

During 1955, about 500,000 persons were treated for
trachoma in Morocco and Tunisia and a high per-
centage of cures has been reported. Epidemic malaria is

7

no longer prevalent in about half of the island terri-
tories of the Caribbean and about two-fifths of the esti-
mated population of South-East Asia now benefits from
anti-malaria preventive measures. And in India, it is
estimated, over 40,000,000 people have been given at
least some elementary health education by anti-tuber-
culosis teams organized with international assistance.

International Character of Program

As in previous years, the report again emphasizes
that the expanded program calls upon the resources of
the world in recruiting experts and placing fellows. This
is illustrated by the fact that in 1955, experts came
from 69 countries and territories and that fellows
studied in 94 countries and territories. Thus, while
Egypt, India and Mexico received 87, 80 and 36 ex-
perts respectively, they themselves supplied 47, 59 and
22 experts. “The truly international character of the
expanded program,” says the report, “can be illus-
trated by the fact that a vocational training specialist
from Brazil served in Turkey, and Israeli expert on
environment sanitation was assigned to India, a Leban-
ese engineer worked in Tanganyika, a Pakistani agricul-
tural statistician in Liberia, a Peruvian cotton expert
in Ethiopia and a Turkish expert in steel production
in Afghanistan.”

The fellowship program has the same international
features, with an Afghan studying public administration
in India, a Yemenite being trained in banking in Egypt
and an Ethiopian studying medicine in Lebanon. As a
result of inquiries addressed to governments on the
employment of such fellows after their return home, it
was learned that over 80 per cent of them have been
employed in positions where their training and experi-
ence abroad enabled them to be of greater service to
their countries.

Special attention, adds the report, has been paid to
coordination with other technical assistance programs
and to avoiding overlapping. Examples of this in 1955:
the World Health Organization worked in Cambodia
to develop the Royal School of Medicine with the Inter-
national Cooperation Administration and a French
economic mission; in Pakistan, the Food and Agri-
culture Organization worked with the International Co-
operation Administration and the Colombo Plan in

reclaiming waterlogged and saline land in

Planning and Management
} heen ; onsiderable improver
the exp inded
tions had to
ile x the first half of 1955. This
general improvement enabled the administrators of the

program, for the first time since the early days of

existence, to carry out all save a small proportion of the
planned operations.

The methods used by the Technical Assistance Board
(TAB) in planning the 1955 program were a forerunner
of the new country-programming procedure adopted by
the Economic and Social Council in July 1954.

While the participating organizations continued to
exercise day-to-day responsibility for their respective
segments of the program, TAB and its Secretariat, at
United Nations Headquarters and in the field, were
again responsible for overall coordination. TAB, the
report states, found it possible to carry out its new
responsibilities with regard to country-programming with
even fewer meetings than in former years and the ratio
of TAB secretariat expenses to the expenses of the pro-
gram as a whole has fallen. The Tas field service, how-
ever, has been strengthened by an increase from 23 to
26 in the number of field offices covering 12 more
countries and territories, and the TAB Resident Repre-
sentatives and Liaison Officers have played an increas-
ingly important role.

“The expanded program of technical assistance is
not only a great adventure in international and eco-
nomic cooperation,” declares the report. “It is an im-
portant experiment in combined action by eight inter-
national organizations. The year 1955 brought with it
enlarged opportunities of service, new responsibilities
and some difficult problems for all the participants.
Nevertheless it may be said that the arrangements
worked well and that their effectiveness in the future
would seem to be assured, whatever the level of field
activity any expansion of available resources makes

possible.”
Use of Funds

Approximately two-thirds of the expenditure on proj-
ects was used to send experts to countries requesting
their aid, while more than half of the remaining funds
was devoted to the award of fellowships and scholar-
ships.

he field of activity upon which the largest sum was
spent, 6.3 per cent of the total, was land and water use,

ith farm machinery and tools. An almost equal
amount (6.1 per cent of the total) was devoted to

turing, processing and mining, while the third
' 1 was the 5.8 per
tional training. Other |

nditure in terms of activity
ng fields
oduction ease control
duction and prot n (4.6
tration er cent), civil
estry (3.8 per cent), fisheries

ia and insect control (3.1 per

vement in the financial situation in 1955

»nabled the participating org inizations somewhat to in-

rease their provision of equipment needed in connec-

h their field activities. The total value of equip-
nent supplied during 1955 amounted to $2,390,000 as
-ompared with a previous record figure of $1,701,000
in 1953. It is felt, the report notes, that the provision
of a considerable quantity of training equipment is a

UNR—August 1956

vital part of such technical assistance activities as the
setting up of a laboratory or a demonstration centre;
and it is increasingly realized that enduring economic
progress can hardly be achieved without an investment
in equipment to strengthen such basic institutions.
Examples of essential equipment supplied under the
program in 1955 are electronic equipment for India,
sawmill machinery for Brazil and Ceylon, farm
machinery for Burma, Chile and Pakistan and forestry
equipment for Syria.

The TAB report also includes a statement by each of
the organizations participating in the expanded program.
These are given in outline below.

Technical Assistance Administration

The statement by the United Nations Technical As-
sistance Administration (TAA) reveals a “quite startling
variety of economic activities” for which the United
Nations has recruited experts of placed fellows—power
production, ports and shipping and public finance in
one country, mineral resources and statistics in another,
textiles and fabricated metals in a third. The year under
review is difficult to describe in terms of general trends,
since country-programming means that individual gov-
ernments turn to the United Nations for assistance where
the latter is most needed in connection with their own
national programs. There is also a problem of evalua-

tion: “Who can measure what proportion of the success
or failure of a vast program for the development, say
of a national network of transport, should be attributed
to the work of a TAA expert in the repair and mainte-
nance of road making machinery?”

In many instances assistance has led to the establish-
ment of permanent institutions or to recurring series of
meetings and, in such cases, it is expected that interna-
tional assistance will gradually be withdrawn. Examples
are the Central American Institute for Industrial Re-
search in Technology in Guatemala which is sponsored
jointly by the five Central American republics and will
be assisted by TAA during its early years, and the Rail-
way Operations Training Centre in Pakistan.

In some cases, however, the international element
provided by the expanded program has been regarded
as so essential a feature that continuing requests begin
to acquire almost a traditional quality. Examples are
highway development training centres in Turkey and
housing and technological seminars in Denmark.

During 1955, TAA continued to work closely with the
three United Nations regional economic commissions
and a start was made on the administrative problem of
relating the deliberations of those bodies to the country-
programming procedure.

Many governments have set up organizations—usual-
ly known as “national committees”—to facilitate the

DISTRIBUTION OF TECHNICAL AID COSTS

The following table shows how the costs of aid provided under the expanded technical assist-
ance program were distributed between various regions in 1953, 1954 and 1955.

1953
nillions) N
Africa 497 8.4
Asia and the Far East 5,719 32.1
Europe 568 8.8
Latin America .793 26.9
Middle East 3,528 19.8
Inter-Regional 713 4.0

TOTALS 7,818 100.0

1954 1955
$ (millions) N $ (millions)

1,279 8.5 1,809
4,650 30.8 6,622 31.1
1,500 9.9 1,706 8.0
3,921 25.9 5,631 26.4
3,252 zi 4,676 21.9
509 3.4 .866 4.1

15,111 100.0 21,310 100.0

Expenditures on various types of aid rendered under the expanded technical assistance program

are indicated by the table below.

I Xperts
Fellowships
Equipment and

supplies

TOTALS

1954 Cost 1955 Cost
$ $
(millions) / No. (millions)

11,194 . ,108 14,250
431 4,670

9.1 . 11.2

100.0 > 100.0

Indian weaver in Ecuador at work in school for
master weavers at Quito set up with aid of
handicrafts expert provided by

International Labor Organization.

recruitment of experts and the placing of fellows. These
committees have made a major contribution to the pro-
gram. Every expert or fellow with whom they have
dealt has become known to them as a person, has kept
in touch with them after completion of the project and
has been asked whenever practicable to help succeeding
experts and fellows.

Calling 1955 an “encouraging” year, TAA reports
that it took a first look at the possible impact of atomic
energy on technical assistance and also gave thought
to the technical assistance aspects of new proposals
for increasing capital investment.

International Labor Organization

Three main features characterized the activities of
the International Labor Organization (ILO): general
expansion, increased emphasis in helping to set up
permanent or semi-permanent training institutions and
intensification of evaluation work on methods and re-
sults.

During 1955, Lo had 238 experts on assignment;
of these, 144 were engaged during the year, as com-
pared with 180 and 70 respectively. The number of
fellows declined slightly, but there were 306 worker-
trainees as against 259 in 1954, and 153 grants for
attendance at training courses and seminars as com-
pared with 122 the previous year.

10

The composition of the program remained prac-
tically the same in accordance with government priori-
ties, 50.9 per cent of the total expenditure being used
for manpower organization, including vocational train-
ing and 24.1 per cent in connection with labor condi-
tions and administration.

Further emphasis was given to assistance for govern-
ments in establishing long-term training institutions.
Thus, ILO assisted the Government of Burma in estab-
lishing a training centre for the maintenance of diesel
equipment used in inland water transport, a centre
which will extend its facilities to other Asian countries.
In Yugoslavia, the emphasis was shifted from the train-
ing of foremen and supervisors abroad to training
within the country.

At the request of governments, ILO missions made
surveys and formulated recommendations for action.

A special inquiry was undertaken to evaluate the
results of ILO programs in Burma, Guatemala, Iran and
Libya. The 1Lo Governing Body decided that a similar in-
quiry covering India and Turkey should be conducted
in 1956 and that the progress report on the Andean-
Indian mission should also be submitted to it. A wealth
of detailed material on the short and long-term results
of ILO assistance has been collected and the inquiry
enabled both ILo and the government concerned to dis-
cover in what respects certain projects had failed to
achieve the results expected and the reasons therefor.

Food and Agriculture Organization

The chief feature of the operations carried out in
1955 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
was a trend away from surveys towards operational
participation in national development activities. Fao
experts were becoming mainly “doers,” not observers
gathering material for reports. This is shown by the
fact that an irrigation engineer on the Ganges-Kobadak
multi-purpose power development project is responsible
for the actual construction of irrigation works, while
an Icelandic trawler captain serving in Ceylon puts to
sea with the fishing fleet.

Both expenditure and recruitment of experts in-
creased; there were 256 experts in the field on January
1, 1955, and 421 at the end of the year.

The development of fundamental institutions is con-
sidered of primary importance to the utilization of
technical assistance and FAO projects such as those in
Ethiopia, Honduras and Libya are concerned with the
establishment of agricultural administration and related
services. The establishment of such institutions, accord-
ing to the report, emphasizes once again that the lack
of trained staff is an even more serious obstacle to
economic development in many countries than is the
lack of investment capital. The absence of such staff,
particularly at the intermediate level of plant managers,
engineering assistants and foremen and agricultural
extension agents is the real bottleneck in the process of
economic development. In no direction could the
expanded program be broadened to better advantage
than by an increase in training activities. In line with

UNR—August 1956

this need, FAO gave 491 fellowships in 1955 as against
258 the previous year and, had larger resources been
available, a further 60 fellowships could have been
awarded.

Cooperation with bilateral programs such as that of
the International Cooperation Administration and with
the Colombo Plan continues in a number of FAO pro-
grams. Thus, the Canadian Government has enabled
Ceylon to translate into practice the recommendations
of FAO experts by supplying engines for 42 fishing
boats. Also in Ceylon, tractors, heavy earth-moving
equipment and farm machinery provided by Australia
and the United Kingdom are being used and serviced
under the supervision of an FAO engineer.

Increasing experience with the program has empha-
sized the necessity of granting longer-term contracts to
experts. Most FAO projects are now connected with the
establishment and growth of agricultural institutions
which are in their nature slow to mature and many of
which will require expert supervision for years to come,
while such problems as those of the arid zones involving
crops, forestry, pasture and fodder, land and water use
and range development, are obviously not limited to a
period of 12 months.

UNESCO's Operations

The year 1955 saw a marked increase in the activi-
ties of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), with 97 projects in
operation on December 31, 1955, as compared with 60
at the beginning of the year, and 177 experts in the
field as against 125. Assistance was sought for the first
time by such countries as British Guiana, Chile, Ethi-
opia, the Gold Coast, Honduras, Malaya, Paraguay,
Sierra Leone, Uganda and Vietnam. Sierra Leone was
helped in teacher-training, Ethiopia in basic education
and the Gold Coast in the provision of follow-up read-
ing material for its mass education campaign.

Five years’ experience has shown the advantages of
a more effective decentralization. As an example, the
report cites the Joint UNEsco-Liberian Educational
Project which controls all UNESCO missions in Liberia
under the UNESCO head of mission and a Liberian Gov-
ernment official. In Brazil, a semi-autonomous organ-
ization is responsible for the development of the
Amazon Basin with the assistance of FAO and UNESCO
experts. Such organizations provide an excellent chan-
nel for advising governments on all matters of future
planning, the report declares.

The number of fellows increased from 57 in 1954
to 222 in 1955 and several collective fellowship pro-
grams were organized. Sixty-nine experts on education
from Yugoslavia, chosen on the basis of their future
roles in the development of Yugoslav school reform,
were enabled to study school systems in 11 countries
of western Europe and the United States. Of particular
interest also was the training at UNESCO House for
three months of six educational officials from Costa
Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
and Panama, who will form the international secretariat

UNR—August 1956

of the Committee on Education for Central America
and Panama.

A working party appointed by the UNESCO Executive
Board in November 1955 and consisting of seven mem-
bers of the Board representing Brazil, France, Iran,
Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States
made certain specific recommendations for future
development of the program. One suggestion was that
special importance be given to studying the social and
cultural situations in countries receiving technical
assistance. Without such studies, program administra-
tors and experts cannot be fully aware of the nature
or extent of the technological changes which their
efforts may bring about. The working party rec-
ommended that the objective of the expanded program
should be redefined as economic and social develop-
ment. This would make it possible to admit the social
sciences as an important additional field of operation
for UNESCO and invaluable work could then be done in
evaluating the effectiveness of UNESCO projects.

The working party also urged that explicit recogni-
tion should be given to the unique role of education in
stimulating and maintaining the generative power which
is fundamental to a society’s economic progress. Rais-
ing the general level of education increases a country’s
social mobility, creates incentives and encourages the
flow of new talent essential to economic productivity.

Should there be any substantial increase in funds,
the working party suggested, technical assistance could
do a great service by creating or helping to expand
local, national or regional institutions for educational
training and research, while UNESCO could support
major expansions of primary and secondary education
by organizing, staffing and equipping model schools.

Specialists sent by the Food and Agriculture Organi-
zation are giving instruction in use and maintenance of
tractors supplied by Australia under the Colombo Plan

for a tractor station at Anuradhapura, Ceylon.

+ %

Sa

The working party also recommended that a change
in the terminology of the expanded program be con-
sidered, pointing out that the term “technical” is not
always understood, “assistance” does not adequately
describe the cooperative nature of the program and
the words “underdeveloped countries” are open to
misunderstanding.

Aviation Organization

The experience of the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) in 1955 confirmed the view that
there are three principal obstacles to the development
of civil aviation: lack of trained technical staff, in-
adequate administration and lack of equipment. ICAO
continued to give assistance in overcoming the first two
obstacles and, in an effort to overcome the third,
advised governments on the general performance of
different types of equipment. Shortage of equipment is
not, however, as great an obstacle as the lack of trained
staff and inadequate administration.

Nineteen countries in all received technical assistance
from experts, of whom 71 were in the field at the end
of 1955.

Training has not become stereotyped in traditional
courses. It has been necessary to take account of
changes such as the swing away from wireless telegraphy
towards radio telephony and radio-teletype, and the
training of radio operators has been modified accord-
ingly. It has also been found necessary to supplement
the standard courses of civil aviation schools, largely
on account of the lack of general technical education
in some countries. For example, experts have to give
instruction in the installation and maintenance of power
supplies and in the operation of telephone systems, for
which specialists are usually available elsewhere.

The main aim has been to maintain a balance be-
tween the training of staff and the installation of
equipment, but there were some cases in which this
has not proved possible. The end of 1955 saw a con-
siderable increase in the number of experts, particularly
engineers and technicians, sent to help with the in-
stallation, operation and maintenance of equipment.
These experts also aided in strengthening administra-
tions by providing on-the-job instruction, by giving
advice on problems as they arose and by making sug-
gestions on the organization of operational and ad-
ministrative services.

Fellowships were mainly awarded for the advanced
training of key personnel. In two countries, civil avia-
tion advisers had as their principal task the building up
of the administrations. The results of this work were
seen in the appointment of qualified counterpart staff
to such posts as chief of regular maintenance services,
chief of radio operations and chief of air traffic services.
Meteorologists were also appointed as independent or
dependent forecasters, engineers joined aircraft in-
spection departments and a number of nationals of
assisted countries became instructors. At least one
national civil aviation law was enacted in the course
of the year.

12

World Health Agency

In all, a field staff of 356 from 39 nationalities was
engaged on the projects of the World Health Organiza-

tion (WHO) in 1955. As in previous years, governments
receiving technical assistance also made available to
WHO the services of medical and other specialists for
field assignments elsewhere. Thus, Brazil gave 14 of
her nationals, India 13, Egypt 12 and Chile 11. In
1955, 545 fellowships were awarded as compared with
278 the previous year.

Under the expanded program, WHO cooperated with
governments chiefly in connection with training health
workers, controlling diseases causing economic loss and
strengthening national health services.

Without trained staff, the report discloses, any plans
for the expansion of health services are unrealistic, and
WHO continued its long-term program to strengthen the

Disfiguring disease of yaws, of which this child is a
victim, is being checked in Far East with aid of World
Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund.

UNR—August 1956

resources of countries for such training. Examples of
WHO action in this field were the malaria control train-
ing course organized at Yaounde in cooperation with
the French Government and the medical service of the
Cameroons, and the sanitary engineering seminar held
in San Juan under the auspices of the Government of
Puerto Rico—the first of its kind in that area.

WHO continued to give technical advice in mass cam-
paigns for the control or eradication of malaria and
yaws and the control of bilharziasis, trachoma, tuber-
culosis and other communicable diseases.

During 1955, a very important part of WHO’s work
continued to be the assistance given to governments to
introduce national health legislation, to set up national
health programs and to plan or administer local health
services. There are large areas in Africa and Asia where
hundreds of millions of people live in rural conditions
in which health services are unknown. For this reason
one of the chief aims of governments is to provide at
least a minimum of public health services to their
rural populations, and WHO assisted governments for
this purpose in rural areas of Afghanistan, the British
West Indies, Burma, Colombia, Honduras and Uruguay,
while field staff were appointed to advise on the sani-
tation programs in Japan and Saudi Arabia.

The main development in 1955 affecting the control
of communicable diseases was the new approach to
the malaria program adopted by the Eighth World
Health Assembly. The Assembly decided that, as re-
sistance to insecticides by anopheline mosquitoes can
now be considered an established fact, the only rational
plan was to aim at the eradication of disease in the
shortest possible time, wherever this was technically
possible. The first steps were taken by WHO to render
technical assistance in putting the new plan into opera-
tion in individual countries and to provide opportunities
for the coordinated mobilization of the world’s re-
sources in this malaria eradication campaign.

During the year, a total of nearly 991 nurses was
provided to help in the training of nurses and to enable
local teachers to continue the educational programs
after the withdrawal of international aid.

The year 1955 also witnessed the opening of an en-
tirely new field of WHO activity, the public health
aspects of nuclear energy, and in November, wHo
sponsored a training course for health physicists organ-
ized by the Swedish Government in cooperation with
the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

Telecommunication Union

In participating in the expanded program, the In-
ternational Telecommunication Union (1Tu) has gath-
ered some important information on the role of tele-
communications in economic development. The ad-
vances made in such areas with the help of technical
assistance in various sectors of the economy create a
growing need for telegraph and telephone services. The
number of new telephone subscribers and the waiting
list of applicants, says the report, are an indication of
needs which result from the development of economic

UNR—August 1956

activity and the raising of living standards. Requests
for the improvement or construction of trunk lines
connecting isolated areas of a country reflect the desire
of such areas, hitherto depending on their own re-
sources, for participation in the national life.

Financing of telecommunication systems and the
shortage or absence of skilled labor are major difficul-
ties encountered by governments. In 1955, 1ru sought
to place the main emphasis on the training of staff, and
the 25 fellows who received such training in 10 host
countries were part of the technical training program
necessary to develop telecommunications. Of the 20
experts provided by ITU to nine governments, five were
principally concerned with the training of operating
staff; and in other countries the experts either gave in-
struction themselves in existing technical schools or
trained local staff serving as their assistants to continue
their work after their departure. In telecommunications
a relatively long period is required to carry out plans
owing to the need for constructing and installing com-
plicated equipment. Missions are often lengthy and
can be shortened only in special cases. In planning
technical assistance on telecommunications, it must be
borne in mind that such assistance can be effective
only if it is continued throughout the time necessary to
produce concrete achievements.

World Meteorological Organization

The year 1955 saw a marked increase, too, in the
technical assistance activities of the World Meteorologi-
cal Organization (WMO). Twenty-two expert advisers
in a wide range of meteorological subjects gave advice
in 23 separate countries and territories, while 36 officers
from various meteorological services studied abroad
with wMo fellowships.

Much of the effort of these experts was directed
toward advising on organizational and administrative
problems facing the meteorological services of various
governments, This was partly due to the late entry of
WMO into the technical assistance field, and emphasis
will no doubt shift in the future to the more technical
and professional problems involved in the application
of meteorological knowledge to the economy of the
country concerned. This trend is already noticeable in
increasing demands for technical assistance concerning
the application of meteorology to agricultural needs and
to the development and utilization of water resources.

The increasing use being made of wMo fellowships,
is evidence of the sincere efforts of individual countries
to improve their meteorological services.

Negotiations during the year resulted in the provision
of funds for a hurricane seminar to be held in the
Dominican Republic in 1956, the first regional project
requiring meteorological technical assistance. In view of
the regional character of many meteorological problems,
there is an ever-widening field for regional projects,
and these will probably continue to form a major part
of the wMo technical assistance program. It is evident,
the report concludes, that there is much scope for the
further development of technical aid in meterology.

THE POSTWAR
ECONOMIC
RECORD

United Nations Survey

% om +s 7 ———
of a Decade’s FT rogress

and Continuin gl -roblems

of Economic Development

HERE is little doubt that the record of economic

progress in the decade following the Second World
War is superior to that of the ten years after World
War I. The history of the period after 1939-45, does
not, however, justify untempered optimism. Indeed, it
is a matter for serious concern, for, as the United
Nations World Economic Survey, 1955, points out, the
problem of mass poverty in a large part of the world
remains as stubborn as ever, despite the record of un-
paralleled economic growth.

The Survey, prepared by the United Nations Depart-
ment of Economic and Social Affairs, makes a special
analysis of world economic developments in the post-
war decade in connection with the celebration of the
tenth ‘anniversary of the Economic and Social Council
at its twenty-second session which opened in Geneva
on July 9. The report also examines world economic
trends during 1955, and it provided the main back-
ground information for the Council’s annual discussion
of conditions of the world economy.

The review of the postwar decade reveals, in addi-
tion, that total output of factories, farms and mines in
the private enterprise economies rose by about two-
thirds between the prewar period and 1954. At the
same time, however, there has been a growing gap in
production between the developed and the under-
developed economies.

Meanwhile, world trade during the last ten years has
expanded much more rapidly than in the corresponding
period following the First World War.

Another point brought out by the Survey is that there
have been relatively large increases in the imdustrial
output of the centrally planned economies, though not
directly comparable with the growth occurring in private
enterprise economies.

The examination of the current world economic sit-
uation shows that expansion was the keynote of change
during 1955 in the industrially developed private enter-
prise areas, and that developments in the less developed
areas were uneven. The outlook for 1956 in the de-
veloped countries, however, is for a slowing-down in
expansion. As a result, some of the less developed
economies foresee a setback in their export markets.

As for the centrally planned economies in 1955, it
is reported that industrial expansion and better har-
vests contributed to higher activity, and that plans
under way continued to provide for rapid growth in
heavy industry, with greater emphasis than before in
agriculture.

What follows is a summary of many of the salient
points made by the Survey, the eighth in a series of
comprehensive reviews of world economic conditions
published by the United Nations.

UNR—August 1956

The Postwar Decade

|S om AGE and destruction in the Second World War

were greater than in the First World War. Eco-
nomic recovery after World War II, however, was more
rapid. It was also more wide-spread. Nevertheless, as
the World Economic Survey warns, the history of the
period does not justify untempered optimism. On the
contrary, it provides ground for serious concern. The
growth that has taken place has been only partly due to
favorable long-term forces; to a significant extent it has
been based on special and temporary supports. In only
a few of the underdeveloped countries has per capita
economic growth been consolidated to a point where it
may be considered self-cumulating.

The world has, however, become capable of support-
ing a far larger population than ever before, the Survey
notes, Industrial output has made great strides. In the
underdeveloped countries, perhaps the most significant
advance to date lies not so much in the physical ex-
pansion of productive capacity as in the evolution of a
social climate favorable to economic development. In
the industrial countries full employment has been main-
tained, and the growth in productivity and employment
has produced substantial increases in per capita incomes
and brought some progress in international economic
balance.

Political tensions, on the other hand, have led to a
division of the world economy into two virtually isolated
sectors, each devoting a considerable proportion of
resources to military rather than civilian uses. The prob-
lem of international economic balance remains far from
solved. Economic growth in underdeveloped countries
has not kept pace with the rate in industrial countries.
Moreover, the Survey stresses, it would be imprudent
to project the record of the first postwar decade into
the second, especially insofar as favorable developments
in the past ten years have been the result of purely
short-term influences.

Rapid Growth and Fluctuations

As for the matter of economic stability, the record of
the postwar period is one of rapid growth accompanied
by oscillation between inflationary and deflationary pres-
sures in industrial countries. Fluctuations in the demand
of the developed countries have had adverse effects on
the economic development of underdeveloped countries,
particularly through the extreme fluctuations in export
prices for primary products.

“Significant as the postwar decade of growth has been

UNR—August 1956

in other respects,” the Survey adds, “it cannot yet be
said that the world has effectively come to grips with
the problem of economic development.” In this, as in
other economic problems, the primary responsibility
rests with the countries themselves. Cumulative eco-
nomic growth cannot be imported from without. It must
be nourished from within.

At the same time, the Survey declares, it is universally
recognized that the responsibility is not confined to un-
derdeveloped countries. It is shared by the whole world.
While international help has been forthcoming in many
ways — private and public, bilaterally and multi-
laterally—it may be questioned whether the scope and
scale of present programs represent the world’s opti-
mum towards the accepted objective of economic
development.

Output in Private Enterprise Economies

Examining production trends in private enterprise
economies, the Survey divides the postwar decade into
four phases: immediate postwar crises; the general
awakening to the long-term character of postwar eco-
nomic problems; the raw materials boom and collapse
associated with the Korean hostilities; and the current
expansion.

The Second World War left agricultural production
disorganized. In Europe industry was hit no less hard
than agriculture. Reconstruction and rehabilitation of
production and trade proceeded more rapidly than after
the First World War, due in large measure to interna-
tional aid.

In 1949 it became clear that certain basic problems
had not disappeared. International disequilibrium took
the form of a world-wide dollar shortage. Western Eu-
rope’s recovery did not suffice to solve this problem.
That was because of structural changes in world produc-
tion and trade which limited the scope for trade
exchanges between western Europe and the rest of the
non-dollar world. In many underdeveloped countries
expansion of productive capacity was temporarily
checked by a drop in export revenues that was generated
by a brief recession in the United States.

From mid-1950 to the end of 1952 the situation was
dominated by the raw materials boom and its collapse
and the period of readjustment associated with Korean
hostilities. During the boom phase, demand was most
intense in the United States. The expansion of output
in western Europe did not lag far behind, however, and

15

in the underdeveloped countries output expanded,
though more slowly, under the stimulus of higher export
earnings. When it became evident that military opera-
tions and outlays would be limited, the raw materials
boom collapsed.

Since about 1953 the world has embarked on a new
phase of expansion. This was interrupted—though only
briefly—by a mild recession in the United States in
1953-54 which lasted about a year. But it had little
adverse effect on the world economy. In the course of
1955-56, this world-wide expansion once again revived
fears of inflationary pressure and balance of payments
deficits in western European countries.

Rise in Production

Total production of factories, farms and mines in the
private enterprise economies rose by about two-thirds
in volume from the prewar period to 1954, the Survey
notes. The increase since 1948 has been about as large
as the rise from the prewar level to 1948. Growth has
been more rapid in the developed than in the underde-
veloped countries, especially in the phase before 1948.

The production rise of the developed countries
since 1948 has been higher in western Europe than in
North America. But whereas the former had not yet
fully recovered the prewar aggregate level of output in
1948, the latter had already exceeded that level by more
than two-thirds. North American production in 1954
was more than twice as high as before the war; in west-
ern Europe the increase was about 40 per cent.

The information available indicates that the growth in
the aggregate output of underdeveloped countries since
the prewar period is of the same order of magnitude as
in western Europe. Largely owing to the expansion of
petroleum and other mineral production, expansion
since 1948 has been greatest in the Middle East and
African regions. The rate was also high for most of
Latin America. In south-eastern Asia, from 1948 to
1954, the rate was somewhat higher than that achieved
during the same period in Latin America as a whole.

Population growth absorbed a substanial proportion
of the rise in output, especially in underdeveloped
countries.

Increase in Investment

Investment in developed countries expanded sub-
stantially compared with the immediate prewar years.
In North America the expansion had already taken
place by 1948. In western Europe, however, nearly all
the rise in investment occurred since 1948. In under-
developed regions, capital formation has also risen
significantly. South-eastern Asia, with a much lower
per capita average income than Latin America, has not
been able to devote as large a proportion to investment
as Latin America.

Everywhere, the Survey points out, the rate of growth
in primary production has lagged very considerably be-
hind that of manufacturing. Since primary production
accounts for about four-fifths of the total commodity
output of the underdeveloped countries but for less than
one-third of the total in the developed regions, the dis-

crepancies make for a considerable lag in total output
of the less developed countries.
Reasons for Lag

There are two main reasons for the lag between
manufacturing and primary production. At higher levels
of income the demand for food rises proportionately
less than the demand for other goods. Further, the raw
material content of manufacturing has declined due to
economies in the use of raw materials. That is the
result of technological progress, of a greater amount of
reprocessing of already used materials, of the substitu-
tion of synthetic for natural materials, and of more
elaborate fabrication of final output.

The chief force contributing to postwar growth,
according to the Survey, has been the expansion in
manufacturing. Under the influence of expanded capital
formation and defence expenditures the highest rates of
growth during the postwar years in both western Europe
and North America have been established by the chemi-
cal and engineering industries. Staple consumer goods
industries have been slow in expanding. Partly that is
because private incomes have risen less than national
output and partly it is because the rise in demand for
these products has not paralleled the rise in private
real incomes.

In the less developed countries where manufacturing
is mainly directed to the production of consumer goods,
gains have been sufficient, in certain products, to raise
the share of this group of countries in the total produc-
tion of the private enterprise economies. Increases in
output of heavy industry, on the other hand, have been
overshadowed by developments in the economically
advanced regions.

International Trade and Payments

The expansion of world trade during the past ten
years has been much more rapid than during the cor-
responding years following the First World War, the
Survey declares. By 1955 the total volume of world
trade was about 50 per cent higher than in 1938 and
1948. In contrast, by 1928—the tenth full year after
the end of the First World War—the volume of world
trade was less than 30 per cent above the level of 1913.

Trade has been held back much less than might have
been expected by the various limitations and controls
that have prevailed. Indeed, a careful examination of the
lag between world trade and world output since 1938
shows that a major part of the lag is due to factors
which have nothing to do with trade restrictions.

Factors Respensible

One of these factors is that a larger share of world
output is now being produced in countries whose im-
ports are small in relation to their output or income. A
second factor is the lag in food consumption in relation
to income, together with the reduction in the raw mate-
rial import content of manufacturing which has accom-
panied the structural shift in the industrial countries
from light to heavy industries; consequently, trade in
primary products has lagged in relation to total world

UNR—August 1956

-

Expansion of trade in postwar years was considerably aided by the growth of the shipping industry.

UNR—August 1956

trade and still more in relation to world manufacturing
output.

This, the Survey emphasizes however, does not mean
that the impact of restrictive national policies upon the
growth of international trade has been unimportant.
Nevertheless, most countries are now spending a higher
fraction of their incomes on imports than in 1937, and
those spending a smaller proportion do not consist
exclusively of countries maintaining import controls.

While trade in primary products has fallen behind,
trade in manufactured goods has risen rapidly. By 1954,
exports of manufactures from the leading producers
were about half as large again as in 1948 and about 60
per cent above the 1938 level. The major change in the
composition of these exports since 1938 has been a
sharp decline in the share of textiles and a great increase
in exports of machinery, transport equipment and
chemicals.

These shifts, according to the Survey, correspond to
the lag in world consumption in relation to world pro-
duction brought about by rates of capital formation and
defence expenditure which were much higher than those
prevailing in 1938. Moreover, underdeveloped countries
have been able to promote factory production of tex-
tiles and conserve limited foreign exchange resources
for purchases of capital equipment.

The rise since 1938 in the capacity of underdeveloped
countries to import has not only been due to the ex-
pansion in the volume of their exports. It is also due to
a substantial improvement in their terms of trade, The
characteristic instability of the exports of primary pro-
ducing countries did not, however, diminish with the

favorable price trends and general economic expansion
of the postwar period.

Characteristic Feature

One of the characteristic features of the way the
world economy has developed since the First World
War has been the dividing up of the world market into
compartments of varying degrees of exclusiveness, the
Survey points out. About three-fifths of world exports
in 1953 consisted of the exchanges within each of the
three main trading areas—the centrally planned econo-
mies, the dollar area and the European Payments Union
area (EPU). A common characteristic of these three
areas is that each involves an industrial core together
with affiliated areas possessing more or less comple-
mentary economies.

In addition, less than one-fifth of world trade in 1953
consisted of the trade between these three main areas.
The remainder, amounting to rather more than one-
fifth of the total, consisted of the trade of the rest of
the world.

The share of trade among EPU members in the world
total was no higher in 1953-54 than in 1938. By con-
trast the relative importance of trade among the dollar
area countries doubled. The centrally planned
economies, meanwhile, greatly increased their trade with
one another as part of a general process of integration
within the area as a whole and as an offset to the decline
in east-west trade.

rhe physical reconstruction of the various economies
of the world after the war seems to have been more
easily accomplished than the achievement of a balance
in international transactions, While the recovery in pro-
duction has been accompanied by a marked improve-
ment in balances of payments, the problem of what has
been called the “concealed” dollar gap seems to persist.
At the current level of exchange and trade restrictions,
the residual dollar gap on commercial transactions was
approximately $2.4 billion in 1954 and $3.4 billion in
1955. This did not give rise to serious difficulties be-
cause the “gap” was substantially less than the total of
economic aid and military expenditures overseas of the
United States Government.

Part of the persistent imbalance in international trade
and payments, in the Survey’s opinion, has its roots in
efforts to promote capital investment and industrial
development. It is not unnatural for countries, espe-
cially the underdeveloped ones, to take the view that the
concept of international balance was too narrowly con-
ceived in the past; and that an adequate rate of eco-
nomic growth is itself an indispensable ingredient of
“international balance.”

Trends in Centrally Planned Economies

In eastern Europe and mainland China the postwar
decade was characterized by radical institutional changes
and by a rapid expansion of industry. Nationalization of
industry and trade as well as collectivization of agri-
culture, says the Survey, resulted in concentrating eco-
nomic power in the hands of central authorities and
made it possible to plan economic development on a
comprehensive scale,

The first postwar plans were drawn up separately in
each country. Later, more attention was paid to the
requirements of other countries in the area. Not until
1955, however, did several countries for the first time
prepare their plans in close cooperation with one an-
other. Yugoslavia, which up to 1950 used the same
methods of planning as the other countries, changed its
methods substantially; the specific planning of the out-
put of each enterprise was abandoned and the manage-
ments of enterprises became free to determine output
and prices.

The Survey discerns three distinct periods of develop-
ment in the centrally planned economies from 1945 to
1955: the period of reconstruction, which ended about
1949; the period of rapid expansion from about 1950
to 1953; followed by a period since mid-1953 of a gen-
eral slowing down of the rate of expansion. This classi-
fication, however, does not apply to mainland China nor
to Yugoslavia.

Although the damage inflicted upon the eastern Eu-
ropean economies during the Second World War was
considerably greater than during the First World War,
the reconstruction period was much shorter. After
World War I, according to the Survey, a period from
six to 20 years was required for individual countries
to regain their 1913 levels of production. But after
World War II recovery was achieved in most countries
by 1948.

UNR—August 1956

Although the aim of the reconstruction plans was
primarily to restore and to exceed the prewar levels of
output, all countries of the area tended from the begin-
ning to alter the structure of their economies in order
to achieve a more balanced relationship between various
industries,

Nature of Long-Term Plans

From the beginning the long-term development plans
of eastern Europe called for rates of increase in output
of producers’ goods which were higher than for con-
sumers’ goods or of agriculture. By 1950, partly under
the impact of the deterioration of international relations,
the targets set for producers’ goods were considerably
increased.

Military expenditure increased sharply, the Survey
declares. In many sectors of the economies of the cen-
trally planned areas, bottlenecks developed, hampering
further rapid growth. The rapid rise in investment and
in military expenditure in the face of considerably
slower increases in consumer supplies led to inflationary
pressures in several countries and to a decline in real
wages from 1950 to 1953. Only in the U.S.S.R. did
prices decline and real wages increase throughout the
period since 1947.

New Policy

The new economic policy, introduced in the second
half of 1953, was designed to eliminate disporportions
between various sectors of the economy in order to pre-
pare the ground for a further rapid expansion, the Sur-
vey states. This was to be achieved by a general slowing
down in the rate of growth, by reducing the spread be-
tween the output of consumer and producer goods and,
within the latter, between the output of engineering
products and that of fuel, power and basic materials.
The output of agriculture was to be substantially in-
creased.

The implementation of this policy resulted in in-
creases in real wages and consumption in 1954; bottle-
necks in fuel, power and basic materials were reduced.

Increases in industrial production recorded from the
prewar years to 1954 ranged well over 100 per cent; for
the U.S.S.R. the increase amounted to nearly 190 per
cent. For the other eastern European countries the aver-
age rise was over 150 per cent. While these increases
are on the whole considerably larger than the average
for the private enterprise economies, the Survey notes,
no direct comparison between the rates of growth is in
fact possible owing to major differences in methods of
computation of the indices. .

While industrial output expanded at a high rate
throughout the postwar decade, the average rates of
growth declined perceptibly in the course of the period.
This reflected the transition from recovery to expansion
and, especially during the second half of the decade,
the gradual absorption of unused resources.

In Yugoslavia, the pattern of growth was similar to
that of the other centrally planned economies up to
1949. The very small increase in output in 1950 and
the decline in 1951 and 1952 resulted from poor har-

UNR—August 1956

vests and difficulties in securing imported raw materials
and fuel subsequent to the severance of economic rela-
tions by the other countries of eastern Europe.

In mainland China, where intensive industrialization
began much later, industrial output increased rapdily
during 1950-1953. In 1954, however, the rate of ex-
pansion declined.

Contrast in Farm Output

In contrast to the extremely rapid expansion of in-
dustry, agricultural production increased very slightly
as compared with prewar years, and was a major prob-
lem in all the centrally planned economies during the
postwar decade. At the end of the war agricultural out-
put was considerably below prewar levels. During the
first half of the postwar decade, it recovered at a rapid
rate in most countries of the group, generally reaching
85 to 90 per cent of prewar levels.

During the following period, however, the rate of
recovery slackened and the prewar level of output has
generally been reached only recently. Output in the
U.S.S.R. rose 10 per cent above the prewar level by
1952 and did not show any significant further increases
until 1955, In mainland China, agricultural production
recovered rapidly after 1949, reaching a level one-sixth
above that of 1936 by 1954.

The Survey explains that the considerable lag in agri-
culture was the effect of a relatively low rate of invest-
ment as well as of the fiscal and price policies applied
to agriculture. The high level of compulsory deliveries
at low prices had a depressing effect on all members of
the group. In the eastern European countries which
began to organize collective farming after the war, col-
lectivization by administrative pressures rather than on
a voluntary basis also acted as an obstacle to the ex-
pansion of output.

In the course of 1953, however, economic policy to-
wards agriculture was changed. Supplies of machinery
and building materials, as well as of fertilizers, increased
substantially. The area under cultivation was expanded,
and further withdrawal of manpower from agriculture
was abandoned, There was also a reduction in com-
pulsory deliveries and taxes and an increase in prices
paid to the peasants.

Decisive Influence

The existence of close political ties among the cen-
trally planned economies has been a decisive influence
in the creation of a separate, virtually self-contained,
trading area, says the Survey. This was reinforced by
the strategic trade restrictions imposed by the west. At
the end of the postwar decade the total volume of the
trade of the centrally planned economies was more
than 2.5 times higher than before the war, while their
trade with the rest of the world was less than half its
prewar level.

The most significant expansion in foreign trade oc-
curred in the U.S.S.R. where the total volume in 1954
was more than four times as large as before the war.

Trade with the rest of the world declined from 1949
to 1953. Not until the third quarter of 1953 did a

recovery begin. During the entire postwar decade west-
ern Europe was the major trading area in the foreign
commerce of the centrally planned economies of eastern
Europe.

The most striking postwar development in the com-

modity pattern of trade of the centrally planned
economies has been the increase in exports of ma-
chinery and equipment. In contrast, exports of food-
stuffs have fallen in most of the countries as compared
to the prewar period.

Recent Economic Currents

N addition to analyzing developments in the world

economy in the ten years following the Second
World War, the World Economic Survey also examines
recent and current trends in the industrially developed
private enterprise economies, in the primary producing
countries—Africa, Asia (not counting mainland China
and Japan), Latin America, Australia and New Zea-
land—and in the centrally planned economies.

Private Enterprise Economies

Expansion was the keynote of economic change
during 1955 in the industrially developed private enter-
prise economies, the Survey observes.

In western Europe as a whole the rate of growth was
higher than in 1953 and 1954, despite the appearance
of a slack in some countries toward the end of 1955.
In North America, following the recession of 1953/54,
the recovery in industrial production in 1955 raised
output beyond the peak postwar level attained during
the first half of 1953.

The expansion in western Europe was initially stimu-
lated and sustained by a housing boom, Later, the rise
in consumer expenditure on durable goods and in
industrial investment became thé major factors. As the
upswing gathered momentum, most of the industrially
developed countries adopted measures to restrain do-
mestic demand. As a result there was a slowing down in
some countries of the rate of increase in both invest-
ment and durable goods consumption.

The rate of increase in real national product accel-
erated in 1955 in Belgium, France, Italy and the
Netherlands, where it ranged from 3 to 7 per cent, and
in western Germany where it reached 11 per cent.

In other countries the rate of increase in 1955 was
less than in 1954, amounting to only 2 to 3 per cent
for Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and to
less than 1 per cent for Denmark. In North America,
the increase was 6 per cent for the United States and
9 per cent for Canada. Economic activity in Japan
also accelerated in 1955.

The outstanding feature of the increase in consump-
tion, according to the Survey, was the shift towards
durable goods, especially passenger cars. In western
Europe, this shift was fostered by the rise in incomes,
by the increase in the supply and variety of durable

consumer goods and the rapidly expanding volume of
consumer credit.

The role played by consumer credit in facilitating
the sales of durable consumer goods was even more
important in North America where the volume of such
credit outstanding increased by $6 billion in 1955,
approximately double the average of previous postwar
years.

The shift in industrial production caused by the in-
crease in industrial investment and in consumption of
durable goods brought about relatively larger expan-
sion of the output of engineering industries than of
industrial output as a whole. This in turn resulted in a
rising demand for the two most important basic mate-
rials, steel and coal. Shortages developed in some
countries, necessitating higher imports.

The rising demand for labor in several Europen
countries had to be satisfied mainly through transfer
of manpower from other industries. By contrast, the
increase in employment in the United States and Canada
in 1955 (being the outcome of a general recovery from
the previous recession) was more evenly spread among
the various sectors of the economy.

Foreign Trade Patterns

In western Europe, the changes in the pattern of
production and demand considerably affected the com-
position and direction of foreign trade. The volume of
trade in machinery, transport equipment and basic ma-
terials for the engineering industries rose rapidly but
there was little tendency for change in the import de-
mand for non-durable manufactured consumer goods
and the raw materials required for their production.

In North America, imports fluctuated in sympathy
with domestic production from 1953 to 1955. The
shifts in the composition of imports, however, were not
as pronounced as in western Europe. The changes in
composition affected the geographic distribution of the
trade of industrial countries; intra-western European
trade increased, partly to alleviate bottlenecks, and so
did western European imports from North America.
On the other hand, imports from primary producing
countries did not rise in proportion to imports from
industrial countries.

In Canada and the United States the cost of living
scarcely changed in 1954-55; in most western European

UNR—August 1956

countries the increase did not exceed 2 per cent. In
North America, according to the Survey, the stability
of retail prices resulted from two offsetting influences:
a small rise in the price of services, and a decline in
the price of food and certain manufactured goods. In
most western European countries import prices re-
mained fairly stable, and despite appreciable increases
in wages, prices of manufactured industrial goods re-
mained stable as a result of the substantial rise in out-
put per man-hour.

To slow down the pace of expansion and, in some
cases, to counter balance-of-payments difficulties, re-
liance was placed chiefly on monetary techniques. Dis-
count rates were raised generally. Central banks insisted
on certain liquidity quotas and asked other banks to
curb their loans. In some cases, specific restrictions
were introduced to check building. In Norway and
Sweden special investment taxes were applied to slow
down private investment. A new feature was the at-
tempt to exert a downward pressure on prices in west-
ern Germany and the Netherlands by deliberately
encouraging imports of consumer goods. The Survey
considers that not enough sufficient time has elapsed to
permit an evaluation of the general effect of the anti-
inflationary measures.

Outlook For 1956

Examining the outlook for 1956, it points out that
industrial output and trade in the industrial countries
are expected by governments to continue to rise but
at a somewhat lower rate than during the past two
years. Such information as was available at the end of
April 1956 suggested that this expectation was being
fulfilled in the early months of the current year.

On the demand side, consumption is not expected to
increase as rapidly as in 1955, nor, indeed, is invest-
ment, except in North America. Significant “cross-
currents” in the United States early in 1956 consisted
of rising business fixed investment and declining demand
for passenger cars and new housing. Governments have
not expressed concern that the expected levels of total
demand will be insufficient to maintain output at full
employment levels.

Trends In Primary Producing Areas

Since it was the heavy industries and those producing
durable goods that in general experienced the largest
relative increase in industrial countries, the Survey
notes, the most marked rise in demand for raw mate-
rials imported from the primary producing countries
was for metals and rubber. The only other category of
materials in which demand increased and prices were
firm throughout the period was that of petroleum and
its products.

The markets for most of the foods and fibres re-
mained weak, though beef and mutton prices were
fairly firm and stocks of butter and certain other edible
oils were drawn down during the year, On the whole,
production was unresponsive to market changes, so that

UNR—August 1956

there were sizable movements in prices or stocks or
both.

A significant force on the market for certain primary
products, according to the Survey, was the heightened
demand of the U.S.S.R. and some of the eastern Eu-
ropean countries which became important purchasers
from several underdeveloped countries. The commodities
chiefly affected—sugar, cotton, rice, grain—were among
those in which prices were weak and stocks tended to
accumulate in exporting countries.

Trade Developments

In the first three-quarters of 1955, the value of ex-
ports from primary producing countries was 5 per cent
above that of the corresponding period of 1954, whereas
exports from the industrial countries increased by 12
per cent.

One of the postwar characteristics of the import pat-
tern of the primary producing countries has been the
tendency for capital goods to claim an increasing share
of available exchange. This continued during the period
under review especially in countries in which there was
some acceleration of development programs—India,
Iraq and Pakistan, for example. On the average, the
rate of imports of machinery and transport equipment
in the first nine months of 1955 was about 6 per cent
above that of the corresponding period in 1954 and
about 13 per cent higher than in 1953.

For the primary exporting countries as a group, the
terms of trade remained relatively stable. But there
were considerable variations among individual countries
as the result of divergent movements in commodity
prices. Between 1954 and 1955, for example, increases
of over 10 per cent in export unit values were enjoyed
by several of the rubber or mineral exporting countries,
while decreases of over 10 per cent were registered not
only in the coffee and cocoa exporting countries but also
in those exporting wool.

Deteriorations in the terms of trade, adds the Survey,
aggravated payment difficulties in a number of coun-
tries in which imports were high or increasing (such as
Australia, Colombia and New Zealand), but were off-
set by cuts in imports in others (Brazil and Burma)
and were cushioned by the adequacy of exchange re-
serves in the Gold Coast and Nigeria. Many of the
countries that had improved their trade balance in
1954—rubber, mineral, petroleum and tea exporters
in particular—achieved a more active (or less passive)
balance in 1955, too.

On the whole, inflationary pressures in primary pro-
ducing areas increased during 1955. In addition to the
countries where inflation was of long standing, several
others experienced rising price levels as a result of
high levels of investment and consumption pressing on
limited resources.

Rises In Production

Though precise information is lacking, it would seem
that the period was characterized by widespread though,
in many cases, smali increases in production. As far as

manufacturing output is concerned, the expansion tend-
ed to be greatest in those countries in which the indus-
trialization process is of relatively recent origin.

In general, postwar trends in the composition of out-
put and in industrial investment appear to have been
maintained in 1954 and 1955, with the production of
capital goods continuing to spread. On the other hand,
the lag in the development of power facilities remained
a source of bottlenecks in some primary producing
countries.

By and large, food production was markedly higher
in 1953/54 than in 1952/53; the 1954/55 harvest
brought a further gain to a number of countries. The
disinflationary consequences of a general rise in food
production were most pronounced in Asia.

Where inflationary forces were strongest—as in Bo-
livia, Chile, Indonesia, South Korea and Uruguay—
the basic cause frequently lay in unbalanced govern-
ment budgets, the Survey points out. In India, however,
the budgetary shortfall, though increasing, did not

prove to be inflationary—thanks to good harvests, an

appreciable increase in industrial production and

cheaper imports.

As far as the outlook of primary producing areas
for 1956 is concerned, the prospective slackening in
the rate of expansion in the industrial countries may
cause some fall in demand for several of the commodi-
ties that enjoyed particularly firm markets in 1955.
Though in many cases an absolute decline in consump-
tion does not seem to be envisaged, even small changes
in current or expected demand may precipitate large
changes in price.

In view of the strong forces tending to keep export
prices of industrial countries from falling, says the
Survey, no major improvement in the overall terms of
trade for primary producing countries in 1956 is sug-
gested by current trends; on the contrary, some deteri-
Oration is indicated for exporters of a number of
important primary products.

Trends In Centrally Planned Economies

In all the centrally planned economies, the World
Economic Survey points out, economic activity rose
significantly in 1955. Higher output per man and, to
a lesser extent, higher employment helped to raise
industrial output. Farm yields in most countries of the
group recovered, and in several countries agriculture
accounted for a bigger share of the national income
than in preceding years.

Industrial production continued to increase in 1955
in all the centrally planned economies.

In Bulgaria, Poland and the Soviet Union, the rate
of increase was approximately the same as in 1954,
and in eastern Germany slightly lower, but in those
countries which had experienced a substantial decline
in the rate of growth in 1954—Czechoslovakia, Hun-
gary, Romania—the rate accelerated during 1955.

The only country where the rate of expansion fell
sharply was mainland China. While in 1953 industrial
production in mainland China had risen by 32 per cent,

22

in 1954 it increased by 17 per cent, and in 1955 by
only 7 per cent. This slackening in the rate of growth,
according to the Survey, was largely the effect of the
rapid absorption of unused productive capacity which
had existed in appreciable amounts at the beginning
of the current plan of development, especially in con-
sumer goods industries.

Output Of Producer Goods

In contrast to 1954, the output of producer goods
in 1955 increased faster than that of consumer goods
in several centrally planned economies, The most strik-
ing change occurred in the USSR where, until 1954,
differences in the rates achieved by these two sectors
have been rather small, whereas in 1955 the output of
producer goods expanded at a rate 1.6 times higher
than that of consumer goods.

The rise in industrial production achieved in all
centrally planned economies except Yugoslavia in 1955
was due chiefly to a substantial increase in output per
man. The improvement was due not only to a reduction
in bottlenecks but also to more stringent enforcement
of regulations linking wage increases to productivity.

Partly responsible for the important recovery in
agricultural production of most countries of the group,
the Survey reports, were improved weather conditions
and more favorable policies towards agriculture, in-
cluding substantial increases in supply of fertilizers,
farm machinery, equipment and building materials,
reduced taxation and delivery quotas, higher govern-
ment prices for farm produce and an increasing supply
of industrial consumer goods to the countryside.

In most centrally planned economies, the share of
investment in national income declined not only in
1954 but also, in several cases, in 1955. In the USSR,
the share of investment in national income which fell
substantially in 1953, was increased in 1954, but again
reduced in 1955. Mainland China and Yugoslavia were
the only countries of this group where investment
increased in relation to national income both in 1954
and 1955.

Plans for 1956, the Survey states, represent a de-
parture from policies applied during the previous two
years. The most significant change in countries for
which information is available is the very sharp increase
in investment both in absolute terms and in relation
to national income. While it is planned to increase
national income by 8 per cent in Czechoslovakia,
6 per cent in Hungary and probably more than 9 per
cent in eastern Germany, investment in these countries
is to increase by 20, 30 and 40 per cent respectively.
The largest rises are planned for engineering and in-
dustries producing basic materials, fuel, and power.

Trade Expansion

The total trade of the centrally planned economies
continued to expand in 1955. In contrast to the trend
prevailing during most of the postwar decade, however,
trade with the rest of the world expanded more than
the trade within the group; for the first half of 1955

UNR—August 1956

it was 15 per cent higher than for the same period in
1954.

At the new level, however, this trade probably still
represented not more than 30 per cent of the total
trade of the centrally planned economies. The trade
of these economies with countries belonging to the
Organization for European Economic Cooperation
(OEEC) rose 17 per cent in the first half of 1955 and
accounted for 50 per cent of their trade with the rest
of the world.

Trade with North America increased by one-third
from the very low level to which it had fallen in 1954.
Trade with the world outside western Europe and
North America went up by about 10 per cent during
the first half of 1955 and accounted for one-third of
total east-west trade. The increases were chiefly with
Burma, India, Indonesia, Japan and Egypt. Trade with
Latin America, which had grown considerably in 1954,
did not rise further during the first half of 1955.

In embarking on new five-year plans the countries
of eastern Europe have sought to secure a greater
coordination and division of labor among themselves
than had prevailed in the past. The sixth five-year plan
of the USSR in many respects follows the pattern
adopted for the two preceding five-year plans, provid-
ing for higher rates of expansion in heavy rather than
in consumer goods industries, and for a more rapid
advance in investment than in income. The most im-
portant difference from the preceding plans is to be
found in the exceptionally high targets set for agri-
culture.

It is also clear, the Survey continues, that a larger
proportion of the rise in production than in the pas!
is to be obtained by increases in productivity and a
smaller proportion through growth in employment.

Plans For Industry

It is planned to raise the total output of industry
at an average rate of 10.5 per cent per annum during
the next five years, compared with a rate of 13 per
cent recorded from 1950 to 1955. According to the
Survey, output per man in industry is planned to rise
50 per cent during the period, the same target as was
set though not actually realized in the previous plan.
The 70 per cent increase in agricultural output planned
for the next five years compares with the 40 to 50 per
cent increase projected in the preceding plan and the
considerably smaller increase actually achieved. This
rise is to be obtained by the expansion of the area under
crops and by a rise in yields.

The only indication of the planned increase in con-
sumption of goods is the target set for retail sales in
state and cooperative trade, which is to increase by
50 per cent from 1955 to 1960.

The Survey also gives information on the new five-
year plan of Romania and on the plan of main’ ind
China for 1953-1957. The latter plan, which is due to be
completed one year ahead of schedule, stresses invest-
ment in large-scale heavy industry and is designed to
achieve a considerable increase in the share of industry
in total output.

Charter of New Finance

The Charter of the International Finance Corpora-
tion—intended to entourage the growth of productive
private enterprise, especially in the less developed
countries — has now come into force. It went into
effect on July 20, 1956, when the required number
of at least 30 governments had completed action for
membership.

On that day France and the German Federal Re-
public took the necessary action, thereby bringing to 31
the number of governments doing so. Altogether, the
capital subscriptions to the Corporation, which will
function as an affiliate of the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, now amount to $78,-
366,000. A minimum capital subscription of $75,000,-
000 in all was needed for the Corporation’s Charter to

UNR—August 1956

Corporation Now In Force

come into effect. A total capital of $100,000,000 has
been authorized.

The required number of members and capital being
assured, the organization of the Corporation can now
commence.

The 31 countries which have completed action for
membership are: Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Ceylon,
Columbia, Costa Rica, Denmark, the Dominican Re-
public, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland,
France, the German Federal Republic, Guatemala,
Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, India, Japan, Jordan, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Sweden,
the United Kingdom and the United States.

In addition, twenty other countries have indicated
their willingness to become members.

Encouraging Progress in Mid-East Economies

( ontinuing Rise m Oral € Jutput Increases Income

rT HE continuing great increase in oil production in the

Middle East and the improved terms of payment
for the principal producing countries—Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia—have caused income to rise regu-
larly and markedly in most of them in recent years. But
for those countries of the region which are predomi-
nantly agricultural and do not export oil—including
Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, the Sudan, Syria and Turkey—
the increase in income was less steady and was strongly
influenced by such short-term factors as terms of trade
and weather.

For the whole of the Middle East, however, the long-
term economic aspects “remain rather favorable” and
progress toward making use of the great potentialities
for its economic development has been encouraging.

These are among the main conclusions of a new sur-
vey entitled, Economic Development in the Middle
East, 1954 and 1955, Prepared by the United Nations
Bureau of Economic Affairs, it formed part of the back-
ground documentation for discussion of the world eco-
nomic situation at the session of the Economic and
Social Council which opened in Geneva on July 9.

“Most Spectacular Element’

The oil revenues, amounting to approximately $800
million a year in direct contributions to governments,
are described as “the most spectacular element” in the
favorable long-run economic prospects in the Middle
East as a whole. Experience, says the report, has shown
that the rate at which oil revenues accrue is far greater
than the rate at which they can be effectively used for
development and that, in some of the Persian Gulf
states, “the revenues even outstrip the foreseeable
potentialities of development.”

Thus in one way or another, either through official
schemes or private initiative, “the oil revenues of the
Persian Gulf states are gradually filtering through to
other countries of the region with wider investment
possibilities. The current size and probable future
expansion of these revenues suggest that they could be
a potent factor in the economic development of the
area.”

The pace of development during the past few years
“has unmistakenly quickened,” the survey continues,
noting that the large development schemes now com-
ing to fruition or in prospect—including the High Dam
on the Nile, the Habbaniya Dam on the Euphrates and
the Wadi Tharthar Dam on the Tigris (both com-
pleted in 1956), and the Huleh Reclamation Scheme

24

nearing completion in Israel—may help to start a
cumulative process of economic improvement in the
area as a whole.

The present economic difficulties of some of the
countries of the area, the survey states, are typical of
underdeveloped countries “determined to press on with
large schemes of public investment in the interest of
rapid economic development and should be viewed in
relation to long-term prospects.”

These difficulties, however, “are not lessened by the
unsettled political situation in the Middle East with its
accompaniment of heavy defence expenditures,” which
have in several countries contributed to inflationary
pressures leading to balance of payments difficulties
deriving from the unsaleability of high-priced exports
and scarcity of foreign exchange.

Difficulties in the marketing of exports, says the
report, “appear in part responsible for the shift towards
eastern European countries in the direction of the trade
of Egypt and Turkey, although various other Middle
East governments have also recently made bilateral or
barter agreements with these countries.”

Agriculture

An analysis of agricultural production in the area
during 1954 shows that output decreased in Turkey,
and to some extent, also in Iran, while in the other
countries of the region it increased considerably.

The setback in Turkish production resulted from a
severe drought which reduced total grain crops from
14.6 million tons in 1953 to 9.6 million in 1954, and
the output of leguminous plants by 16 per cent. There
was, however, some increase in production of oil-
seeds, citrus fruits and cotton. In Iran, wheat pro-
duction dropped from 2.24 million tons to 2.10 million,
but the rice crop rose from 500,000 tons to 526,000
tons. In Egypt the wheat and rice crops were larger,
due in great part to higher yields; the cotton crop also
increased following an expansion in the cultivated area.
In Israel, citrus fruit production rose from 300,000 to
470,000 tons, while the increases in wheat, barley and
olive crops ranged from 13 to 50 per cent. In Lebanon,
the production of citrus fruits rose from 75,000 to
100,000 tons, and the wheat crop considerably sur-
passed the 1953 level because of higher yields. In Syria,
the barley, cotton and oil-seed crops were above the
1953 level by 35 to 70 per cent. In Iraq, wheat pro-
duction advanced from 760,000 to 1,160,000 tons.

In 1955, however, there seems to have been a com-
plete reversal of the situation. In Turkey, agricultural

UNR—August 1956

production considerably exceeded the 1954 figures,
while Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria suffered
from unfavorable weather conditions. In Iraq, wheat
production fell by 60 per cent, the barley crop by
nearly 40 per cent, and the rice crop by 45 per cent.
In Israel, barley production fell from 90,000 tons in
1954 to 40,000 tons in 1955, and citrus fruit output
declined from 472,000 to 390,000 tons. In Jordan, the
wheat crop dropped from 233,000 to 79,000 tons, in
Syria from 965,000 to 600,000 tons. In Lebanon, the
fruit and legume crops sustained losses ranging from 40
to 50 per cent. Only in Egypt did agricultural pro-
duction seem to have deveioped at approximately the
same rate as in 1954. On the other hand, the crops of
cereals in Turkey rose from 9.6 to 13.1 million tons.

Some improvements in the methods and conditions
of agricultural production have been achieved in the
last two years in the region. In relation to what has to
be done in this field, however, the achievements in
general were rather modest.

Industry

Industry, on the other hand, appears to have made
rather rapid progress in the region as a whole during
1954, and there were indications that the rate of prog-
ress was accelerated in 1955. Industrial development
was largely concentrated in Egypt, Israel and Turkey,
and the expansion was greater in the output of capital
and intermediary goods, such as cement, steel and fer-
tilizers, than of consumer goods. Investments required
for development of industry came largely from domestic
sources, a great part from the governments themselves.

In Egypt, production of electricity, yarns, textiles,
paper products, soap, sugar, iron, cement and fertilizers
increased while that of glasswares and alcoholic drinks
declined.

In Iran, industrial and mining activities (excluding
petroleum) experienced a setback in 1954 and early
1955, but there has been an improvement more recently.
In Iraq, industrial activity showed considerable prog-
ress throughout the period, and consumption of electric
power in industrial enterprises (excluding the petro-
leum industry) increased by 23 per cent.

In Israel, industrial output continued to increase in
1954 and 1955, although the rate of increase declined
somewhat. The net value of industrial and mining out-
put went up from £I 219 million (Israeli pounds) to
£I 270 million, but investment fell from £I 70 million
in 1953 to £1 68 million in 1954. In Lebanon, industrial
production showed little change in 1954, while in Syria
production as a whole increased but faced some diffi-
culties because of slow sales. In Turkey, industrial
and mining production in 1954 was 6.5 per cent higher
than in 1953, and it appears to have been more rapid
in the mechanized industries and in the electric gen-
erating sector than in other industrial branches. The
expansion in 1954 and 1955 took place despite some
difficulties created by the shortage of foreign currency.

On the subject of marine traffic, the report notes that
only Egypt, Turkey and, to some extent, Israel have a

UNR—August 1956

merchant navy of significance, and the available figures
show that in 1954 tonnage has grown in Turkey while
declining somewhat in Israel.

Suez Canal traffic has expanded consistently during
the years under review, according to the report. The
number of passages rose in 1954 by 3.8 per cent over
1953, while net tonnage of ships passing through the
Canal increased by 10.3 per cent.

Petroleum

Production of crude petroleum in the Middle East
rose by 12.8 per cent in 1954 and by 17.6 per cent in
1955, as compared with the rises in world output of
2.8 per cent and 10.1 per cent respectively. The greatest
expansion within the region in 1955 took place in Iran;
despite this rise, however, Iranian production was less
than 10 per cent of the region’s total in 1955 as com-
pared with 36.4 per cent in 1950. Production of crude
petroleum in 1955 amounted to 33.8 million tons in
Iraq, 47.0 million in Saudi Arabia, 55.0 million in
Kuwait, 162.1 million in the whole Middle East. Total
world output came to 788.5 million tons.

In 1955, the Middle East processed 5.7 per cent of
the refined products of the world, as compared with 4.8
per cent in 1954 and 8.1 per cent in 1950. Production
of the major refined products in the region amounted
to nearly 40 million metric tons, showing a rise of one-
third over the 1954 output. The region’s refined output
regained its 1950 level after a drastic decline in 1951
and 1952 owing to the shutdown of the Abadan refinery
in Iran, but the percentage of crude processed to total
production of crude petroleum was only 26 per cent in
1955 as against 48 per cent in 1950. The increase in
output of refined products came mainly from the Aba-
dan and Aden refineries.

Some progress was also made during the period to-
wards the use and conservation of natural gas and
refinery gas, produced in large quantities in conjunction
with the production and refining of petroleum in the
region, hitherto almost entirely wasted.

Exports and Revenue

The estimated total value of petroleum exports from
the crude and refined petroleum exporting countries of
the Middle East increased to the equivalent of over
$2.5 billion in 1955, showing a rise of 20 per cent and
40 per cent over the exports of 1954 and 1953
respectively. The quantity of exports of crude petroleum
increased from 104 million metric tons in 1953 to 117
million in 1954 and approximately 135 million in 1955.
Exports of crude petroleum to western Europe in-
creased from 74 million tons in 1953 to 82 million in
1954, to the western hemisphere from 12 million to 13
million, to the Middle East from 9 million to 12 million
and to the Far East from 4 million to 7 million.

The total direct and indirect petroleum revenues to
the Middle Eastern countries between 1951 and 1955
amounted to $3.5 billion. In 1955, the revenues were
estimated at over one billion dollars, of which $880
million represented direct payments to governments and

the balance consisted of wages to employees and pur-
chases of local goods and services.

Increased exploration and drilling activities in the
Middle East as a whole during 1954 and 1955 led to
the discovery of new petroleum reservoirs in Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt and Israel. According to an
estimate published in January 1956, the region’s crude

petroleum reserves, recoverable by methods currently

in use and under present economic conditions, amounted
to 231 million barrels. A lower estimate, however,
placed the reserves at 126 billion barrels. According
to earlier estimates, United States controlled companies
had access to 64 per cent of the region’s proved
reserves, British and Dutch-controlled companies to 31
per cent, and French companies to most of the remain-
ing 5 per cent.
Foreign Trade and Payments

The value of all exports, including oil, increased by
7 per cent in 1954 and by a further 12 per cent in the
first two quarters of 1955, while the corresponding
rates for world exports were 3.5 and 5.8 per cent
respectively. Excluding oil, however, the value of
exports from the Middle East showed little change for
the whole period. There was a small improvement in
the regional terms of trade which, however, still
remained far below their post-war record level of 1951.

The two countries which, by reason of the size of
their foreign trade, to a great extent determine the
movements of the regional totals are Egypt and Turkey.
In Egypt, the value of exports rose very slightly in
1954 but decreased in the first half of 1955; in Turkey,
exports dropped in 1954 and declined further in 1955.
Export values in Egypt and in some other countries of
the region were strongly influenced by changes in the
quantity of cotton exports which declined in 1954 and
again during the first half of 1955, while Turkey’s
export earnings were affected mainly by the decline in
grain exports.

The composition of imports continued to be in-
fluenced in 1954 and 1955 by the long-term changes
taking place in many countries of the region, such as
increasing industrialization and mechanization, gradual
improvement of production methods in agriculture and
rising demand due to population growth and in some
cases to increased per capita income. It was, moreover,
affected by government restrictions and by short-term
factors such as the level of agricultural output in a
given year.

The most notable change iin the direction of the
region’s foreign commerce was the increase in trade
from 1953 onwards with the group of countries con-
sisting of mainland China, the USSR and other eastern
European countries. In the first seven months of 1955
eastern Europe accounted for over 26.7 per cent of
Turkey’s exports as against 7.4 per cent in 1953 and
16.5 per cent in 1954. The same eastern European
countries and mainland China purchased, in the first
three quarters of 1955, 24.9 per cent of Egypt’s total
exports as compared with 12.2 per cent in 1953 and

14.2 per cent in 1954. Other trends were the growth of
trade within the region, and the declining trade with
western Europe (with the exception of west Germany
in 1954) as well as with Canada and the United States.

The payments position of the Middle Eastern coun-
tries with respect to the major monetary areas is difficult
to establish, the survey observes, as very few of them
publish relevant regional data. But, it says, it may be
inferred that Egypt, Israel and Iraq reduced their dollar
deficit in 1954 while the payments positions of Syria
and Turkey with respect to the dollar area deteriorated
somewhat. In Turkey, moreover, the large trade deficit
with the European Payments Union countries, though
decreasing in 1954, still remained considerable.

As to development endeavors, the survey points out
that, despite many differences in the development pro-
grams launched by the various countries of the region,
they do have certain elements in common. The two
largest categories of development expenditure in every
case are agriculture (including irrigation) and transport.
Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Syria all give the
major emphasis to agriculture, irrigation and improved
use of water resources, as is to be expected in countries
which have similar problems such as a rapidly in-
creasing population, an arid climate, and sharp fluc-
tuations in water supply. In Iran and Turkey, the
largest expenditures are for transport and communica-
tions, since the broad extent and irregular terrain of
these countries have made poor communications a con-
siderable obstacle to development.

Differing Ways of Financing

The programs differ widely, on the other hand, in
their methods of financing. In the case of Iran and Iraq,
assuming continued oil production at the current level
or above, foreign currency is no problem and the diffi-
culty is one of obtaining enough domestic resources and
of finding enough trained people. Syria may also per-
haps be able to finance most of its present program
from oil transit revenues, while Lebanon will ‘receive
some foreign exchange from this source. In the case of
countries without oil revenues, the financial situation,
both internal and external, is as a rule much tighter.
The full implementation of their plans depends on the
availability of loans or grants from abroad.

In Egypt, the building of a high dam on the Nile,
now in the planning stage, “is likely to overshadow all
its other projects,” the report declares. Expected to take
ten years in construction, “the project is so vast, both
in terms of proportion of investment which it will
absorb and the contribution which it will make to
effective demand and national income, that its effects
may be expected to be felt in almost all sectors of the
Egyptian economy.”

Iran, Iraq and Syria have adopted long-term invest-
ment plans affecting a number of sectors of the econ-
omy and covering definite periods. Israel, Lebanon and
Turkey, on the other hand, have a variety of plans for
different sectors of their economies and different
periods.

UNR—August 1956

Suri ey of a Continent:

Economic Activity in Africa

FIVE per cent increase in the net national income
of the Union of South Africa, a ten per cent ex-
pansion in the exports of tropical Africa, and the
aggravation of the economic situation in Algeria,
Tunisia and Morocco as a result of internal strife are
reported in the “Review of Economic Activity in Africa
1954-1955,” published July 12 by the United Nations.
This report is one of several studies serving as back-
ground for discussion of the world economic situation
at the twenty-second session of the Economic and
Social Council which opened in Geneva on July 9.
The definition of Africa employed in the report ex-
cludes Egypt.

The Review states that agricultural production, which
accounts for the greater part of employment and in-
come, was slightly higher in 1954-55 than in the
previous year. The rate of annual increase, however,
was lower than in any year since 1948, while agri-
cultural output for the world as a whole remained
unchanged during the same period.

Mineral production was at a higher level in 1954
than in 1953 and continued to increase in the first half
of 1955, mainly because of a higher export demand
arising from increased industrial activities in Europe
and North America.

The Review points to rising costs, labor shortages
and unrest, and inadequate transport facilities as limit-
ing factors which, in varying degrees in different terri-
tories, affected mineral production. The rate of expan-
sion of African production was higher than that for the
world as a whole.

There was little expansion in known energy re-
sources during 1954 and 1955. Coal production in-
creased by about 2 per cent, and output of electric energy
increased in the aggregate by about 11 per cent in
1954. The Review states that wide possibilities exist
for the utilization of nuclear power, especially for
mining and irrigation purposes, in areas remote from
sources of coal and hydro-electric power.

UNR—August 1956

Manufacturing output continued to expand during
1954 and 1955, but the Review stresses that in manu-
facturing for local consumption most African territories
are faced with the problem of finding an adequate
market for their products locally, since per capita
income is low and the volume of demand often too
small to warrant the establishment of local factories.

African exports, which constitute about 6 per cent
of world total, expanded at a greater rate than world
exports in 1954—8.6 per cent as against 5.6 per cent—
but in the first half of 1955 the increase was only 2
per cent as against 6.6 for the world as a whole. As a
result of a 3 per cent rise in prices of primary products
and a 2 per cent decline in manufactured products, the
trade position of African countries, which are mainly
sellers of primary products, improved.

The Review notes that trade with countries of the
Organization for European Economic Cooperation and
North America, which accounts for about four-fifths
of African imports and three quarters of African
exports, experienced a slight relative decline in their
share of the total, but not in absolute value, in 1954
compared to 1953. Trade with eastern Europe, mostly
the U.S.S.R., became relatively more important both
in African exports and imports. Intra-African trade
expanded by 5 per cent in 1954.

The Review remarks that, as in previous years, the
emphasis in development plans generally was on the
provision of basic facilities, particularly communica-
tions, with a tendency to pay greater attention to social
services, particularly housing, and to research on re-
sources,

Because of the great diversity of climate, natural
resources, peoples and modes of life in Africa, the
continent is divided into three broad regions for the
purposes of the more detailed analysis of economic
activity during the period 1954/1955. These are the
Union of South Africa, with the Federation of Rhodesia

27

and Nyasaland; tropical Africa; and Algeria, Morocco,
Tunisia, with Libya.

Union of South Africa

The Review states that the relative importance of
mining rose for the first time in four years, as output
expanded by 11 per cent in value, mostly because of
the opening of new mines producing gold and atomic
materials in the Orange Free State. Agricultural output
declined substantially in value, largely on account of
lower returns from sales of maize and wool. Manufac-
turing production which had expanded continuously
since 1951 continued its upward trend.

The general increase in economic activity was ac-
companied by inflationary pressures; an important ele-
ment in this trend was the shortage of labor. On the
other hand, and despite the relaxation in import con-
trols, the deficit in the Union’s balance of payments on
current account declined from $30 million in 1954
to $28 million in 1955, largely because of an increase
in net gold output.

The year 1954/1955 was a good one for the Federa-
tion of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. National income in-
creased by 12 per cent in 1954, and data available for
1955 suggest a further increase. Since export prices
in general increased more than import prices, there
was an improvement in the terms of trade.

Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya

The Review points out that the growth of population
has been at a more rapid rate than that of agricultural
production, and although it is estimated that a further
expansion of the area under cultivation amounting to
some 2 million hectares (about 5 million acres) may
be possible in Morocco, any increase in the area under
cultivation in Algeria and Tunisia is severely limited
and any significant expansion of agricultural produc-
tion in these territories must arise from increased yields.

With the exception of Tunisia, the Review finds little
evidence of any improvement in the balance of trade,
the adverse nature of which amounts to about half the
value of exports in the case of Algeria and about
two-thirds of the value of exports in the case of
Morocco.

In Algeria and Tunisia, which formerly balanced their
ordinary budgets and had a surplus for transfer to their
extraordinary budgets, budgetary deficits have been re-
corded in recent years and continued in 1954/1955.
These deficits are made good by France, which also
provides a large part of the development plan expendi-
ture. However, despite expenditure of the order of
$1.75 billion in the last three years on such plans,
investment in the public section of the economy needs
to be supplemented by private investment, the Review
states, and it is precisely this type of investment which
recent political disturbances have adversely affected.

More than anything else, the Review adds, Algeria,
Morocco and Tunisia require a period free from in-
ternal strife which may permit the return of a measure
of confidence, and enable their economies, with the

assistance of an increased volume of public investment,
to overcome the stagnation which has characterized the
period under review.

The Libyan economy is of a deficit nature, and, in
the absence of a substantial capital inflow and of invisi-
ble exports, financial assistance from abroad is neces-
sary to correct the adverse balance. During 1954, this
assistance exceeded $14 million, of which more than
$10 million was from the United Kingdom. During
1955 a further grant-in-aid of $10.5 million was re-
ceived from the United Kingdom, and $8 million from
the United States.

Tropical Africa

The Review notes that, although there was no uni-
form trend in primary product prices during 1954,
average prices of many important African exports,
notably cocoa, coffee, tea, iron ore and rubber, were
higher than in 1953. Import prices were generally lower
than in 1953, so there was an improvement in the terms
of trade of most African countries. In 1955 there was
little change in the level of export earnings.

In general, mineral prices, particularly those of
copper, tin, manganese and zinc, showed an upward
trend in 1955, while agricultural prices tended to de-
cline. The effect of these price movements, the Review
states, was to reduce the purchasing power of the
majority of Africans in the cash sector of the economy
and to allow some expansion of profits in the mining
industry which is operated by Europeans.

Public investment continued to expand in 1954 in
the Belgian and British territories, although there was
a decline in investment in French tropical African terri-
tories as the first development plans came to an end
and the second plans had not gathered momentum.

Available data suggest a general increase in public
investment in 1955. There are indications that private
investment in most territories was maintained, particu-
larly in areas of European settlement.

Agricultural Production

The slight increase in agricultural output in Africa
resulted mainly from the expansion of production of
export crops, the Review points out. Thus, production
of dollar-earning crops, such as sisal and pyrethrum,
and to a lesser extent cocoa, increased, while do!lar-
earning commodities, such as sugar and cotton, also
expanded.

A large part of African agricultural production is
for subsistence only, and yields in general are low.
Throughout Africa, the system of land tenure, involv-
ing fragmentary holdings and lack of freehold tenure,
are barrier to any appreciable expansion of agricultural
production, the Review states. However, in some terri-
tories, efforts are being made to improve farming
methods through demonstration farms where new tech-
niques are taught and improved seed and stock are
distributed. Soil conservation and irrigation measures
are being increasingly introduced, and intensive research
in plant diseases is being carried on both within Africa

UNR—August 1956

and in the metropolitan countries with African de-
pendent territories. Still, the Review cautions, tribal
customs and systems of land tenure are barriers which
will not be removed quickly.

In its survey of production trends, the Review says
that ground-nut production declined from 2.9 million
metric tons in 1953/54 to 2.7 million metric tons in
1954/55, reducing the African share in world produc-
tion from 27 to 25 per cent. The decline was due mainly
to adverse weather in West Africa and Nigeria, the two
major producers of the region. On the other hand, out-
put of palm oil rose by 9.3 per cent to an estimated 900
thousand metric tons in 1954, about 80 per cent of
total world production. Output of olive oil in 1954,
however, was 20 per cent below the level of 1953.
In Tunisia, the major African producer and principal
world exporter, olive oil production fell by 43 per cent
to 52,000 metric tons from the high level of the previ-
ous year.

The African contribution to world production of
cotton and wool is relatively small, says the Review,
but about 58 per cent of the world production of sisal
originates in Africa. Sisal production continued to in-
crease, chiefly because of the expansion of production
in Tanganyika, and amounted to 290,000 metric tons.

Output of cocoa beans, which in recent years has
contributed more than 60 per cent of the world total,
was slightly higher than in 1953. Under the stimulus
of rising prices early in 1954, governments of many
territories took measures to promote new plantings of
coffee. As a result, the production of coffee beans in
1954/55 was more than 10 per cent higher than in the
previous year and accounted for more than 17 per cent
of total world production. Increased production in
French West Africa reflected the investment there in
recent years. In Dahomey, more than 12 million francs
were invested between 1951 and 1955 in improvements
to coffee-producing areas. The acreage under coffee in
the Belgian Congo increased during 1954 by 12 per
cent, the greater part of the expansion being due to
European plantings.

The rising trend in sugar production continued and
was about 10 per cent higher than in 1953/54. The net
increase of 160,000 tons was mostly due to expanded
production in the Union of South Africa.

Raw rubber output increased by about 10 per cent
to about 86,000 metric tons in 1954 in response to
higher prices, the principal increases being in Liberia
and the Belgian Congo.

Fuel, Power, Secondary Industries

The development of the wide possibilities for use of
nuclear power, especially for mining and irrigation pur-
poses, will call for the utilization of small-size reactors
and is accordingly dependent on technological progress
in this field and on the price at which these reactors
will be obtainable, the Review says.

It states that drilling for oil in French North Africa
showed considerable expansion in 1954: drillings in the

UNR—August 1956

Sahara increased from 3,900 meters to 30,000 meters.
Deposits of oil were discovered near Benefica in
Angola during 1955 after three years of exploration,
and a refinery capable of handling one million tons of
crude oil annually is to be constructed at Luanda.

Oil exploratory concessions covering a total of 35
million acres were granted by the Libyan Government
to United States oil companies in 1955.

Output of electricity in 1954, states the Review,
totaled 22,700 million kilowatt hours, 11 per cent higher
than in 1953, and continued to expand during the first
half of 1955. In the Union of South Africa, which
accounts for about two-thirds of the total production in
Africa, output was 10 per cent higher in 1953 than
in 1952. In the Belgian Congo, the 1954 output ex-
panded by 20 per cent above the 1953 level, and in the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland production
expanded by about 12 per cent.

Commenting on secondary industries, the Review
says that in most dependent territories manufacturing
industries remained in the early stage of development,
consisting mostly of establishments for the preparation
of food-stuffs, cotton textiles and building materials
and for the primary processing of products for export.
Conditions for the expansion of secondary industries
are most favorable in the Union of South Africa and
the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, both of
which have high per capita national income in compari-
son with other African countries and have in varying
degrees developed iron and steel and chemical in-
dustries.

Industrialization, says the Review, is dependent prin-
cipally on the availability of capital, accessible raw
materials, skilled labor, managerial skill, power and a
market for products. In most African countries, many
of these requirements are inadequate, but governments
are in general aware of this lack and are taking steps
to overcome it.

Mineral Production

Mineral exploration during 1954 and 1955 resulted
in discovery of new deposits of asbestos, coal, diamonds,
gold, phosphate and vermiculite in the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland; asbestos, barytes, diamonds
and manganese in South West Africa; thorium in
Kenya; bauxite in French West Africa; and manganese
in Algeria, French Equatorial Africa and British Somali-
land. In Uganda the mineral complex at Sukulu, con-
taining pyrochlore, apatite and magnetite, is being
explored; in Tanganyika, investigations into the mineral
resources of the Uluguru mountains are being con-
ducted with United Nations Technical Assistance aid.

For Africa as a whole, there were significant increases
in 1954 in the output of antimony, bauxite, cobalt, cop-
per, gold, lead, nickel, tungsten and phosphate rock;
production of iron ore, tin and zinc declined. The
increase in world production of diamonds and phos-
phate rock was entirely due to the expansion of African
production, which was also responsible for 98 per cent

and 96 per cent respectively of the increase in antimony
and gold. Similarly, increases in world production of
copper, cobalt, asbestos and lead were mainly accounted
for by the expansion of African production. On the
other hand, almost half of the decline in world produc-
tion of manganese was attributable to the decline in
African production.

The Review notes that output of uranium in the
Union of South Africa rose sharply in 1954 and con-
tinued to rise in 1955—profits from uranium mining
went from 1.8 million pounds in 1953 to 8.1 million
pounds in 1954. By July 1955 twenty-six mining com-
panies were providing ores and slimes for treatment in
the eight extracting plants which were to be added
in 1955.

Foreign Trade

In the first half of 1955, African exports were valued
at $2,418 million—$48 million more than in the cor-
responding period of 1954. Increases occurred in the
Union of South Africa ($43 million), Algeria ($33
million), French Morocco ($26 million), the Federa-
tion of Rhodesia and Nyasaland ($18 million) and the
Sudan ($13 million); but there were decreases in the
Gold Coast ($27 million), Nigeria ($26 million),
Madagascar ($16 million), Tunisia ($10 million) and
Angola ($8 million).

The principal exports of Africa in terms of value in
1954 were oil seeds, cocoa, copper, coffee, cotton, wool
and hair, fruits and nuts, wine, sugar and diamonds.
The Review points out that the range of exports is nar-
row, for eleven principal items acount for about 60 per
cent of the total export value in 1954. Ground nuts
were responsible for more than 90 per cent of the
export earnings in Gambia, as was sugar in Mauritius,
and in the majority of African countries three products
accounted for more than 50 per cent of the total value
of exports.

Rise in Imports

The increase in export earnings and acceleration in
the rate of development, together with a general relaxa-
tion of import controls, resulted in a rise in African
imports of 4.8 per cent between 1953 and 1954. In the
Union of South Africa, the value of imports rose by
$38 million or 3 per cent. The aggregate increase in
British Africa amounted to $109 million, most of it
occurring in British West Africa and the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Among French territories,
continued increases in imports were reported by those
south of the Sahara and by Algeria, while imports into
French Morocco declined. Imports into the Belgian
Congo decreased slightly in the same period.

In contrast to exports, African imports comprise
chiefly manufactured goods, the most important group
being machinery and transport equipment (about one-
third of the total) and textiles.

rade with the sterling area outside Africa declined
both in value and as a percentage of African exports

30

and imports, the Review reports. One factor in the
decline in dollar imports to British territories was the
increased competition from non-dollar sources, espe-
cially from Japan, Western Germany and Italy, all of
which were regaining part of the trade they had lost in
the war and immediate post-war years. As an example,
imports of standard cotton fabrics into the Gold Coast
and Nigeria from the United Kingdom fell in value
from 15 million pounds in 1953 to 8.8 million pounds
in 1954, while those from India and Japan increased
from 6.7 million pounds to 10.5 million pounds.

The Review notes that African imports from dollar
sources increased in value but declined in proportionate
share from 1953 to 1954; those from the United States
and Canada fell from 11.1 per cent of total imports to
10.9 per cent.

In 1954, the value of African exports to the dollar
area was about at the same level as in 1953. In the
case of British Africa, dollar exports declined from a
total of $216.1 million in 1953 to $189.3 million in
1954, mainly because of a sharp fall in the value of
exports to the United States of manganese ore, timber
and cocoa from the Gold Coast and of copper, asbestos
and chrome ore from the Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland. The Gold Coast and the Federation, to-
gether with Nigeria, are the leading dollar earners
among British territories.

In addition to earning dollars for export, dependent
territories in Africa are exporters of dollar-saving com-
modities to OEEC countries, especially to the metropoli-
tan countries. Exports of cotton, copper, coffee, sugar,
tobacco and vegetable oils to OFEC countries increased
in volume and value in 1954.

The largest source of African imports among OEFEC
countries continued to be France. Imports from that
country rose from $1,280 million in 1953 to $1,380
million in 1954. Imports from France were higher in
most areas of Africa in 1954, but, in particular, larger
percentages of imports into British and Portuguese ter-
ritories came from France. Imports to and exports from
Western Germany, Italy and the Netherlands continued
to increase.

Intra-African trade, one-tenth of total African trade,
rose in 1954 by about 5 per cent. An important flow
of this trade is concerned with the Union of South
Africa, with its advanced industrialization and its com-
munications with adjacent areas.

Another important part of the network of intra-
African trade is the shipments to and from French
North Africa. In 1954, exports from Algeria, French
Morocco and Tunisia to the rest of Africa, which con-
stitute about two-fifths of the aggregate exports of those
territories, declined by about 10 per cent from the
1953 level.

Investment Planning

Programs of capital expenditure adopted by African
countries since the war are not development plans so
much as capital work programs, the Review states.
Their general aims are to get to know more about the

UNR—August 1956

Construction of one of the world’s largest dams

at the Kariba Gorge on the Zambesi River, south of
Victoria Falls, for a hydroelectric project in the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

resources of each territory; to protect known resources
and to ensure their most efficient use; to improve and
enlarge basic equipment, particularly communications;
to improve the health education and living conditions of
the population; to improve agriculture, stock breeding
and existing industries; and to develop the most profit-
able new sources of production and new forms of
wealth, and thus generally to broaden and strengthen
the economy of the territories so as to make them less
sensitive to fluctuations in the world economy.

Extensive Capital Development

Expenditure on development plans in British de-
pendent territories, excluding the Federation of Rhodesia
and Nyasaland, was about $150 million in 1954. The
Review records the following progress: port improve-
ments were completed in Nigeria and at Freetown in
Sierra Leone; a new airport was opened at Dar-es-
Salaam; in Tanganyika, the projected Southern Province
Railway, together with the port of Mtwara, went into
service; also new radio circuits between Nigeria and the
United Kingdom and radio photo-telegraphic circuits
between the Gold Coast and the United Kingdom
were opened.

A ten-year development plan for the Belgian Congo
drawn up in 1954 provides for an expenditure of $970
million, with emphasis on communications, particularly

UNR—August 1956

rail and water transport. The Review notes that work
on port expansion and improvements continued, that
the Kamina-Kabalo rail link was nearing completion at
the end of 1955, that the completion of the Tshopo falls
hydroelectric scheme and of part of the Zonzo scheme
resulted in a significant increase in the total production
of electric energy, and that 7,656 houses were com-
pleted in 1954, compared with 3,988 in the pre-
vious year.

Public investment in French territories south of the
Sahara in 1954 decreased by about 14 per cent com-
pared with the previous year. In French West Africa
priority was given to improvement and expansion of
the road and rail network. It is expected, for example,
that diesel locomotives will completely replace steam
locomotives by the end of 1956. Public investment in
French Equatorial Africa was at a lower rate than in
1953: the principal fields of investment were com-
munications, agriculture and expansion of hydroelec-
tric schemes, the latter mainly in Djoue, which provides
electricity for Brazzaville and Bouali.

In Algeria, the main fields of investment were agri-
culture, mineral research, communications and housing.
In Morocco, expenditure on irrigation was at a higher
level than in 1953. The Bin-el-Ouidane dam was in-
augurated in 1955 and will eventually provide irriga-
tion for an area of 370,000 acres in the Beni Moussa
plain.

Meeting Transport Needs

In Libya a five-year capital development program
was drawn up in 1953 providing for the expenditure of
some $18 million. The plan is financed by grants, prin-
cipally from the United Kingdom, which makes an
annual grant-in-aid of $10.5 million, and the United
States, which made $4 million available during the year
1954/55 and has undertaken to grant $4 million an-
nually for the period 1955/1960 as part of a $40 mil-
lion loan over a 20-year period.

Although there is no development in the Union of
South Africa similar to that in dependent Africa, the
public sector accounts for a significant proportion of the
total investment, the Review states. Loan account ex-
penditure amounted to $83 million in the year ended
March 1955.

One of the major limitations on development in the
Union is the need for the expansion of the com-
munications network. Despite an expenditure of 320
million pounds during the last ten years, the railways
are still incapable of meeting the transport needs of the
country, which have expanded by some 55 per cent
since 1945. Assisted by loans from the International
Bank, the Government, under the Railways and Har-
bors Administration, has embarked on a new three-year
program aimed at extending freight-carrying capacity
by some 16 per cent at the end of 1956.

International Pathways to Human Progress

peeaneenans, action has devel-
oped new methods and forms,
Secretary-General Dag Hammar-
skjold has written in an introductory
statement to a general review of the
development and coordination of
the economic, social and human
rights programs and activities of the
United Nations and the specialized
agencies, prepared for the tenth
anniversary session of the Economic
and Social Council. The session
opened on July 9 in Geneva.

As examples of the new forms of
international action, Mr. Hammar-
skjold cited sharing skills in the
technical assistance program for eco-
nomic development, peaceful uses
of atomic energy, providing supplies
and equipment for programs bene-
fiting children, the use and conser-
vation of water and community de-
velopment.

“The claims of the whole so-called
underdeveloped world to rapidly im-
proved standards of life and a re-
moval of inequalities, and their de-
mand for help in creating conditions
that make this possible, are insist-
ent,” Mr. Hammarskjold said, “and
it is in the interest of the whole
world that they be met generously.
One great lesson of the past ten
years is that they can in large meas-
ure be met, and met efficiently and
effectively through international ac-
tion.”

Mr. Hammarskjold said that there
had been welcome progress towards
universality in the programs and
membership of the various interna-
tional organizations, the agencies
advancing steadily and the United
Nations having gained sixteen new

32

A pprasal by Secretary-C seneral

members. He pointed out that the
work falling mainly within the com-
petence of the specialized agencies
had been summarized for the Council
in separate annual reports but he left
no doubt of the important role played
by the agencies in international ac-
tion. Among the major problems
and tasks concerning the United Na-
tions itself or in association with the
specialized agencies, within the last
year, he said, were the peaceful uses
of atomic energy; financing econom-
ic development; annual reporting to
the Council on world economic con-
ditions; promotion of industrializa-
tion and productivity; water utiliza-
tion and conservation; community
development; problems of urbaniza-
tion and demographic problems and
international measures for further
advancing the cause of human rights.
While conceding that it was diffi-
cult to appraise the precise influence
of international action on economic
and social progress since World
War II, Mr. Hammarskjold asserted
that it was certain that such action
had proved itself effective over a
wide field and in many counrties.
“One must be on guard against
claiming too much credit for the
international organizations them-
selves, which represent a collective
expression of the policies and atti-
tudes of governments,” Mr. Ham-
marskjold warned. “Nevertheless, if
economic and social progress in the
last decade appears to be more
solidly based, and more in harmony
with new forces, than the progress
achieved in the 1920’s now seems in
retrospect, part of the difference
must be ascribed to action through

international organizations. The ex-
perience of the 1930's, the experi-
ence of the war, the new techniques
taught and learned in both periods,
the emergence of the underdevel-
oped countries and their ‘revolution
of rising expectations’ — all these
together have obviously provided a
new and stimulating setting in which
the international organizations have
been directed and encouraged by
governments to do their work,” the
Secretary-General observed.

The use of atomic energy, a field
in which studies are being made on
health aspects and personnel needs,
together with water control and utili-
zation, on which the Secretariat and
several agencies are working, was in
many areas an essential condition of
any significant acceleration of the
rate of industrialization, a field in
which the initiative shown by the
Council “has stimulated great inter-
est among the underdeveloped coun-
tries.”

Industrialization, however, is not
simply a tool that can be handed
over from one society to another,
Mr. Hammarskjold suggested. It is
also a way of life with implications
beyond the economic field and with
potentialities for harm as well as
good. “Due attention must therefore
be given in our work to the social
aspects of the industrialization pro-
cess to questions of housing, labor,
migration, social services, education
and the various other social prob-
lems that become particularly urgent
during the transition from one type
of economy to another.”

One of these problems is urban-
ization—“not necessarily a goal to

UNR—August 1956

be universally sought today, at least
not in the chaotic form in which it
so often appears”’—and Mr. Ham-
marskjold said that he viewed the
process of development as one re-
quiring balanced and coordinated ac-
tion in a variety of fields, that is, one
of organic growth of a total society.

Such a growth, he said, demands
complete cooperation and “this ne-
cessity has been made into a virtue
in the case of what is known today
as community development,” which
has emerged as an empirical princi-
ple from efforts at development in
rural areas and which is now a major
focus of United Nations activity in
the social field. Other aids to im-
provement in that field include the
development of statistical informa-
tion in particular demographic data
gathered in conjunction with the
population census to be taken
around 1960, a task aided by two
regional seminars held in Bandung
and Rio de Janeiro.

“There is no doubt that as a
result of measures taken by the
Council, international efforts and re-
sources are now far better concen-
trated on objectives of major impor-
tance than in the early years,” Mr.
Hammarskjold said.

He welcomed the early prospect
of the establishment of an Interna-
tional Finance Corporation which,
through the International Bank, will
seek relationship with the United
Nations as a specialized agency.
Mr. Hammarskjold predicted that
the Corporation would contribute
notably to the process of industrial-
ization in underdeveloped countries.
He noted that the promotion of in-
ternational trade is one of the Coun-
cil’s priority programs and hoped
that appropriate international ar-
rangements in that field might be
made shortly so as to fill a gap that
has too long existed in the machin-
ery for international cooperation.

To help the United Nations pur-
sue its overriding program priority
—development of underdeveloped
countries—Mr. Hammarskjold sug-
gested consideration of a new long-
term approach to the organization
of international economic aid with
strong emphasis on development of
a special international service to

UNR—August 1956

assist governments in the tremen-
dous problem of administration.
This, he proposed, would be a
career service under international
responsibility open to qualified men
and women of any nationality who
would work as officials in the na-
tional administrations of underdevel-
oped countries. Mr. Hammarskjold
said that the lack of adequate gove-
ernment machinery to administer
ambitious economic development
plans often threatens their success.

Other suggestions by Mr. Ham-

marskjold were that the United Na-
tions and the specialized agencies
pay more attention to the develop-
ment of international programs in
Africa, where there have been little
more than the beginnings of effec-
tive international action; and in the
Middle East, where in due course
it will be possible for the United
Nations Department of Economic
and Social Affairs and the Tech-

nical Assistance Administration to
have a combined office served by a
permanently resident staff.

Mr. Hammarskjold reviewed the
work of the Council in the past ten
years in the development and co-
ordination of the activities of the
United Nations and the specialized
agencies. For the future, Mr. Ham-
marskjold pointed out that in re-
spect of international technical as-
sistance activities alone, as_ the
Technical Assistance Board has
brought out, resources many times

. 4

e

The Secretary-General

the size of those now available are
called for. “I hope it may now be
possible to consider the problem of
international aid from a broader
angle and to reappraise the whole
scale of the action that should be
undertaken through the United Na-
tions organizations in favor of the
economic and social development of
the underdeveloped countries,” Mr.
Hammarskjold concluded.

The Rhine River—one of the world’s most vital “highways”

WATER

and the

World ‘Today

for travel and commerce.

International cooperation in the development and use
of water resources is a priority program of the United
Nations and the interested specialized agencies. An ex-
ample of action contemplated is contained in a resolu-
tion passed last summer by the Economic and Social
Council. The resolution urges the Secretary-General
and the specialized agencies to continue consultation on
water resources and calls the attention of governments
to the importane of demineralization of saline water
and utilization of subsoil water, Another provision re-
quests the Secretary-General to constitute a panel of
experts to review the implications of river basin develop-
ment and to advise on the proper action, including the
possibility of convening an international conference for
exchange of experience and data. In this second part of
a two-part article, the REVIEW presents a detailed sum-
mary of past and present international action to make

better use of the earth’s most vital liquid—water.

UNR—August 1956

A GLANCE at the map will show arid zones as rela-
. tively empty, while river basins tend to be crowded
and, in many cases, dangerously over-crowded. Here
again, the raindrop, forming into waterways, has dictated
where man would settle in his great communities. The
rivers have given him water for his fields and for his
home, but they have also offered him highways for
travel and commerce which have played an important
part in the mingling of his cultures. Even now, water
transport along the world’s rivers and canals is still one
of the leading methods by which goods are moved—
agricultural produce to the market, raw materials to
the factory and manufactured goods to the shops.

Quite a considerable proportion of mankind spends its
entire life from birth to death on little river craft. This
is especially true in South East Asia and the Far East,
where numerous travellers have described the pictures-
que, floating population that moves with merchandise
up and down the congested waterways from sunrise to
lantern-lighting.

The Transport and Communications Commission of
the United Nations and the corresponding Division of
the Secretariat, closely follows problems connected
with the world’s inland waterways. The Division pub-
lishes relevant statistics and the quarterly Transport
and Communications Review. Inland waterways have
also been studied by the Regional Economic Commis-
sions, one of which, ECAFE, publishes a quarterly Trans-
port Bulletin.

A number of countries have asked the United Na-
tions for assistance on inland navigation problems as a
part of their economic development programs. Ten ex-
perts in South East Asia and the Far East were sent
by the United Nations and ECAFE on a three month
study tour in Asia, Europe and North America, while
a United Nations expert recommended to the Govern-
ment of India the establishment of an Inland Water
Transport Demonstration Centre. The United Nations
has also provided the services of a firm of naval archi-
tects in the Netherlands to work out and test designs
for special barges and tugs to be used on the Indian
waterways. Similar advice was sought from the United
Nations by Pakistan, and another United Nations expert
travelled by canoe along the tropical waterways of
Bolivia. His mission was to advise the Government on
the best sites for the building of river ports and on the
most suitable type of river craft to transport that coun-
try’s minerals and timber downstream.

Apart from these assignments with a limited objec-
tive, experts have been provided by the United Nations to
advise such countries as Pakistan, Indonesia and Bolivia
on multi-purpose water development to provide for
urban water supplies, irrigation facilities and water-con-
suming industries.

The amount of water daily consumed by industry
would come as a surprise to many people. Here we
have as striking a proof as any of man’s dependence on
the raindrop. “Water is the key to our present civiliza-
tion,” said Mr. Carl G. Paulsen, Chief of the Water

UNR—August 1956

Resource Division of the United States Geological Sur-
vey. It is believed that some 325,000 million kilowatt
hours of energy are consumed every year by industrial
and domestic users, yet this huge figure does not amount
to more than five per cent of the world’s potential
resources in waterpower. The demand for water in in-
dustry grows from year to year, as industrialization
develops and cities expand. In the United States, more
water is now used in industry than in agriculture and a
commission estimated that by 1975 industry will be
using two-thirds of all the available fresh water. By that
time, it is estimated that the daily demand for all pur-
poses may well have doubled, although in many parts
of the country the total use of water is already reaching
physical or economic limits. By weight of material han-
died, the water supply industry in the United States is
already seven times as big as all other industries put to-
gether. In that country, ten gallons of water are required
to produce one gallon of petrol, twenty-four gallons to
produce a pound of paper, seventy gallons to make a
pound of woolen cloth and 65,000 gallons to produce
a single ton of highly finished steel.

Principal Industrial Uses

There are five principal uses for which industry re-
quires a supply of water—cooling, processing, steam
generation, sanitary services, and fire protection and
miscellaneous requirements such as air conditioning.
The Bureau of Economic Affairs quotes a study of a
large number of industries which showed that one-third
of the water used by industry was for cooling and an
equal amount for processing. In recent years, large
amounts of water have been required for air conditioning
a large building may use for this purpose as much

4
ae
Ww

Water in industry: cooling sheets of steel as they roll
through the conveyors in a mill at Denain, France.

35

water in a single day as 1s normally required by a city
of 25,000 people.

Without an adequate supply of water, other raw mate-
rials and human labor itself remain unused and idle. In
any industrial program, the development of national
or regional water resources is a first essential and this
problem must be in the minds of government and
United Nations technical assistance planners from the
first stages of their cooperation. Quite apart from the
use of water for irrigation, an important new demand
is arising for better urban water supplies wherever in-
dustrialization is causing a growth in the population
of cities. This is a problem for which a solution has
often to be found speedily, both for industrial and
health reasons.

All cities are confronted by the problem of how to
dispose of their waste materials and those which have
no adequate system of waste disposal soon suffer the
consequences in terms of disease and inadequate living
conditions. The great industrial centres constantly pour
out waste chemicals which must be disposed of before
the’ can affect health, while the waste products of a
city’s population offer another gigantic disposal problem.
London is faced each day with the task of dealing with
some 400 million gallons of human waste alone. In all
the town-planning projects to which the United Nations
has been asked to contribute expert advice, this ques-
tion of waste disposal and sanitation has been amongst
the first problems to be considered and it plays a very
great part in the plans for better environmental sanita-
tion worked out by wHo.

Turning Waste to Man’s Use

The waste material from cities must be treated to
destroy germs if it is not to breed continuing disease,
and the essential factor in this process is oxygen. The
latter is provided by mechanical means requiring the
use of expensive power. Engineers have tried to re-
duce the cost of this operation by allowing the waste
materials to absorb oxygen from the air in large ponds,
before being discharged into streams and other water-
courses. It was found that the carbon dioxide released
from the waste material encouraged the growth of cer-
tain simple green plants called algae. These minute
plants, through the action of sunlight, enable the bac-
teria present in the waste materials to do their cleansing
work more effectively than if the algae were not present.

This discovery may turn out to be one of the most
remarkable of our time. The sanitary engineer has hopes
of using the algae at virtually no cost to complete a
breaking down process which formerly entailed very
heavy expense.

Other possibilities opened up by the sanitary engi-
neers’ discovery have been discussed by FAO and WHO.
These agencies are concerned with the rapid increase
in world population and the widespread under-nourish-
ment and consequent lack of resistance to disease,
which already exist. Algae may provide one of the
richest and cheapest sources of food available to man.

36

They have a protein content of some fifty-five per cent
and can be harvested every two days. While the normal
crop yield on most of the world’s farms is less than
two tons annually per acre, algae culture in waste
material has yielded up to thirty-six tons. No city can
avoid producing these waste materials and so far those
with the most advanced engineering systems have been
able to dispose of it only at a great cost in time, money
and effort. Perhaps the very increase of our cities may,
paradoxically, offer a means of providing a great and
growing supply of essential protein from algae grown
in waste material and water. Human waste products
contain chemicals valuable for plant life which, in turn,
use them to build essential human food. The greater the
population, the greater the number of food-growing
plants which can draw sustenance from its waste prod-
ucts. There is at least a possibility that we may reduce
man’s lack of protein by turning the sewage of his cities
to practical use.

Algae, however, also constitute a threat to man and
nature in certain conditions. Their effects have been
noted in some of the mountain lakes of Switzerland. As
in the human body, certain chemico-biological actions
are continually taking place beneath the surface of lakes
and a lake may become sick from the action of a poison
and thus be a menace to the welfare of man. Increasing
quantities of waste material pouring into the lake water
have caused an overproduction of.algae, which thrive
upon some of the chemicals released by the waste ma-
terial. When the dead plants sink through the water, the
lake does not contain enough oxygen in soluble form to
provide for the chemico-biological digestion of this
vegetable matter. Digestion, therefore, takes place by
means of bacteriological processes during which one of
the products, hydrogen sulfide, acts as a poison both to
plants and animals and throws the lake’s chemico-
biological system out of balance. A dark sludge forms
on the bottom, on which the eggs deposited by those
types of fish most highly regarded as a source of food
suffocate and rot, instead of undergoing further develop-
ment. An ugly vegetation of masses of algae grows
along the lake shores and the surroundings, made pic-
turesque for thousands of years by the deep blue lakes,
lose a good deal of their charm. The “sickness” of cer-
tain lakes due to an explosive increase in the quantity
of algae points to a danger against which man must
protect himself, but most specialists in this field do not
see in these developments a threat to the value of algae
in general as an aid to human waste disposal and as a
potential source of food for mankind.

We have watched the raindrop turn into water, the
bringer of blessings, and into water that carries sudden
or lingering death. Industrial chemicals poured out
from man’s factories and the waste products of man
himself are not the only threats that may lie concealed
in the waters. So vital is the need for a safe water sup-
ply that World Health Day in 1955 was devoted, at the
instigation of WHO, to spreading an understanding of
what safe water means to human health.

It is estimated that in India alone 4,000 people die

UNR—August 1956

The vitamin content of seaweeds being analyzed by a
researcher at work at Split, Yugoslavia.

every day from water-borne diseases. This means about 2
million people a year in a single country, where 50 million

persons annually suffer from such diseases. Only about
six per cent of India’s people enjoy the benefit of a safe
water supply and barely one-sixth of India’s towns have
this advantage, even on an incomplete scale. Examples
are by no means lacking elsewhere of what this implies
in terms of health. During four out of the five years
from 1940-44, water-borne diseases were the leading
cause of death in Venezuela, where official surveys
showed that three-quarters of the population were with-
out safe water supplies. Sanitary engineers calcluated
that the provision of safe water would return eight times
the sum invested, while two million people would be
receiving seven times the amount of water they pre-
viously had—and that water would be safe. Over great
areas of Asia, the working housewife spends nearly a
quarter of her active hours in finding and bringing water.
With unremitting effort, she draws it from rivers, canals
and tanks which in most cases are constantly polluted.
As a result, water-borne disease in her family ranks next
in importance to malaria. The Deputy Director of
WHO’s Regional Office for South East Asia, Dr. S. F.
Chellapah, has said that a solution would be found for
half the ill health in that region if safe drinking water
could be provided and if man’s food could also be
protected against contamination.

It is only in quite recent times that even the most
medically advanced countries have brought this situa-
tion under control. In the United States, the number of

UNR—August 1956

city dwellers provided with safe water more than
doubled between 1900 and 1940, while water-borne
diseases and deaths from this cause were reduced by
ninety per cent. The danger, however, is still present,
waiting for an opportunity to strike. In 1937, a momen-
tary breakdown in the water purification system of
Croydon, a London suburb, let loose a serious epidemic
of typhoid fever; in the years immediately following
World War II, 25,000 people died annually in Europe
from the same cause.

The connection of water with certain diseases was
first established about 100 years ago. In the summer of
1854, cholera broke out in a London parish, and, within
ten days, 500 people had died from the disease. A Lon-
don physician, Dr. John Snow, rejecting the view that
cholera was caused by foul odors, advanced the revolu-
tionary theory that it was conveyed through water. Most
of the inhabitants of the parish drew water from a street
pump. When Dr. Snow had the handle removed from
this pump, the epidemic quickly came to an end. A few
years later, Dr. William Budd established that the
enteric fevers could be transmitted by the same means.
The public health movement which resulted from these
discoveries in England led to a marked decline in water-
borne disease. The death rate from enteric fevers fell
from 395 to less than one per million of the population.
Typhoid, once general throughout the United States, has
become so rare that few medical students can ever
observe a case during their years of training.

What Is Safe Drinking Water?

The battle against unsafe water has been won in
some countries, but in others it is only beginning. At the
Fundamental Education Centre on Lake Patzcuaro in
Mexico, health workers attempted to persuade the in-
habitants of nearby villages not to draw water from the
lake. They were received in at least one instance with
volleys of stones and the villagers closed their doors
against them. Soon, a typhoid epidemic claimed several
victims in the village. Some of the village women then
inquired if what they had overheard behind closed doors
was true and if the typhoid could really be due to the
lake water, as the health workers had declared. Finally,
the villagers agreed to accept advice and, with the help
of the Governor of the region, they sank a well. A
subsequent outbreak of typhoid passed their village by
and the womenfolk can now be seen waiting patiently by
their well long after midnight in the dry season. The
evidence has convinced them. Nothing would now in-
duce a single villager to drink from the lake.

As to what constitutes safe drinking water, there are
almost as many standards as there are tests. WHO
is engaged in a world-wide study of the possibility of
establishing international standards for the quality of
drinking water, a proposition that formed the basis of a
meeting held in Manila in April 1956. It is possible,
WHO believes, to draft approvable international stand-
ards of quality and uniform methods of examining
water.

37

In Iraq, as elsewhere, efforts have been stepped up to
wipe out the costly disease of malaria.

Man himself is the source of practically all water-
borne disease. His habit of living in communities leaves
him exposed to the ill-effects of impurities put in the
water supply by his own friends and neighbors. The
micro-organisms causing cholera, typhoid and certain
forms of dysentery are not naturally present in the
water. They get there by accident or human careless-
ness, and it is relatively easy to remove them. The
agents of these diseases are passed into the water in the
waste products of a human being and are taken in by
another through the water which he drinks or which
contaminates his food. Man does not have to be actively
ill to be the cause of infection and may still carry and
transmit disease after convalescence. In some countries,
as many as ten per cent of the people regularly produce
the bacilli of typhoid. In others, certain worm infections
spread through water are practically universal and there
are areas where it is believed that half the effort of
cultivating food goes to sustain the intestinal worms
that keep the people sick.

Breaking this simple chain would save millions of
lives each year. It is in the very countries where in-
creased agricultural and industrial production is most
necessary that water-borne disease often renders a large
percentage of the potential producers chronically sick.
So long as water supplies and sanitation remain inade-
quate, there will be little hope of improvement. More-
over, the consequences of using unsafe water are
enormously costly to the under-developed countries and
are a major obstacle in the path of their progress.

Even the safest water is never “pure” in a chemical
sense and, besides removing harmful bacteria from drink-
ing water, we must maintain the percentage of dissolved
minerals and other substances below the level at which
it could have harmful effects on man.

38

Just as the waters of the earth are part of a giant cycle
from cloud to earth and back to cloud, so are the water
molecules of our bodies dynamic links in life process.
Water comprises about seventy per cent of the human
body and one half of these water molecules are replaced
every eight days. It is therefore clear that substances pres-
ent in drinking water can be of the greatest importance to
human health. Of all these substances naturally present
in water supplies, fluorine may prove to be one of the
most interesting. When present in a concentration of
about one part per million, it has been shown to reduce
by some two thirds tooth decay among children drink-
ing the water. As a result, fluorine is now being increas-
ingly introduced in careful doses into water supplies
which do not naturally contain it. This is not being done
without opposition, as the compounds of fluorine which
are added to water are poisonous in massive doses.
However, scientists say that there is no evidence of any
toxic effects resulting from a concentration of fluorine
as small as that recommended to arrest dental decay. In
fact, one leading chemist, A. P. Black, Head of the
Department of Chemistry of the University of Florida,
in an article written for the WHO Newsletter, went so
far as to say: “History will report the addition to
fluorides to public water supplies for the reduction of
dental decay as one of the great landmarks in the his-
tory of public health of the world, not only in this
generation but in this century.”

The Eradication of Malaria

One of the greatest tasks faced in international techni-
cal assistance programs is helping governments to pro-
vide safe water for the world’s peoples, but the heal prob-
lem is relation to water does not end when safe drinking
water is available to all. There are two widespread and
immensely costly diseases associated with water in a
different way from those we have have been considering
—malaria and bilharziasis, also known as schisto-
somiasis. WHO, through its Regional Offices, is helping
in the campaign against both.

The most widespread is malaria, the mosquito car-
riers of which breed especially in swampy areas. Few
illnesses cause as much human suffering and economic
loss. Apart from actual deaths due to it, malaria greatly
reduces resistance to other diseases. It prevents children
from attaining their full mental development and it
undermines the ability of adults to grow sufficient food
or to earn a full wage. Its economic effects are dis-
astrous in many countries. A single Egyptian plantation
lost the equivalent of $600,000 in 1942-43, because
most of the laborers were prostrated with malaria and
one-third of the sugar cane and half of the wheat crop
could not be harvested.

Since the mosquitoes breed near water, drainage of
their chosen swamps has proved successful in certain
areas. More than 50,000 people settled on the formerly
deserted Pontine Marshes near Rome, after drainage
operations. Draining, however, is usually expensive and
sometimes even impracticable.

UNR—August 1956

It would appear that there are about 580 million
people—more than one-fifth of the world’s population
—exposed to the risk of malaria. Experts believe that
now is the time to launch a campaign for its complete
eradication from many parts of the world within a given
time limit. Already, the carrier-mosquitoes in certain
regions are developing immunity to DDT and the ex-
perts have urged that mankind may still have time,
perhaps five years, to exterminate the disease before
mosquitoes develop this immunity on a really alarming
scale. In 1955, the World Health Assembly and UNICEF
both agreed to support a world-wide plan with this ob-
jective. If successful, such a campaign will have enor-
mous repercussions on human welfare and on the eco-
nomic development of vast areas of the globe.

Less well-known than malaria, but equally damaging,
is another disease of hot countries which is transmitted
to man through water. This disease is variously known
as bilharziasis and schistosomiasis. It is caused by a
minute worm which gets in the human bloodstream and
profoundly affects the victim’s physical and mental
powers. At least 150 million people suffer from this
disease, which is usually caught in childhood or in
adolescence and then develops progressively. If the suf-
ferers do not die, they are incapacitated by the time
they reach the most productive period of their life. At
present, there is no known cure for this disease and,
since most of the sufferers are agricultural workers, the
drain on their health has a serious effect on food
production.

The parasite which causes this disease spends part
of its life cycle in the body of a small variety of snail,
which lives in stagnant or softly flowing water. Leaving
the snail, immense numbers of the tiny organisms swim
about in the water and some of them penetrate the skin

Avoiding waters infested with parasite-carrying snails
is often difficult for the workers in hot countries.

UNR—August 1956

of human beings or domestic animals. The parasite
works its way into the bloodstream and eventually lays
its eggs in the intestinal veins. From here, it maxes its
escape with the waste products of the body into the
stagnant water, where the host snails are waiting for it,
to complete its life cycle.

Anyone who walks or washes in water where there
are snails is in constant danger of infection. Sometimes,
the local population cannot avoid this contact. In the
Philippines farmers are obliged to walk through their
wet rice paddies, while many children must wade
through swampy areas on their way to school. In Egypt,
the fellahin live in close contact with the irrigation
canals which are the source of their livelihood. More
than half the people of Egypt are afflicted with one of
two forms of the disease known there, and many with
both. It is indirectly responsible for some twenty per cent
of all deaths in the country and for an estimated: loss of
Egyptian £ 80 million every year.

War on Parasite-Carrying Snail

WHO experts are at work on bilharziasis control proj-
ects at Leyte in the Philippines and at Calioub, near
Cairo. Leyte was chosen because the area consists of
plains through which slow rivers meander, forming rice
paddies and uncultivated swamps. The rich grass and
lush tropical vegetation are an ideal habitat for snails
and bilharziasis is rife. WHO's experts are working with
Philippine scientists to collect information on the
biology and life of the snail which will make it possible
to interrupt the life cycle of the disease-bearing parasite.

The problem is extremely complex. No non-toxic and
easily administered drug exists to attack the parasite in
the human body and it is largely this fact which has led
researchers to concentrate on the snail. Chemicals which
might destroy a large proportion of snails in the water
cannot be used, because they would also damage the
rice crop. Cutting the rich grass and vegetation tends to
drive many of the snails from their favorite haunts and
this method is being tried in association with agricultural
experts who are advising Philippine farmers on im-
proved rice cultivation by the introduction of such tech-
niques as thorough weeding of the paddies. However,
a few infected snails may do great damage to human
health and this method alone does not offer more than
a partial remedy.

To prevent pollution of the water by human beings
would require the introduction of a comprehensive
sanitation system and would inevitably take a long time.
The experts are therefore working to devise a means by
which the snail can be ousted or have its own life cycle
interrupted in some way, so that it can no longer act
as host to the parasite. For this purpose, the WHO
expert, Dr. Norman Hairston, says that a scientist fight-
ing this problem must “learn to think like a snail.” The
collection of data about these snails is a laborious proc-
ess and, although the experts are confident of success,
they anticipate no lightning victory.

The patience of the wxo bilharziasis researchers is
typical of that which nearly all technical assistance ex-

39

perts have to show. In most cases, they are obliged,
like their counterparts in the countries concerned, to
struggle with slender resources against vast problems.
The great majority of them have little reason to hope
for complete success during their assignment of a few
months or even years. The most they can achieve is
often to lay the foundations for future constructive
work. When they leave for home, such experts are well
satisfied to know that their advice has been useful to
the government which invited them. A few, however,
have the satisfaction of seeing results, sometimes very
striking results, in the small area of their pilot project.
They know that this project will be multipled in other
areas after they have gone, until eventually whole coun-
tries will have received the benefits they came to bring.

Rural Electrification

Now. and again, the exceptional happens. In a single
sentence, an expert may report one episode which lights
up his whole endeavor and makes clear the objective
of an entire project. In the case of one expert, G. P.
Print, of the United Kingdom, that moment came when
he saw a hand reaching for a switch. The hand was that
of a Yugoslav villager. For the first time, he was touch-
ing an electric light switch in his own home. Mr. Print
has spoken of the pride with which such a villager sees
his house flooded with light thanks to a rural electrifica-
tion scheme and he has also told of the satisfaction felt
by a United Nations expert whose advice had helped
to bring this transformation about.

Before leaving his assignment, Mr. Print forecast
some of the changes likely to occur in these Yugoslav
villages as the result of harnessing that country’s moun-

tain rivers to produce electricity. Cheap electric light
will enable the women to earn extra money by making
the embroidery for which Yugoslavia is famous and
they will be helped in their household tasks by a com-
munal electric laundry. Power from the same source
will irrigate garden plots and make it easier to raise
vegetables for home use or for sale.

Ihe same United Nations expert foresaw that even
UNESCO’s battle against ignorance in many parts of the
world would be made easier as electrification spreads.
Electric light will encourage reading, with all its in-
calculable consequences, both in the individual iife and
in the national culture. Electric current will also lead to
a demand for radio receivers on an increasing scale and
the touch of another switch will bring a whole new
world of entertainment and instruction into millions of
hitherto isolated homes. The showing of educational
films becomes possible even in hastily improvised con-
ditions, once an electric supply has been provided.
Broader horizons and new interests make the conditions
of rural living profoundly different from what past cen-
turies of isolation have imposed on so many villagers.

In its headlong career from cloud back to cloud, the
raindrop performs many essential services for mankind.
It bears his laden craft along the rivers, it keeps the
wheels of his great factories turning and it changes the
very color of his planet from brown to green. Perhaps,
however, its most unexpected gift is this power which
it offers man, through electricity, to participate in the
joys and sorrows of his fellow-men beyond the mountain
or across the globe and even to thrust further and
further back the frontiers of his own knowledge and

thought.

The old and the new at a power relay station of the Jablanica hydroelectric system in Yugoslavia.

UNR—August 1956

Security Council Decides

Not to Consider

THE ALGERIAN QUESTION

HE “grave situation” in Algeria was brought to the

attention of the Security Council on April 12 by
seventeen African and Asian Members of the United
Nations which contended that deteriorating conditions
there were likely to endanger peace and security in the
area. The United Nations, they submitted, could not
remain indifferent to the situation which, they said, also
involved the infringement of the basic right of self-
determination and constituted a flagrant violation of
other fundamental human rights.

The states in the group were Afghanistan, Burma,
Ceylon, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan,
Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, Thailand and Yemen.

Two months later, on June 13, thirteen Members—
the same group, without Burma, Ceylon, India and
the Philippines—asked for a meeting of the Council to
consider the situation under Article 35, paragraph 1,
of the Charter, which provides that any Member may
bring any dispute, or any situation which might lead to
international friction or give rise to a dispute, to the
attention of the Council or of the General Assembly.

They requested Council action in view of the ag-
gravated situation which, they contended, had further
worsened because of the nature and scope of recent
French military actions which had resulted in grievous
loss of human life. They regarded immediate considera-
tion as essential.

Earlier Developments

As reviewed in the earlier explanatory memorandum
of April 12, developments had taken place as follows:

On January 5, 1955, Saudi Arabia brought the ques-
tion to the attention of the Council and reserved the
right to request the calling of a meeting to consider it.

At the Bandung Conference in April 1955, the Asian-
African states declared their support of the rights of the
people of Algeria to self-determination and independ-
ence and urged the French Government to bring about
a peaceful settlement of the issue without delay.

“As this question continued to remain unsolved,”
the memorandum continued, “the Bandung powers had

UNR—August 1956

to resort to the United Nations for a peaceful settlement
based on law and justice and in conformity with the
legitimate wishes and aspirations of the Algerian
people.”

By a majority vote, the General Assembly decided
to place the question of Algeria on the agenda of its
tenth session, but later, “inspired by the new construc-
tive steps taken by France on the questions of Tunisia
and Morocco,” the Asian-African states, along with
other states, agreed to postpone discussion. Such a
move, they said, was also intended to give France an
opportunity to reconsider its policy on the question of
Algeria.

Despite this gesture of conciliation, however, they
added, the French Government “persisted in ignoring
the legitimate demands of the Algerian people and the
appeals of the Bandung Conference.” Consequently,
the deterioration continued.

“Because of the gravity of the situation, the rep-
resentatives of the Asian-African states met on January
25, 1956,” the memorandum recalled. “They reviewed
the situation and, in a statement, expressed their ‘grave
concern’ that ‘no improvement in the situation has
taken place.’ The group expressed the hope ‘that the
French Government will take expeditious action to
find a satisfactory and just solution to the question of
Algeria.’ ”

Despite those repeated appeals, however, the mem-
orandum observed, the French Government “refused
to enter into negotiations with the representatives of
the Algerian people to meet their legitimate demands”
and instead “intensified the use of force in its policy of
repression.”

“Reports from Algeria,” it added, “put the total cas-
ualties, as a result of this policy, at thousands of killed
and wounded. Pitched battles and skirmishes are occur-
ring every day. The French Government is deploying
more and more troops to Algeria, and casualties are
mounting as military operations continue throughout
the country. Algeria appears to be in a state of siege.”

The Council held two meetings on June 26. At the
beginning, Arkady A. Sobolev, of the U.S.S.R., pro-
posed that discussion of the question be postponed

41

indefinitely on the understanding that the Council might
be convened after consultation between members and
the President. He felt that the Council needed more
time to discuss the situation or to collect the necessary
information.

Dr. Djalal Abdoh, Iran’s representative in the Coun
cil who spoke for all thirteen of the sponsoring states,
emphasized that the discussion should take place as a
matter of urgency, in accordance with their request.
However, in a spirit of cooperation, he would not
object to the U.S.S.R. proposal. He expressed the hope
that “in the meantime genuine efforts will be made to
ensure greater harmony, both in the Security Council
and outside it, on the Algerian question.”

Hervé Alphand, of France, on the other hand,
pointed out that the request had been received from the
thirteen states on June 18 and contended that there was
no justification for further delay and that there could
be no question of adjourning a meeting for which the
agenda had not even been adopted.

He was supported by Joseph Nisot, of Belgium, and
Sir Pierson Dixon, of the United Kingdom.

Only the Soviet Union voted in favor of the pro-
posal, the effect of which would have been to adjourn
the meeting without deciding on an agenda. Australia,
Belgium, Cuba, France, Peru, the United Kingdom and
the United States voted against, and China, Iran and
Yugoslavia abstained. The proposal was therefore lost
by a vote of 1-7, with 3 abstentions.

When the Council then turned to its provisional
agenda, Mr. Alphand requested it not to include the
thirteen-delegation complaint and expressed the hope
that the provisional agenda would not be adopted.

“Sovereignty Did Not Disappear”

“The French Government,” he said, “considers that
Algerian affairs are matters essentially within the do-
mestic jurisdiction of France.”

For his part, Dr. Abdoh pointed out that Algeria was
an independent country before French forces landed
there in 1830.

“When France conquered Algeria,” he declared, “the
sovereignty which was vested in the Algerian people
did not disappear; it merely remained dormant and
was able to be reawakened by a national movement
like the one now taking place.” Maintaining that “the
whole world recognizes that the right of a people to
self-determination is an inalienable right,” he said that
the question the Council was asked to examine was
“purely a colonial one, since Algeria forms part of the
French colonial empire.”

Dr. Abdoh also contended that if the French argu-
ment that Algeria lay within its domestic jurisdiction
could be validly invoked, “the legitimacy of the very
existence of many countries in this Council, and also
of many United Nations Member states, might easily
be contested.”

After citing examples, including that of the United
States which, he said, “established its existence as a
great sovereign state by revolting against England, of

42

which it had formed an integral part,” he declared:
“Besides, if one accepts the French point of view,
colonialism would have found an easy way of per-
petuating itself, since all any colonial state would have
to do would be to confer on the inhabitants of one of
its territories so-called equal status with the citizens of
the ‘mother country’ and thus prolong its domination
of that people.”

Dr. Abdoh went on to maintain that the fact that a
reference to the settlement of the Algerian problem was
contained in the Franco-Soviet communique issued on
May 19, after the visit of French Premier Guy Mollet
to Moscow, showed that France “accepted, tacitly at
least, the idea that the Algerian problem could not be
considered as an essentially French affair.”

He told the Council that when the African and Asian
nations agreed at the tenth Assembly session to post-
pone consideration of the Algerian question, they cher-
ished the hope that France would take measures there
similar to those enacted in Tunisia and Morocco. How-
ever, he continued, those hopes had proved vain. Mili-
tary measures had been expanded, and the armed con-
flict had “attained the proportions of a colonial war.”

“If we take into account the extent of the military
operations and the resulting loss of life,’ Dr. Abdoh
declared, “we can but conclude that we are faced with
a full-scale war, with all its consequences at both the
national and the international level. Even if there were
any doubts about the status of Algeria, this war would
still be a full-scale civil war. Nothing in international
law prevents a civil war from assuming, in certain cases,
the character of a conflict whose effects go beyond the
national level to the international level.”

Drawing attention to the “grave repercussions” of
the “war in Algeria” on Tunisia and Morocco, Dr.
Abdoh added: “Not only that, but the Algerian tragedy
is passing beyond North Africa and threatens to set
the whole African continent on fire.”

He went on to emphasize the solidarity between the
Afro-Asian peoples and the Algerian people, saying:
“There is talk now of the possibility that the Arab states
might consider a cultural and economic boycott of
France. The workers’ unions refuse to load or supply
provisions to French ships in the Suez Canal. The
Syrian Government has suspended the delivery of wheat
to France. Violent attacks against France are being
made more and more frequently in the press, in the
streets, at public meetings and in the parliaments of the
Afro-Asian countries.

“Is it possible for the Council to ignore all these
implications of the war in Algeria without failing in
the duty which the United Nations Charter has con-
ferred on it with regard to the maintenance of interna-
tional peace and security?”

The Council, he said, must include the question in
its agenda so as to determine, as stipulated in Article
34 of the Charter, if continuance of the situation threat-
ened the maintenance of international peace and
security—something the Council could not decide until
the question was included in the agenda.

UNR—August 1956

Mr. Alphand, on the other hand, said there had been
no change in the position which France had taken on
several occasions regarding the problem of the com-
petence of the United Nations in regard to the domestic
affairs of Member states. A violation of the principle
of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of a state,
he declared, “would mean the end of peace and the end
of the United Nations also.”

French sovereignty over Algeria, he stated, had been
exercised for more than 120 years, and had been
“implicitly or explicitly recognized by all members of
the international community.” He added that all states
which had requested the permission of France to open
consulates in Algeria had recognized that sovereignty.

“Maintaining Public Order’’

“France is doing no more in Algeria than exercising
one of the most normal attributes of domestic sov-
ereignty,” Mr. Alphand asserted. “It is endeavoring to
maintain public order which has been disturbed by
rebellious citizens; it is trying to prevent, or, if that has
proved impossible, to punish the killings, the brutalities,
fires and robberies which certain French-Algerians are
committing against other French-Algerians, whether
Christians or Mohammedans.

“Is there any need to repeat that it would be the
most dangerous of precedents to recognize the right of
the United Nations to intervene between the government
of a state and those of its citizens who are disturbing
the peace? It would be a fatal precedent, for in time it
might be turned against any one of us.”

Denying that France had a colonialist program for
Algeria, he declared: “France is not a colonialist power.
It seeks merely to achieve progress for all in peace, as

its entire history shows. Its work, the essential
aim it has set itself, would be jeopardized, perhaps
irretrievably, by the intervention of third parties, by the
intervention of the United Nations.”

Regarding the Franco-Soviet communique, Mr. Al-
phand said this related merely to conversations the
precise purpose of which was to demonstrate that the
Algerian question lay essentially within French jur-
isdiction.

He contended that not even the thirteen applicant
states had been bold enough to make the claim that the
situation in Algeria was likely to endanger “inter-
national” peace and security. Their letter requesting
Council consideration, he said, stated that “the situation
had deteriorated to the extent that the United Nations
could not remain indifferent to the threat to peace and
security.” Only if a situation were a threat to “inter-
national” peace and security could it come within the
purview of the Security Council.

“In truth,” the French representative observed, “the
maintenance of order in any province of any one of the
seventy-six Member states could not in itself affect
international peace and security. To conceive of a dis-
turbance of international peace, either the forces of the
state concerned would have to go beyond its frontiers

UNR—August 1956

improperly in their operations, or third states would
have to intervene in the rebellion.”

Furthermore, he said, neither the violation of fun-
damental human rights nor the denial of the right of
self-determination was a matter within the competence
of the Security Council.

The French position was supported by the repre-
sentatives of Cuba, Peru, the United Kingdom, Belgium
and the United States, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., of the
United States, emphasized that it was the desire of his
delegation “that a truly constructive solution for Algeria
should be found as soon as possible.”

“I am sure,” he said, “that we would not wish to take
any action or conduct ourselves in such a way as to
impede the attainment of the objective which we all
desire.”

The Afro-Asian countries received the support of
Mr. Sobolev, who declared that, in order to determine
whether or not a threat to peace existed, “the parties
must be heard and the matter must be discussed in the
Security Council.”

Dr. Joza Brilej, of Yugoslavia, who abstained, said it
appeared rather doubtful that a Council discussion “at
the present moment . . . with the possibly acrimonious
debate and resulting stiffening of attitudes that might
ensue, would really serve the cause of an early and sat-
isfactory settlement.” A similar stand was taken by
Dr. T. F. Tsiang, of China, who also abstained.

For Just, Peaceful Solutions

After the vote of 2-7, with 2 abstentions, the Presi-
dent of the Council, Dr. E. Ronald Walker, of Australia,
stated:

“The Council has decided against the inscription of the
agenda item concerning Algeria, as proposed by thir-
teen governments. The debate, although relating to a
subject charged with emotion, has been for the most
part commendably restrained. From the statements we
have heard today, it will be clear that this decision of
the Council does not reflect any indifference towards
the human sufferings arising from the present situation
in Algeria or any lack of consideration for the coun-
tries that submitted this matter to the Council.

“The Council’s decision is founded on an assessment
of the specific responsibilities of the Security Council
under the Charter for the maintenance of international
peace and security. Various members have expressed
their gravest doubts regarding the opportuneness of plac-
ing the matter on our agenda as a method of assisting
in the solution of the Algerian situation and also
regarding the legal competence of the Security Council
to consider this question, in view of paragraph 7 of
Article 2 of the Charter.

“I am sure that we personally and the countries we
represent all feel the deepest concern in our hearts over
recent events in Algeria and share a common hope and
confidence that, in accordance with the expressed
determination of the French Government, these grave
problems may be brought to just and peaceful solutions
as speedily as possible.”

43

The men of many countries
who gave their lives in the
service of the United Nations
are honored by these plaques.
“In the memory of their sacri-
fice,” declared Secretary-Gen-
eral Dag Hammarskiold, “we
can seek to be worthy in our
service to the building of a
peace that will endure.”

a.
The United

we

Nations™
a ee

emembrance

of M

‘Y,, | a
of _
Who Died oe *

UNR—August 1956

HESE two memorial plaques were dedicated at United

Nations Headquarters on June 19 and 21. The first
is in memory of United Nations military observers and
members of the Secretariat who lost their lives while
serving the United Nations on its missions of observa-
tion, mediation and conciliation. The second is in re-
membrance of the men of the armed forces of the
Member states who died in Korea in the service of the
United Nations. The plaques are in the public lobby of
the General Assembly building on a wall adjacent to
the entrace to the Meditation Room.

Three years before, a plaque in memory of Count
Folke Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator in Pales-
tine, which had originally been placed at the temporary
headquarters of the United Nations at Lake Success,
was rededicated.

Among the others besides the Mediator who lost
their lives on missions of peace for the United Nations
were thirteen officers of the armed forces of France, the
United States, the United Kingdom and Belgium, as-

signed by their Governments for service as United
Nations military observers; two crew members of a
British plane chartered by the United Nations; and
seven members of the Secretariat who died on United
Nations missions in Palestine, Greece, India-Pakistan
and Somaliland.

Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and Dr. E.
Ronald Walker, of Australia, President of the Security
Council for June, took part in both dedication cere-
monies. In addition, France’s permanent representative
to the Umted Nations, Hervé Alphand, spoke at the
first unveiling on behalf of those nations which had
assigned military observers to the United Nations.

“In honoring these dead,” said Mr. Hammarskjold,
“we do more than pay fitting
respect to the memory of
their devoted service: we
affirm a living ideal. We af-
firm the abundant worth of
the tasks of mediation and
conciliation to which they
gave their service. And we
assert our faith in the ulti-
mate triumph of understand-
ing and goodwill as living
realities of true peace.”

Mr. Alphand declared:

“May the example of these
observers and members of the

UNR—August 1956

Secretariat, who died on the field of honor, be a daily re-
minder to us of our Organization’s ideal: understanding
among the people in the observance of justice and peace.”

At the second ceremony Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.,
permanent representative of the United States to the
United Nations, spoke on behalf of the United States,
which, at the request of the Security Council, had been
responsible for the unified command of all United Na-
tions and Republic of Korea forces in Korea.

“The passage of time since these men died,” he said,
“has made it all the clearer that this victory was worth
winning. At stake was the very existence of this Organ-
ization, the United Nations. At stake was the question
of whether peace-loving nations could band themselves
together to repel a ruthless and unprincipled aggression
—or whether the doctrine that might makes right would
triumph and, having triumphed in Korea, would then
without much doubt spread to the rest of the world.”

“An occasion such as this one is a poignant re-
minder,” observed the Secretary-General, “that behind
every historic action, national or international, is the
individual human being, each giving of his courage and
his devotion. Those whom we honor today were called
upon by their Governments to fight, as loyal citizens of
their own countries, for a common cause. In devoted
service they made the supreme sacrifice.

“To their memory it is fitting that we should pay
simple and humble tribute. We cannot recall the lives
they gave, and only in a small and imperfect measure
can we share the grief of those they loved and left
behind. But in paying them honor, we can resolve to
remember always their example of selfless service. In
the memory of their devotion we can find cause to
renew our own. In the memory of their sacrifice, we can

seek to be worthy in our
service to the building of a
peace that will endure.”

“The fallen,” declared Dr.
Walker, “belong to their own
people, but they belong also
to us all. Their lives and
their sacrifice were dedicated
not only to their own coun-
tries, but also to that wider
loyalty, which, in time to
come, will unite all men and
women into one peaceful fam-
ily. We shall not forget them.”

45

Modermzng Without Uprooting’

The Challenge in the Pacific Islands

_— rCHING over three million square miles of ocean
north of New Guinea and Australia are more than
2,000 small islands with a combined land area of ]
square miles, and an indigenous population of 6
Together they constitute the Trust Territory of
Pacific Islands, which has been administered by
United States since the end of the Second World Wat

Among paramount administrative problems are the
“modernizing” of life without uprooting Micronesian
cultural patterns, political development toward self-
rule, and encouragement of the Islanders to develop
their economy to the greatest extent that natural re-
sources will allow.

The Trust Territory comprises three main Micro-
nesian island groups—the Marshalls, the Marianas and
the Carolines. Prior to the Trusteeship agreement which
placed them under United States administration, the
Islands had a long history of foreign rule. Four cen-
turies ago, Spain made Guam a regular food and water
stop for vessels plying between Mexico and the Philip-
pines, and a hundred years later began to set up garri-
sons throughout the Marianas, claiming the Carolines
and the Marshalls as well. In 1885 Germany took over
the Marshalls, and in 1899 acquired the Carolines and
the Northern Marianas by purchase. At the end of the
first World War the Islands became a League of Nations
Mandate under Japanese administration, During the
second World War the United States occupied the
islands in the course of military operations, and on
November 6, 1946, announced its readiness to place
them under United Nations Trusteeship. The agreement
entered into force six months later.

When the Trusteeship Council met this summer it
had before it two reports on the Territory—the annual
report of the Administering Authority and the report
of a United Nations Visiting Mission which had spent
approximately four weeks there during February
and March

The Visiting Mission was composed of Sir John
Macpherson (United Kingdom ) , Chairman; Daniel Mas-

46

sonet (Belgium); Jose Rolz (Guatemala); and M. I
Chacko (India). Previous Missions from the Trustee

ship Council had visited the area in 1950 and 1953

United States Report

In reviewing the developments of the past year and
general conditions in the Pacific Islands, the report of
the Administering Authority says that all persons in
the Trust Territory “are subject to the same laws,
whether they be citizens, resident non-citizens, or visi-
tors. . . . Indigenous inhabitants enjoy equal and greater
rights in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands than
nationals of the metropolitan country. Nationals of the
metropolitan country and all other non-indigenous resi-
dents are restricted from owning land in the Trust
Territory or from entering business in competition with
indigenous enterprise, excepting those persons who may
have established permanent residence prior to the
present administration.”

The United States report states that its policy is
to “permit and encourage all political advancement
toward a goal of self-government which evolves through
the will, the needs, and the desires of the inhabitants.”
Present political-social structures in each island society
have “evolved through centuries of functioning to meet
the needs of its members,” it says. “The Trust Territory
Government encourages inhabitants of the Territory
to retain intrinsically valuable features of political struc-
ture and organization,” at the same time encouraging
“the learning and understanding of other cultures to
foster the wise selection, adaptation and application” of
features useful to the island population.

It remains the policy of the Administering Authority
to “employ Micronesians in all positions as quickly as
their knowledge, skills and experience are compatible
with sound administrative practices.” The report notes
as an example of this policy that during the year under
review a Micronesian Educational Minister and a Micro-
nesian Director of Public Health have replaced United
States personnel in the Marshalls District. In Saipan

UNR—August 1956

the manager and assistant manager of the Saipan branch
of the Bank of America are Saipanese. “Progress has
been particularly noteworthy in the field of medicine
and public health and in the employment of medical
practitioners to carry on many of the functions formerly
carried on by United States personnel,” the report says.

Other Observations

Other observations of the United States report are
these:

Political advancement: The process of political ad-
vancement must be gradual “in order not to incite social
revolution which might well destroy the whole structure
of indigenous societies.” Members of local advisory
bodies participate more freely and frequently, “with
less regard for individual social status or traditional
rank of fellow members.” Women’s organizations are
stimulating greater women’s interest in all local gov-
ernment affairs.

Social advancement: Disease rates continue to de-
cline and birth rates to increase, reflecting improving
health conditions. Facilities have been or are being
completed in each district to permit the return of lepers
and mental patients to their home communities. A pro-
gram is being established to examine all Micronesians

and vaccinate them against tuberculosis

Education: Education departments in the districts
have been reorganized. American personnel are being
used as teacher-trainers, with actual teaching functions
falling more and more to Micronesians themselves. A
considerable amount of printed material in the vernacu-
lar has been produced in each district. And “plans
are being formulated for the establishment in the near
future of permanent buildings and facilities for the
Pacific Islands Central School at a better location which
will permit more extensive programs in agriculture and
other special training.”

Administration: The shift of the trust Territory head-
quarters from Honolulu to Guam has been completed,
and all levels of administrative organization have been

reorganized, with a resulting increase in efficiency

Visiting Mission’s Report

The Visiting Mission’s report to the Trusteeship
Council expresses general approval of the development
of local political responsibility in the Territory, and
takes note of various practical administrative problems.

“The small size of inhabited or inhabitable land and
the manner in which it is spread over a large ocean
area, the equally small size of. the population and its
diversity of languages and cultural backgrounds, and
the relative poverty of the islands on which they live

—_—_

The Visiting Mission which reported on conditions in the Pacific Islands to the Trusteeship Council. Left to right:
Sir John Macpherson (United Kingdom), Chairman; Jose Rolz (Guatamala); Daniel Massonet (Belgium); M. E.
Chacko (India).

UNR—August 1956

47

are the main factors which determine the present prob-
lems of the Trust Territory,” the report declares.

It observes that better transportation and communi-
cations facilities between the islands seem to be required
for both coordinated development and the formation
of any kind of territorial consciousness on the part of
the population. Even so, it appeared to the Mission that
ultimate development of the Territory would be limited
by the generally poor land and the absence of other
resources such as minerals.

The Mission commented that facilities now available
to the Territory exceed by far its own means of sup-
porting them, and require heavy subsidy from the
United States Government. It had noted, the Mission
said, a tendency on the part of the Administering Au-
thority to emphasize the need to reduce the Territory’s
heavy deficit. Such a reduction, unless achieved by in-
creasing local revenues, would require a reduction of
present appropriations.

“While the Mission appreciates the fact that the
Administering Authority is already appropriating funds
to cover the deficit of the Territory,” the report says,
“It feels that the budget still fails to provide sufficient
funds for essential economic and social development.
The natural resources of the Territory are limited, but
the islands are of such strategic value to the Administer-
ing Authority that it should, in the Mission’s view,
increase its appropriations so that the development of
the Territory is not hampered.”

The Visiting Mission praised advances in the politi-
cal field, such as the replacement of a number of
traditional chiefs by elected magistrates, and the grant-
ing of the charter in 1955 to the Palau Congress, em-
powering it to promulgate local legislation. The Mission
“welcomes this and similar developments which have
taken place in recent years in the Saipan, Truk, Ponape,
and the Marshall Islands Districts,” the report says,
“and hopes that these measures will be extended to
the remaining Districts of Rota and Yap.”

At present, emphasis in the Territory is on the de-
velopment of political education and institutions, and
with this the report is in agreement. “The slow growth
of a territorial consciousness at this stage need not in
itself be regarded as a serious defect inherent in the
political structure now in existence,” it says; “indeed,
its development by means of education and a gradual
process of evolutiou may in the end be all the sounder.”

Special Problems

One present problem of which the Mission took note
is the division of the Territory’s administration between
civil and naval authorities, resulting, in effect, in the
separation of the Marianas group into two districts
deriving administrative authority from two different
sources. One of the difficulties resulting from this
situation has to do with travel documents required by
citizens of the Territory wishing to enter Guam and the
Saipan District. The Mission said that complaints were
voiced over these difficulties, since the people of the

48

Marianas group are linked to each other and to Guam
both economically and culturally, and depend on Guam
as a market for their produce and as a source of em-
ployment opportunities. The Mission report “wonders
whether, if it could be arranged without prejudice to
essential security requirements, the interests of the Sai-
pan District would not be better served by the transfer
of the administration of the district to the civil govern-
ment of the Trust Territory.”

Another problem which the Visiting Mission regards
as of first importance “stems from the displacement of
islanders as a result of atomic and thermonuclear tests
which have been conducted in the Pacific Island Prov-
ing Grounds established there.” In the case of the
Rongelap people, transferred from their island in 1954
when they suffered the unforeseen ill effects from radio-
active fallout from thermonucleur tests, the displace-
ment was of a temporary nature. However, in the case
of people transferred from Bikini and Eniwetok it was
likely to be permanent.

The Mission report notes that the Rongelap people
have been well cared for in regard to essential require-
ments and health. It urges that steps be taken to ensure
adequate housing and other assistance for them when
they are returned to Rongelap before the end of this
year.

People transferred from Bikini to the island of Kili
appeared to the Mission to have grievances of a
“serious nature.” The is:and of Kili has “obvious dis-
advantages,” the report says, among them the fact that
it is a high island without a reef, hazardous for the
landing of boats. Fishing facilities are available at
Jaluit Atoll, forty miles distant, but adequate transpor-
tation between the areas is not available.

Islanders from Eniwetok, transferred to Ujelong,
appear to be making a satisfactory adjustment, the re-
port states.

The Visiting Mission urged that the Administering
Authority give urgent consideration to the Islanders’
claims in regard to Japanese currency, postal savings
and bonds which so far have not been redeemed, and
to their claims for compensation for loss of life and
property damage due to war action.

Administration’s Policy

As general examination of the United States’ annual
report began, the Trusteeship Council heard a statement
by Delmas H. Nucker, Acting High Commissioner of
the Territory and the U. S. Special Representative, who
outlined activities of the Administration since July 1,
1955, not covered in the report itself. He said a “much
more efficient administration” was now in effect as a
result of the centralization of headquarters on Guam.
The Administration’s economic policy, he declared,
“centers around the principle of encouraging Micro-
nesians to expand and develop their own economy to
the greatest extent their natural resources and their
own capabilities will allow.” The Administration con-
tinues to render substantial assistance to local trading
and commercial firms to provide their early self-

UNR—August 1956

sufficiency. Since agriculture is the chief economic
activity, “continued emphasis has been placed on the
overall strengthening of our agricultural program,” Mr.
Nucker told the Council.

Describing progress toward self-government, he con-
cluded by reiterating that the aim “is to show the
Micronesians how to live better as Micronesians.

We recognize also that while the old way of life is
changing, the change must be a gradual evolutionary
process so that the new Micronesia which emerges is
brought about without too severe a disruption and modi-
fication of Micronesian ways of thoughts and customs.”

The Council also heard Alfonso R. Oiterong,
Director of Education of the District of Palau Island.
Outlining the educational programs in the area, he said
people of the Territory owed a great deal to the
Government and to the United Nations for the student
scholarships and fellowships granted every year. He
noted that ninety-five percent of all teachers and educa-
tion administrators are Micronesians.

Members of the Council questioned the U.S.
Special Representative on a number of points raised
by the annual report and the report of the Visiting
Mission.

UNR—August 1956

Dancers at a celebration on the Island of Yap. Although
modern ways are coming in, old traditions are not being

needlessly uprooted.

Replying to a question by the Soviet Union repre-
sentative, Vasily F. Grubyakov, Mr. Nucker explained
the difficulties in the way of at once establishing a
single political body for the entire Territory. Such a
body was to be looked for in the foreseeable future,
he said. But the diversity of the many islands and the
differences: in language and culture were too great to
be ruled out of immediate calculations. As to when the
territory might become self-governing, the Special
Representative declared he would not care at this time
to suggest a specific date. He reminded the Council that
there were in the Territory approximately 60,000 peo-
ple scattered over a wide ocean area. He made clear
that it was the hope of the Administration that, through
constant and progressive changes, a time would come
when Micronesians would be self-governing. Mason

Sears, the United States regular representative on the
Council, added that the United States intended to put

49

Outpatient clinic on Palau Island. No charge is made
for preventive inoculations, pre-school and school clinics,

treatment

for communicable disease and many other

services.

into effect intermediate target dates for implementation
from year to year.

Max H. Dorsinville, representative of Haiti, referred
to the passage of the Visiting Mission’s report com
menting on grievances of the people of Bikini who
were transferred to Kili. Mr. Nucker observed that the
reason these islanders were not altogether satisfied with
Kili was that the island is smaller than Bikini, it lack
a lagoon, and life is different. However, he said, the
were adjusting themselves to Kili in a reasonably sati
factory way. Within the past two months the Admir
istration had made available to them a fifty-foot diese!
operated ship capable of carrying seventeen tons 0
copra. The vessel was also equipped to fish in deep
water.

Chacko of
India asked whether any of the islanders had to be

In regard to recent nuclear tests, M. I
moved as a result, and whether any of them had suf

Mr. Nucker replied that no one was
he

fered ill effects
moved before, during or after the tests, and that
had received no reports on adverse effects of radio-
activity

land holdings, the

Questioned on the subject of

Special Representative declared that during the past

vear thousands of acres of land had been made avail
able to the people under homesteading programs and
He said that

Administration consisted of

other lands has been returned to them

lands now held by the

land previously held by the Japanese administration.
Regarding settlement of claims for money and securi-

ties acquired by Micronesians under the Japanese occu-

50

pation, a question put by Alfred Claeys-Bouuaert of
Belgium, the Special Representative said the Adminis-
tration had practically completed arrangements for pay-
ing these claims. He hoped that he would be able to
settle the claims upon his return to the Territory.

As to schools, the Special Representative said in
answer to a question by the Indian representative that
the Administration was attempting to better the inade-
quate physical equipment by working with the munici-
palities and getting them to take action. Mr. Nucker
stressed that in the Territory a school building did not
necessarily mean an elaborate structure. It could be
built from local materials and need not be costly. He
said also that besides encouraging local communities
to assume responsibility for support of local education,
the Administration also aided them. However, in view
of the comments of the Visiting Mission, he said, he
would take a new look at the program.

During the course of the general debate following
the questions, the Council continued discussion of the
reports and the explanations given by the U. S. Special
representative, and on June 27 appointed a drafting
committee, composed of Australia, China, Haiti and
Italy to prepare a report on the Pacific Islands in the
light of the discussions.

Conclusions and Recommendations

In its general conclusions and recommendations, the

Trusteeship Council noted with satisfaction the over-all

progress made during the period under review, particu-
larly commending the Administration for “the excellent
relationship which it has established with the people
of the Territory.”

In regard to displacement of population due to
nuclear experiments, the Council expressed satisfaction
that the people of Rongelap who suffered ill effects
from the experiments in 1954 are continuing to receive
medical and other assistance, and that they will be able
to return to their islai.d this year. The Council took
note of the dissatisfactions of the Bikini people now
0.1 the island of Kili, and of the Administration’s expec-
tation that their condition would be improved in the
immediate future by the provision of adequate sea trans-
portation between Kili and Jaluit. The condition of the
people of

expected to improve with the operation of a new

Eniwetok, now settled on Ujelong, is
inter-district boat. With regard to the recent nuclear
experiments which have taken place in the territory,
the Council took note of the declaration made by the
Administering Authority regarding the adequacy of
precautionary measures.

The Council hoped that legislation for an Organic
Act for the Territory, which might come into being
by 1960, would contiaue to be prepared in consultation
with qualified representatives of the population. It
endorsed the view of the Visiting Mission that the slow
growth of a territorial consciousness need not in itself
be regarded as a serious defect, and that its develop-
ment by means of education and a gradual process of

UNR—August 1956

evolution might in the end be all the sounder. It con-
sidered, however, that this growth might be encouraged
and accelerated by the holding of inter-district confer-
ences, and by the preparation of a special book for
use in the schools, as suggested by the Mission.

The Council was of the opinion that the holding of
another inter-district council would be advantageous for
the Territory, and endorsed the recommendation of the
Visiting Mission that the Administering Authority con-
sider convening such a conference soon.

It recommended that the Administering Authority
consider establishing a territory-wide political body
based on universal suffrage. It observed that some
administrative departments have already been located
in the Territory, but that the Administering Authority
has no present plan to move its headquarters from
Guam to a site within the Territory, and it reiterated
the hope that such a move would soon be possible. The
Council was satisfied that progress had been made in
establishing local political bodies and in granting char-
ters to municipalities. It recommended, however, that
more uniformity be achieved in the terms of office of
elected representatives, as well as in functions and
procedures of the municipalities. In regard to suffrage
and elections, the Council noted with satisfaction that
the number of elected representatives to local political

bodies had been further increased during the year, and
it hoped that the remaining appointed members would

soon be selected by the elective process.

Ponape Island:

A technician in

charge of water
operations inspects

a locally manufactured
bamboo life-float,
required on all inter-
island small craft.

Economic and Social Advancement

The Trusteeship Council took account of the fact
that the resources of the Pacific Islands Territory are
limited, that the four-fifths of the budget are derived
from contributions of the Administering Authority, and
that even greater subsidies might be needed for speeding
up development programs. It voiced the hope that the
Administering Authority would continue its efforts to
develop the Territory’s resources by all possible means,
such as improvement of agriculture, diversification of
export crops, and exploration of industrial possibilities.

Specifically the Council recommended that the Ad-
ministering Authority continue to emphasize agricul-
tural development, “and to spare no effort to increase
and to improve the production of copra and cocoa.”
It stressed the need for more qualified agricultural
experts to coordinate planning, to combat pests and
plant diseases, and to endeavor further to diversify
export crops.

Industrial development, too, was urged. The Council
recommended that the Administering Authority “take
energetic steps to explore, encourage and accelerate the
industrial development of the Territory,” particularly
in the fields of manganese and bauxite mining, fishing,
canneries, trochus production and handicrafts. Improve-
ment of shipping facilities was noted, but further close
attention to this aspect of the economic life was sug-

gested. Steps to remedy unsatisfactory conditions of

Copra is one of the mainstays of the economy of the Pacific Islands Trust Territory. Locally-owned vessels of this
type are used for inter-island trade in copra, trade goods and passengers.

roads were also called for, the Council said.
It was noted “with satisfaction” that the Administer-
ing Authority had given assurances that all claims

relating to Japanese bonds and postal savings will be
settled before the end of the year. The Administration
was urged to negotiate a settlement of war damage

claims with the Japanese Government at the earliest
possible time.

The Administering Authority was commended for
its success in improving health conditions generally, and
in reducing the incidence of tuberculosis, and for its
policy of staffing medical services with Micronesians.
Hope was expressed that Micronesians soon would be
able to obtain full medical and dental degrees. The plan

52

of the Administration for a territory-wide BCG vaccina-
tion program was welcomed.

In education, the Council felt that more qualified
Americans should be added to the teaching staff, and
that more funds should be made available for school
buildings and teaching aids. It welcomed the fact that
new buildings would soon be erected in Ponape to
house the Pacific Islands Central School.

Previous recommendations of the Council that every
effort be made to enable Micronesians to obtain higher
education were reiterated. It was also recommended
that the Administering Authority continue to make
available a larger number of scholarships, particularly
in the field of medical studies.

UNR—August 1956

DISARMAMENT —

continued narrowing of differences sought

sb Disarmament Commission on July 16, by a vote

of 10 to 1 (U.S.S.R.), with 1 abstention (Yugo-
slavia), instructed its Sub-Committee to study the vari-
ous proposals made during the current session of the
Commission and report to the Commission. The pro-
posal, a compromise resolution (for the text, see page
72) submitted by Dr. Victor Belaunde, of Peru, was
adopted at the eleventh meeting of the current session of
the Disarmament Commission, which opened on July 3.

The Disarmament Commission had not met since
January 23, 1956, when, in pursuance of a General
Assembly resolution of December 16, 1955, it had
decided to reconvene its Sub-Committee which would
submit to the Commission an interim progress report
after about six weeks. The Sub-Committee, composed
of Canada, France, the U.S.S.R., the United Kingdom
and the United States, met in London between March
19 and May 4, and on the latter date unanimously ap-
proved its third report to the Commission. The report
showed that the Sub-Committee was determined to con-
tinue its efforts to seek agreement on disarmament,
despite the fact that the divergent positions of its mem-
bers had not been reconciled.

The Peruvian proposal, which its author described as
“purely procedural” and providing for the Disarmament
Sub-Committee to examine all proposals at present be-
fore the Commission without passing judgment on any
of them, expresses the Commission’s appreciation of the
Sub-Committee’s efforts reflected in its third report. It
states that the Commission considers that a draft resolu-
tion introduced on July 3 by Canada, France, the United
Kingdom and the United States sets forth the principles
upon which an effective program for the regulation
and limitation of all arms and armed forces can be
based. The resolution expresses the conviction that a
reconciliation of the opposing views is both possible and
necessary; asks the Sub-Committee to study the pro-
posals now before the Disarmament Commission,

UNR—August 1956

“taking account of the principles affrmed therein and
striving to increase the area of agreements”; and re-
quests the Sub-Committee to report to the Commission,
which will then examine all proposals presented up to
its next session.

In explaining his vote against the Peruvian draft,
Andrei A. Gromyko, Soviet First Deputy Foreign Min-
ister, declared that this was a “one-sided” resolution
which reflected only the view of one side and in fact
gave approval to this view. This resolution, he said,
could not serve as a basis for agreement.

Djura Nincic, of Yugoslavia, said his delegation could
not support the Peruvian resolution because it contained
controversial elements of substance, whereas the best
way for the Commission to proceed would have been
to pass a purely procedural motion simply requesting
the Sub-Committee to continue its work and to examine
all proposals before the Disarmament Commission. The
Peruvian draft in addition, he argued, endorsed the
views expressed only in one resolution—the four-Power
proposal—although the Commission had not taken any
decision on that particular resolution or on any other
proposal.

A motion by Jules Moch, of France, submitted prior
to the vote on the Peruvian proposal, to recess the
Commission for consultations among the authors of the
various resolutions before the Commission with a view
to drafting an agreed text, was rejected. The vote was 4
in favor (Cuba, France, the U.S.S.R. and Yugoslavia),
4 against (Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom and
the United States), and 4 abstentions (Australia, China,
Iran and Peru). The outcome of this vote was termed
by Mr. Moch a “clumsy error” on the part of those who
wanted peace, and as indicating a “will for numerical
victory” rather than a “desire for conciliation.”

The Commission, in addition to the Peruvian pro-
posal, had before it a joint draft resolution by Canada,
France, the United Kingdom and the United States—

with Australian amendments, and a joint amendment by
Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the
United States; a Soviet draft resolution; and a Yugo-
slav draft resolution.

At the request of India, the Commission also agreed
without objection to invite the representative of India
to make a statement to the Commission on his Govern-
ment’s proposals for a cessation of nuclear tests and the
establishment of an armaments truce.

Joint Four-Power Proposal

Anthony Nutting, Minister of State for Foreign Af-
fairs of the United Kingdom, opening the debate in the
Disarmament Commission, on July 3 introduced in the
name of Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the
United States, the joint draft resolution which reaffirmed
the basic principles enunciated on May 4, 1956, in a
joint declaration of the same four Powers at the close
of the Sub-Committee’s sessions in London.

The four-Power declaration noted six points which
they considered prerequisites to disarmament. These
were: (1) disarmament must proceed by stages, with
progress from one stage to another depending upon the
satisfactory completion of the preceding stage and upon
the development of confidence through the settlement
of major political problems; (2) the program should
begin with reductions of armed forces to levels feasible
in the present unsettled world conditions, with further
reductions as world conditions improved; (3) under
proper safeguards, the program must provide at an
appropriate stage for stopping the build-up of stock-
piles of nuclear weapons and devoting all future pro-
duction of nuclear material to peaceful uses; (4) the
program must provide for a strong control organization

with inspection rights, including aerial reconnaissance,
with the control measures providing particularly against
major surprise attack; (5) preliminary demonstration of

inspection methods on a limited scale to help develop
an effective control system; and (6) provision to be
made for the suspension of the program if a major state
fails to carry out its obligations or if a threat to the
peace, a breach of the peace or an act of aggression
should occur.

Mr. Nutting stated that towards the conclusion of the
talks by the Disarmament Sub-Committee, it had be-
come obvious to the Western delegations that the
cleavage between them and the Soviet Union upon a
detailed disarmament program could not at that time be
resolved The Western delegations therefore decided
that the time had come to get back to basic principles,
as the best way to make a fresh start. Accordingly the
four Western Powers tabled in the Sub-Committee the
declaration; this must guide the Sub-Committee in its
detailed consideration of the disarmament problem.

The Western Powers, he declared, had always taken
the view that a comprehensive disarmament program
must include all possible and practicable measures of
nuclear as well as conventional disarmament. While
conceding that it had been found impossible to control
the elimination of past production of nuclear weapons,
he stated that the new Soviet plan introduced in the

Sub-Committee last March left out nuclear disarmament
altogether. He urged that a settlement on atomic prob-
lems be reached quickly. No facet of the armaments
problem was more dangerous or could more easily and
speedily get out of hand than nuclear weapons. Over
the past eleven years, three countries [the U.S.S.R., the
United Kingdom and the United States] had developed
the secret of nuclear destruction and vast quantities of
nuclear stockpiles had been amassed. How long would
it be only three countries, he asked. If nothing were
done in the near future to get to grips with this problem
and to stop further production of these weapons, no-
body could foretell how widespread this ghastly secret
and the stockpiles would become within the next
eleven years.

The other sponsors of the joint draft spoke in sup-
port of it. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., of the United States,
stated that his Government believed that the London
Sub-Committee meetings did some good, but far more
could have been accomplished had the Soviet Union
been able to agree to the standards for disarmament
accepted by the great majority.

The menace of nuclear weapons must be curbed; the
quota of conventional armaments and armed forces
should be fixed by negotiation and verified by inspec-
tion; the reduction of armaments should be carried out
by stages, having in mind the realities of world political
conditions; and there must be an inspection device
which would assure each side that the other was actually
doing what it promised to do. President Eisenhower’s
“open-skies” plan, he said, was such a device; the world
had acclaimed it and the world waited for Soviet accept-
ance of it. If something like that had been in effect in
the last fifteen years, “there would probably have been
no Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, no communist
attack on Korea, and no Hitlerite attack on the Soviet
Union, or on Belgium, or on France, or on the United
Kingdom, or on Yugoslavia.” If it were in effect today,
“it would lower to the vanishing point the chances of
an outbreak of the kind of war from which the world
has most to fear: a nuclear war between the Soviet
Union and the United States.” He urged the Soviet
leaders to help develop a fair, thorough inspection sys-
tem in the air, so that “air power will in truth become
peace power.” Mr. Lodge reaffirmed the American peo-
ple’s faith in the efforts of the United Nations to find
the way to peace through disarmament.

Mr. Lodge later stressed the urgent need for solving
the arms problem. He said that the Commission could
not afford to let much more time go by. The long-range
guided missile was already looming on the scene. When
it became a standard weapon, no nation would have
more than fifteen minutes to get ready to defend itself
and to hit back.

Paul Martin, Minister for National Health and Wel-
fare of Canada, expressed concern over the continuance
of the deadlock on disarmament, and emphasized the
growing sense of urgency in deliberations on this prob-
lem. The urgency, he said, “results from the sober reali-
zation that with the tremendous pace of scientific
development, particularly in the field of nuclear and

UNR—August 1956

thermonuclear armaments and in the means of deliver-
ing them, the world may be rapidly approaching the
point of no return—the time when the effective control
of disarmament may no longer be feasible.” The need
for early and effective action was imperative.

If the decision of the Soviet Union to reduce its forces
by 1,200,000 before next year was the expression of

a genuine desire “to follow a more moderate policy in

the future and to renounce aggressive designs,” it was
to be welcomed as far as it went. He declared, however,
that disarmament meant reductions, and
“unilateral reductions do not necessarily mean dis-
armament.”

agreed

Mr. Martin stated that there was some evidence that
new forces were at work in the Soviet Union, “that the
rigidities of thought and policy of the Stalinist era are
now dark shadows of the past.” In their approach to dis-
armament today, the Soviet Union leaders faced a test
of the new spirit alive in the Soviet Union. The new
“openess” which had recently been expressed in high
level visits and increased contact with the outside world.
stood in remarkable contrast to the “closed doors of
the past.” He hoped that this principle would now be
applied, “on the limited, reciprocal and collective basis
on which it is so vitally needed, to permit us to begin
an effectively supervised disarmament program.”

Possible Future Progress

Jules Moch, of France, declared that the further the
practical measures of disarmament were examined, the
more numerous were the obstacles that arose. He then
defined the existing situation and traced the broad lines
of possible future progress towards disarmament.

Speaking of President Eisenhower’s open-skies pro-
posal, Mr. Moch observed that he had made no secret
of his doubts as to its possible success, and events had
confirmed his view. In some cases, he said, aerial in-
spection would be a convenient method of investigation,
but in others its value would be slight. As long as it
remained effective, priority in its application must be
given in the sensitive sectors where concentrations of
conventional forces are normally to be effected. This
amounted to proposing regular aerial reconnaissance
over “Western Europe and along the border between
the two worlds in Scandinavia, in Thrace and in the
Middle East.” Added to this—“for the sake of reciproc-
ity rather than effectiveness—a zone in America equal
in size to the small area of the Soviet Union which is
included in the sensitive sectors, we can imagine a
compromise between the ‘all’ proposed by one side and
the ‘nothing’ proposed by the other, with possibilities of
subsequently extending the photographed sector.”

Mr. Moch, while preferring a comprehensive plan,
did not object to the trend towards a partial plan of
disarmament. He stressed the French view, however,
that any first stage of disarmament that provided for
reductions in conventional armaments must also pro-
vide for freezing stockpiles of nuclear weapons and halt-
ing their manufacture. He concluded that the French
formula for disarmament applied to partial plans as well

UNR—August 1956

as to a comprehensive plan. That formula was: “No
control without disarmament; no disarmament without
control; but, progressively, all disarmament that could
be currently controlled.”

E. Ronald Walker, of Australia, stated that Aus-
tralia’s geographical situation and its regional security
problems have an important influence upon Australia’s
assessment of such problems as those relating to the
levels of forces and those arising from the development
of nuclear weapons.

Australia recognized that the question of force levels
in any agreed disarmament plan must obviously be the
subject first of negotiation between the great Powers.
Until some progress was made in actual reductions it
would be difficult to determine what the ultimate levels
should be; and in Australia’s view those levels would
need to take account of the responsibilities of the great
Powers in relation to collective security problems in
Asia as well as in other areas. It was common knowl-
edge, he said, “that present Communist military man-
power in Asia, particularly if Soviet Asia is included,
enormously outweighs the military strength maintained
by the non-Communist countries in Asia and the Pacific
area. Very considerable political consequences might
flow from sanctifying such military predominance
through levels of forces arrived at in purely global
terms.” The prohibition of nuclear weapons should be
preceded and accompanied by major reductions in con-
ventional weapons and forces to agreed levels, carried
out to an agreed time-table, and subject to effective
international control of a kind that inspires the con-
fidence of all nations.

Mr. Walker expressed support for the four-Power
proposal, and submitted amendments to the joint text
which in his opinion would clarify and strengthen its
wording.

The joint amendment of Australia, Canada, France,
the United Kingdom and the United States proposed
amending the third operative paragraph of the four-
Power proposal. The original wording of this paragraph
said that “at an appropriate stage” the disarmament
program should provide under proper safeguards that
the buildup of stockpiles of nuclear weapons would be
stopped and all future production of nuclear materials
devoted to peaceful uses. The new joint amendment
would say that this should be done “at appropriate
stages” of the disarmament program. The amendment
would also add at the end of the same operative par-
agraph of the four-Power draft that limitations would
be imposed on the testing of nuclear weapons.

Anthony Nutting, who introduced the joint amend-
ment, explained that while the United Kingdom did not
take an alarmist view of the effects on human health
and life of nuclear explosions, his Government none-
theless felt that, partly for health reasons and partly also
as a first step towards getting to grips with the problem
of nuclear weapons, some system of limiting test ex-
plosions should be agreed upon and put into operation
by the Powers concerned.

Other representatives expressing support for the joint
four-Power proposal were T. F. Tsiang, of China;

55

Djalal Abdoh, of Iran; Joseph Nisot, of Belgium; Emilio
Nufiez-Portuondo, of Cuba; and Victor Andres Bel-
aunde, of Peru.

U.S.S.R. Proposal

Mr. Gromyko, of the U.S.S.R., put the responsibility
for the lack of progress on disarmament on the Western
Powers which, he charged, had turned their back on their
own proposals once they had been accepted by the
U.S.S.R. Opposing the four-Power proposal, he declared
that its adoption would be the “bell tolling the doom of
the disarmament problem.” The sense of that proposal
would be to drop the question of disarmament from the
agenda of the United Nations, pending the solution of
other outstanding international political problems. The
problem, however, called for a rapid and immediate
solution, and this solution could not be made subject
to the solution of other problems.

The Western proposals, he charged, made the solu-
tion of the disarmament problem subject to the solution
of such international political problems as the German
problem, and problems of the Far, Near and Middle
East. To make the problem of German unification, for
example, a condition of reduction of armed forces
meant wrecking in advance any solution on disarma-
ment. Success in the field of disarmament, he said, would
facilitate and enhance the possibilities of solving the
German problem.

A statement of the Soviet Government of May 14, he
declared, indicated that within one year, by May 5,
1957, the armed forces of the Soviet Union would be
reduced by 1.2 million men, over and above the reduc-
tion of 640,000 men carried out by the Soviet Union in
1955. Armaments, military technology and other mili-
tary expenditures in the state budget would be reduced
proportionately. This decision, he said, was a striking
proof of the eagerness of the Soviet Union to live in
peace and friendship with other peoples.

Mr. Gromyko urged the adoption of a declaration
under which all United Nations Members would under-
take in their international relations to refrain from the
use or threat of force, and of atomic and hydrogen
weapons. Non-members of the United Nations were also
asked to join in this declaration.

In a later intervention, Mr. Gromyko declared that
the Soviet Union was prepared to accept the levels for
armed forces proposed by the Western Powers; that is,
2.5 million men each for the United States, China and
the U.S.S.R.; and 750,000 each for the United Kingdom
and France. He added, however, that the level of the
armed forces of all other states should not exceed a
maximum of 200,000. In accepting the Western figures
for the first step, the Soviet Union hoped that would
facilitate a second step of reductions to 1.5 million for
three Powers and 650,000 for the other two.

The Soviet declaration of a reduction in forces was
welcomed by a number of representatives who said that
their Governments would study it carefully. Mr. Lodge
added, however, that the Soviet Union had not yet ac-
cepted international inspection, and therefore his dele-
gation could not tell whether the new Soviet statement

56

meant a serious step towards disarmament or was just
“an empty phrase.” And Anthony Nutting pointed out
that the maximum of 200,000 for other states had never
appeared in any Western proposals; it was a Soviet
figure. The figures for the forces of other states, he
declared, have always been a matter for discussion and
negotiation with the states themselves.

Mr. Gromyko accused the Western Powers of pre-
venting the settlement of outstanding political issues so
as to perpetuate the armaments race. He also attacked
regional organizations such as NATO, SEATO, and the
Baghdad Pact. He charged that the Western Powers had
progressively withdrawn from their earlier promises to
disarm, and that they were focussing their attention on
inspection and control rather than upon actual reduc-
tions in armed forces.

As regards President Eisenhower’s open-skies plan,
he declared that the “proposal for aerial photography
has in general no connection whatever with the reduc-
tion of armaments, and its realization would reduce
neither the armed forces of states by a single soldier
nor their armaments by a single rifle.” He stated that
aerial photography, with flights being carried out over
the territories of other states, could only inflame the
lust for war and war psychosis and facilitate a further
armaments race. The actual meaning of the proposal
was to divert the attention of the peoples “from the real
tasks of reducing armaments and prohibiting atomic
and hydrogen weapons.”

Mr. Gromyko also objected to the Western Powers’
proposal that disarmament should be carried out in
stages, depending on the settlement of political diver-
gencies and controversial international problems. He
argued that the United States, principally, opposed nor-
malization of the whole international atmosphere. The
Western Powers, he said, desired to solve the problem
of German unification at the expense of the interests
of the German Democratic Republic. The ruling circles
in the United States were doing everything possible to
prevent entry into the United Nations of the Chinese
People’s Republic, with its population of 600 million.
He declared that the Chiang Kai-shek “clique” found
shelter on the island of Taiwan, an island occupied by
United States military forces.

The reason for the strained situation in Vietnam was
that the United States rejected the Geneva agreement of
July 1954 to hold unification elections in Vietnam. The
United States “encourages the unlawful acts of its
stooge, Ngo Dinh Diem; it is bringing armaments into
South Vietnam and settling down in that territory as
its master.”

So long as the “United States-created aggressive bloc
of SEATO exists,” he said, “no Asian country is safe from
rude interference by colonial Powers into its affairs.”
With regard to the Near and Middle East, the same

purposes. of increasing tensions were served by the
“notorious Baghdad Pact.” This bloc, he declared, “is
designed to preserve the positions of British and Ameri-
can monopolies in the Arab East.”

The allegation that the maintenance by the members
of the “Atlantic bloc of inflated armed forces” was

UNR—-August 1956

caused by the interests of the security of those states,
Mr. Gromyko stated, contradicted the actual situation.

He also stated that military appropriations meant
multimillion dollar orders and fabulous profits for the
monopolies. In order to justify the highly profitable
armaments race, the “monopolist circles make every
effort to frustrate the settlement of urgent political prob-
lems, to sharpen the differences between Powers, to
hamper the normalization of inter-state relations, and
to continue the cold war.”

In conclusion, Mr. Gromyko summarized the Soviet
position on disarmament in four propositions as fol-
lows:

(1) The great Powers should assume a solemn
obligation not to use atomic and hydrogen weapons;
they should be unconditionally prohibited. The U.S.S.R.
proposed the conclusion of agreements on (a) the pro-
hibition of weapons of mass destruction, elimination
of all stocks of atomic bombs and the cessation of their
production; and (b) the immediate cessation of all tests
of atomic and hydrogen weapons.

(2) The armed forces of the great Powers should be
reduced, The U.S.S.R. agreed that the level of armed
forces should be established now for the Soviet Union,
the United States and China at the level of 2.5 million
men each; for the United Kingdom and France,
750,000 men each; for other countries no more than
150,000 to 200,000 men each, in order that as a second
step the armed forces of the United States, the People’s
Republic of China and the Soviet Union should be
reduced to the level of 1 million to 1.5 million each and
those of the United Kingdom and France to 650,000
men each. Armaments and military expenditures of all
these countries should be reduced correspondingly.

(3) Effective control over the prohibition of atomic
weapons and reduction of armaments and armed forces
should be established. The Commission was reminded
of the Soviet proposals submitted to it last March 27,
which provided for the establishment of an international
control organ with vast rights and powers, including the
right of inspection of military units, of stores of mili-
tary equipment and ammunition and of land, naval and
air bases and military plants.

(4) The Soviet Government called anew upon all
Powers to accept the Soviet declaration calling upon all
States to renounce the use of atomic and hydrogen
weapons and to refrain from the use or threat of force.

Britain, Iran, France, China, Canada, Australia, the
United States and Peru in turn expressed regrets at Mr.
Gromyko’s approach. They disputed the Soviet rep-
resentative’s contention that such defence agreements as
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Baghdad
Pact and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization con-
stituted “aggressive” blocs, dedicated to the main-
tenance of armed force throughout the world.

Mr. Walker, of Australia, expressed regret that Mr.
Gromyko had considered it desirable “to distract at-
tention from the particular proposals which he has
invited the Commission to consider by misleading and
unfounded statements of this kind.” Paul Martin, of

UNR—August 1956

Canada, declared that the Commission “must not be
diverted from the main purpose for which we have
come to this particular series of meetings.” Mr. Belaunde,
of Peru, said the “acrimonious and bitter” debate had
been on “general policy and politics rather than . . . on
disarmament.” Mr. Tsiang, of China, observed that the
speech was, in fact, “a summary of all the political
propaganda that the Soviet Union has spread through
the organs of the United Nations.”

Mr. Lodge called Mr. Gromyko’s talk “a scurrilous
attack on my country in the very worst traditions of
Stalinism.” He declared that the idea that prosperity in
America could be maintained only by having a war and
war orders was an utter figment of the imagination, and
was the product of the crudest and most childish pro-
paganda. Referring to Mr. Gromyko’s “absolutely un-
founded strictures against the United States policy in
Asia,” he said: “He certainly is in no position to pass
judgment on others as long as the people of the satellite
states are held in an iron bondage, from which the
heroic Poles in the last few weeks have been trying to
escape, with the applause, I might say, of lovers of
freedom all over the world.”

Mr. Walker replied to Mr. Gromyko’s assertions
about sEATO by declaring that the Organization “was
created by the conditions that prevailed in Asia in recent
years and by the consciousness of the countries of Asia
of the threats that existed to their continued indepen-
dence.”

Mr. Abdoh, of Iran, answered the Soviet representa-
tive’s allegations regarding the Baghdad Pact by assur-
ing Mr. Gromyko that Iran joined the alliance “not
only to assure our own self-defence but to link ourselves
with other countries with which we have certain ties
in common, in order to accelerate our economic de-
velopment.” Referring to the “bitter experiences of the
past,” he reminded Mr. Gromyko that in 1946 Iran
had been obliged to ask the Security Council to request
the Soviet Union “to withdraw its troops from our Prov-
ince of Azerbaijan.”

Mr. Nutting, speaking as the representative of an-
other member of the Baghdad Pact, associated himself
with Mr. Abdoh’s remarks.

Yugoslav Proposal

Joza Brilej, of Yugoslavia, urged that limited initial
agreements be sought on those aspects of the disarma-
ment problem where success was most likely to be
reached. He agreed that this would not be a substitute
for a more comprehensive program, but declared that
the time had come for a realistic and practical approach
to the problem. He submitted a draft resolution which
urged the Disarmament Sub-Committee to resume de-
tailed consideration of specific disarmament measures.
The resolution would instruct the Sub-Committee to
seek agreement on “such initial disarmament measures
as are now feasible and such forms and degrees of con-
trol as are required for these measures.” The resolution
directed the Sub-Committee’s attention particularly to a
reduction of conventional arms and armed forces, the

57

cessation of tests of nuclear weapons “as well as other
practicable measures in the field of nuclear armaments”
and the reduction of military budgets throughout the
world. Such action would contribute to the implementa-
tion of the General Assembly directive of 1955 for the
draft of an overall disarmament plan, the resolution

stated.

Indian Statement

In his appeal for the suspension of nuclear test ex-
plosions, V. K. Krishna Menon, of India, cited a num-
ber of scientific opinions to show the cumulative and

irreparable damage they were capable of inflicting. “We

have no right,” he declared, “to go on laying down the
foundations of destruction which is beyond our control,
lasting through generations and probably leaving results
which in themselves have a chain reaction, creating
worse results.” In addition to moral and scientific rea-
sons for halting test explosions, he also maintained that
suspension of the tests would constitute a first step
towards nuclear disarmament, for by taking that step,
the process would be reversed. Such a step would be
a measure having a far greater psychological aad politi-
cal importance than any architectural plan of control,
supervision or inspection. He added that it would echo
throughout the world that a great step had been taken
to reverse the engines of destruction. The step could
be taken without having to worry about the problem
of control since large-scale explosions could not be
concealed. Moreover, it would ease the fears arising
from other countries developing nuclear weapons. So
far as the United States and the Soviet Union were
concerned, they had such large stockpiles of weapons
that further tests would be futile.

On the establishment of an armaments truce, Mr.
Menon urged a token step. He suggested that the two
great Powers who now possessed a considerable stock
of nuclear weapons, should agree to dismantle a lim-
ited number of them, even if only a few, and use the
fissionable material they contained for peaceful pur-
poses. He also proposed a truce by means of budgetary
reductions, and the voluntary submission to and pub-
lication by the United Nations of the military expendi-
ture of Member States, so that the world would know
who is spending most on arms. As a further measure,
Mr. Menon expressed the hope that it would be pos-
sible for the nuclear Powers to assure the world that
there would be no trade in these weapons, that there
would be no supply of them to other countries, from
where they could go to still other countries, so that they
would be distributed generally. The Indian Government,
stated Mr. Menon, also approved of unilateral re-
ductions in armed forces and armaments.

Mr. Menon referred to the recent announcement by
the United Kingdom that the Western Powers were pre-
pared to advocate the limitation of nuclear tests at an
appropriate stage of a disarmament program. While
conceding that the limitation of any evil was in itself
good, the Indian representative maintained that in this
particular case, limitation was something that com-

53

pletely destroyed the argument for a remedy. Limitation
introduced questions of control, and was morally and
politically wrong.

fributes weie paid by a number of representatives to
Mr. Menon’s speech and to his sense of urgency. Never-
theless, some representatives, including those of France,
the United Kingdom and the United States, insisted that
a ban on nuclear test explosions would be meaningless
unless it were accompanied by prohibition of the manu-
facture of nuclear weapons. Mr. Moch also pointed out
that some smaller sized nuclear explosions could not
be detected. The Disarmament Sub-Committee, Mr.
Moch declared, could study three practical measures:
(1) invite experts to recommend within a short time a
limitation on the number, nature and power of test
explosions; (2) prohibit national explosions for mili-
tary purposes, provided this were closely coupled with
a controlled ban on the manufacture of weapons; and
(3) continue to allow test explosions for peaceful pur-
poses, provided they were effected under the supervision
of an international control organ charged with verifying
the innocuous nature of the explosion and its peaceful
intent.

Mr. Gromyko said his Government favored the In-
dian proposals regarding cessation of nuclear weapons
tests, and he declared that if the Western Powers con-
tinued to frustrate agreement on a cessation of these
tests, tests would naturally be continued, including tests
in the U.S.S.R.

Several representatives welcomed the work of the
United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of
Atomic Radiation, established by the General Assembly
in 1955. Mr. Walker, of Australia, submitted that since
the Committee’s work was at present at an early stage,
the whole question of the effects of weapon tests was
in a sense sub judice from the United Nations point of
view. Any definitive view of the United Nations must
take into account reports from all countries, he added.

Representatives of the United States and the United
Kingdom emphasized that scientists in their countries
had found that there was at present no cause for alarm
as a result of the test explosions. Mr. Nutting said that
the United Kingdom therefore felt that the danger to
health from test explosions was not a present danger
and it did not seem likely to become a danger if the
tests continued at the present rate. It was essential, how-
ever, to prevent an increase in the tests. To that end,
the United Kingdom was ready to operate a partial dis-
armament agreement, which could be concluded and
carried out without delay and without awaiting any
other agreements, and which would include a provision
for regulating and limiting nuclear test explosions.

James J. Wadsworth, of the United States, told the
Disarmament Commission that, until an agreement was
reached to eliminate or limit nuclear weapons under
proper safeguards, his Government would continue to
test these weapons that are essential for the national
defence of the United States and the security of the
free world. Mr. Wadsworth stated that the United States

(Continued on page 68)

UNR—August 1956

Dr. G. J. van Heuven Goedhart

] R. G. J. VAN HEUVEN GOEDHART died unexpect-

edly in Geneva on July 8. He had been United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since January
1951, and before that had been a member of Nether-
lands delegations to the General Assembly and to the
United Nations Conference on Freedom of Information.
In 1947-48 Dr. van Heuven Goedhart was Chairman
of the United Nations Subcommission on Freedom of
Information and of the Press. During the Second World
War he edited an underground paper, Het Parool, as
part of his courageous work with the Netherlands
resistance movement. In 1955, the Office of the High
Commissioner was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for
1954. In the same year Dr. van Heuven Goedhart per-
sonally received the Wateler Peace Prize from the
Carnegie Foundation in The Hague.

“He was a vigorous opponent of tyranny of any kind,
and never failed to express his views when he thought
that any injustice was being committed,” said Hans
Engen, of Norway, President of the Economic and
Social Council, which opened its tenth-anniversary ses-
sion in Geneva on July 9.

DEATH OF TWO EMINENT OFFICIALS

UNR—August 1956

Judge Hsu Mo

peer loss to the United Nations was suffered

+ with the death of Judge Hsu Mo, of the Interna-

tional Court of Justice, at The Hague on June 28.
Judge Hsu, who had law degrees from universities in
China, Australia and the United States, was elected a
member of the Court at the first election of judges on
February 6, 1946. He was reelected in 1948 for a
further term of nine years.

Judge Hsu participated at Washington in April 1945
in the work of the United Nations Committee of Jurists
preparing a draft statute of the Court, and in the same
year he was adviser to the Chinese delegation to the
United Nations Conference on International Organiza-
tion in San Francisco. Judge Hsu’s work with the
United Nations was preceded by a distinguished educa-
tional, judicial and diplomatic career, during which he
held ambassadorial posts in Australia and Turkey.

While Professor of International Law in Nankai Uni-
versity, Tientsin (1922-1925), Judge Hsu wrote articles
on legal and political subjects for Chinese newspapers
and magazines, and was also the author of: “Notes on
China’s Diplomatic History.”

The Trust T erritory of Somaliland

Prepares for 1960

( N April 1, 1950, when Italy became the Admin-

istering Authority under the United Nations of
what was formerly Italian Somaliland, the prerequisites
for creating a new political organization within a brief
period of time were non-existent or insufficiently de-
lineated. It was necessary to imbue the Somali popula-
tion with a new political consciousness and a sense of
responsible participation in public life, while at the same
time paying respect to Somali traditions and customs
which did not conflict with ordered and peaceful co-
existence as an indispensable basis for attainment of all
civil progress

The Somali people demonstrated at an early date
that they are capable of thinking in terms of national
unity. Political parties with national needs and welfare
in mind have undoubtedly contributed much to the
gradual political evolution of the Somali people.

The feeling of national unity was demonstrated in
the political elections for the institution of the Legis-
lative Assembly, an organization entrusted today with
the drafting of laws. According to the principle con-
tained in Article 4 of the Declaration of Constitutional
Principles annexed to the Trusteeship Agreement, the
Territorial Council—a merely advisory body nominated
by the Administrator—was to take part in drafting
the laws of the Territory “until an elective Assembly
was instituted”. Today this Assembly, which includes
freely-elected representatives of the political parties,
votes and approves laws, and has therefore assumed
the definite character of an elective body, with legis-
lative functions.

The system adopted for the election of the Legis-
lative Assembly, which was the object of careful exami-
nation before the pre-existing Territorial Council,
appeared to suit the country’s specific conditions. A
fundamental fact had to be reckoned with: namely,
that since a major part of the population consists of
nomads or semi-nomads, farmers and shepherds spread
over a vast territory and living far from inhabited
centres, it would be impossible to apply a single voting
system—that is, the desirable system of direct elections
The rural populations therefore chose their electoral
representatives in their traditional gatherings (shirs);
the inhabitants of municipal centres, who had already
availed themselves of their right to vote in the adminis-

trative elections, participated singly in the elections by
direct vote.

[he tasks that face the Legislative Assembly are
not light—the creating of legislation suited to the
country’s special requirements.

Many fundamental regulations were approved in the
past by the Territorial Council, and this has contributed
good elements in the understanding of problems of
general interest.

But now that a legislative-elective body endowed
with a greater sense of responsibility has been formed,
it is necessary to give the country a compendium of
laws that prove good and effective for the Govern-
ment’s activity in its various sectors.

Appropriate committees, established in 1955, have
elaborated and brought to completion many ordinances
which will be submitted to the approval of the Legis-
lative Assembly; among them, of fundamental import-
ance, are the Agricultural Ordinance, the Civil Code,
the Penal Code, the Court Rules of Procedure, and the
Public Security Ordinance.

The Government of Somaliland

The satisfactory outcome of the election of the Legis-
lative Assembly, which was inaugurated on April 30,
and the degree of political maturity shown by the Somali
people entailed, as a necessary consequence, the direct,
active and responsible participation of the population in
the administration of public affairs.

The achieved “Somalization” of many offices and
services, both central and peripheral, and the experi-
ence acquired by Somali officials in public administra-
tion, further convinced the Administration that it would
be possible to speed up the program of entrusting tasks
of direct responsibility to political exponents who have
earned the confidence of the people through the elec-
tions.

The Administrator of Somaliland, under Law No. 1
of May 7, 1956, unanimously voted by the Legislative
Assembly, instituted the Government of Somaliland.

The Government is composed of the Prime Minister
and other Ministers, who collectively form the Council
of Ministers.

The Somali Government is entrusted by law with the

UNR—August 1956

Inhabitants of Somaliland,
scheduled to become independent
in 1960, went to the polls

last February to elect a
70-member Legislative Assembly.
Party candidates campaigned

with banners like this

in the streets of Mogadiscio.

task of ensuring the internal administration of the
Territory, with full responsibility and with but a few
restrictions deriving from the Trusteeship Agreement
itself and concerning matters in which the direct re-
sponsibility of the Administering Authority obtains.

The law, inasmuch as its contents are substantially
constitutional, affirms the general principles that juri-
dically characterize the Government, and is integrated
with other provisions that determine the number, the
attributes and the organization of the Ministries.

An Italian Counselor is assigned by law to each
Minister, to assist the Government in the early phases
of its activity and to ensure, in relation to the responsi-
bilities of each Minister, the coordinated functioning of
the various organizations.

On May 17 the Administrator of Somaliland nomi-
nated as Prime Minister the Deputy Abdullah Issa,
and appointed the following officials: Deputy Hagi
Mussa Bogor, Minister of the Interior; Deputy Scek Alli
Giumale Barale, Minister for Social Affairs; Deputy
Hagi Farah Ali Omar, Minister for Economic Affairs;
Deputy Salad Abdi Mahamud, Minister of Finance;
Deputy Abdi Nur, Minister for General Affairs.

The Government of Somaliland does not entirely ab-
sorb the attributions of the Trusteeship Administration;
a few matters—such as international relations, Italian
State employees, and Italian Government contributions
to Somaliland—remain under the direction of the
Italian Administration, in the narrow sense of the word,

UNR—August 1956

and must of necessity be dealt with by Italian offices.
The present political organization foresees a division
of the Somali Government into Ministries entrusted
with the management of the various sectors which di-
rectly affect the public life of the Territory; and for the
aforesaid reasons, the institution of special offices to
deal with specific matters of interest, directly or exclu-
sively to the Italian Administration. The co-existence
of the two organizations is of a transitory order.

Social and Economic Problems

With the recent institution of the legislative and
executive bodies, problems of a social and economic
order can be faced, no doubt, with the direct participa-
tion of elements representing the will of the people.
This goes for problems of general interest as well as
for local problems. The municipalities established in
the Territory are gradually developing a consciousness
of participation in the solution of local problems.

The District Councils—composed of chiefs elected in
traditional shirs, of political representatives, of repre-
sentatives of the economic categories, and of religious
and cultural exponents—contribute increasingly to the
solution of questions affecting the single Districts in
the fields of economy, education, public health and
labor, as in the field of local tradition and custom.

In considering the problems of a social and economic

order, one must take into account the country’s
conditions and special requirements, particularly in the

61

light of the traditional structure of the populations.

A large part of the population of Somaliland consists
of nomads who move from one region to another in
search of pasture and water. The existence of nomad-
ism is one of the most important aspects of the social
and economic picture of the Territory; it is at present
the object of study and research, with the cooperation
of international organizations. Efforts are being made
to determine how the living conditions of the nomads
may be improved, and how these people may be more
closely integrated into national life. On the other hand,
rural populations of a stable nature, particularly those
who live in urban centres, are capable of participating
in public life and of appreciating the benefits which
derive from initiative taken in the social and economic
field.

The general plan of action to raise the standard of
living among nomad people seems to be oricnted to-
wards a participation of these people in the productive
development of the Territory (technical assistance for
the expansion of animal husbandry, increase of water
supply with the excavation of new wells, development
of industries connected with animal husbandry) and
towards their inclusion, as far as possible, in the bene-
fits deriving from progress in the field of public health
and education.

In the overall picture of social progress, programs
have been put into effect, and will be further intensified,
for a campaign against the more widespread diseases in
Somaliland
malaria campaign was conducted in the first few months

malaria and tuberculosis. A large anti-

of 1956, with the assistance of international organiza-
tions.

The preparation of qualified persons for the per-
formance of responsible functions in public administra-

tion is continuous, especially through the courses of
the Superior Institute of Juridical, Economic and Social
Instruction. At the same time particular attention is
given to the development of schools of a professional
order. Special courses were attended by Administration
personnel with the purpose of raising their degree of

cultural and administrative preparation.

In some of its aspects, the problem of the Territory’s
economy is far from easy to solve. The economic re-
sources consist essentially of livestock and farm prod-
ucts, which are closely dependent on the rhythm of
the seasons. Plans for development are being put into
effect along lines traced in 1954, through investments
in the various sectors. A reasonable program for the ex-
cavation of wells will achieve an increase of the water
supply with the purpose of enlarging as much as possi-
ble the livestock capital, which is the country’s main
resource.

In the field of agriculture, the enactment of the pro-
grams set up with the constitution of a Fund for the
Exploitation of Somaliland—pursuant to the Agree-
ment stipulated in 1954 between Italy and the United
States—has reclaimed for the Somali people land
situated along and between the rivers Uebi Scebeli and
Giuba, by means of canalization and drainage, and with
the establishment of agricultural centres. The Adminis-

Technical training of Somali personnel in agricultural methods, animal husbandry and industry is a part of the
Administration's program to help prepare the Trust Territory for independence in 1960. Here students of the
Marine and Fisheries School receive instruction in Mogadiscio Harbor.

62

UNR—August 1956

tration thereby intends to improve the value of land
that can add considerably to the development of pro-
duction, not only with the purpose of raising the local
standard of living but also in order to bring about,
within the next few years, an improvement of the coun-
try’s monetary situation which, at present, is still rather
difficult.

A Mission of the International Bank visited Somali-
land from March 9 to April 16, and acquired direct
knowledge of local problems; upon the conclusions
reached by the bank it will be possible to establish a
definition of the Territory’s requirements in relation
to its future development within the frame of the
country’s effective possibilities.

Council Recommendations and Conclusions

F° LOWING general debate in the Trusteeship Council

on the Trust Territory of Somaliland in June, the
Council approved a series of conclusions and recom-
mendations regarding the Territory for inclusion in its
next report to the General Assembly.

It generally applauded the rapid progress of the
Territory toward independence and commended the
Administering Authority and the Somali people for
steps that have been taken so far in setting up new
institutions.

In regard to the Territory’s political advancement,
the Council congratulated the Administering Authority
and the Somali population for establishing a Legislative
Assembly and a Somali Government four years before
the independence date of 1960;

. . . Noted that existing limitations on the powers of
the Somali Government are essential at present for the
Administering Authority to discharge its own responsi-
bilities, and that a more specific definition of the Gov-
ernment’s powers will be drawn up when conditions
permit;

. . . Observed that wide legislative powers have been
given to the Legislative Assembly, and welcomed the
statement of the Administration that limitations on the
exercise of Assembly powers are of a temporary nature;

... Appreciated “the sense of responsibility and good
will” of the political parties in the recent general
elections;

Expressed the hope that general elections
projected for 1958 will uniformly provide for direct
rather than “indirect” balloting, that the Somali Gov-
ernment will give consideration to the suffrage of adult
women, and that in drafting new electoral laws the
Somali Government will take all possible steps to
prevent balloting irregularities;

. . . Commended the increase of municipal adminis-
trations from thirty-five to forty-five, noting that rules
governing municipal administration have been com-
pleted;

Lauded the fact that the administration of re-
gions and districts has been turned over to Somali
civil servants, that a Court of Justice has been estab-
lished as the highest tribunal in the Territory, and that
independence of the judiciary from the executive power
has been assured.

UNR—August 1956

Economic Conditions

In the field of economics the Trusteeship Council
observed continued progress under the Administering
Authority’s plans for development, and noted the finan-
cial and technical assistance received from Italy, the
United States and Egypt;

. . . Expressed concern at the adverse economic con-
dition of the Territory, and proposed to continue con-
sideration of this situation when the report of the Inter-
national Bank becomes available;

. . . Urged the Administration and the Somali Gov-
ernment to “explore all possible means of increasing
revenue,” including new taxes, and of reducing expendi-
tures, at the same time “increasing within the limits of
budgetary appropriations funds allocated to economic
and social development”;

. . » Took note of the adverse trade balance of the
Territory, and recommended that the Administration
should examine ways and means of increasing earnings
and reducing expenditure of foreign exchange;

. Noted with satisfaction progress in agriculture,
animal husbandry and water supplies, and the establish-
ment of a meat-packing plant; it hoped further that the
size and movement of herds would be regulated, and
that the pace of economic development among nomads
would be accelerated by development of marketing
facilities and better methods of processing hides;

. . . Observed the steps taken by the Administering
Authority to clear up land titles;

. . . Expressed continuing interest in prospecting for
oil in commercially exploitable quantities.

Social Conditions

The Trusteeship Council observed that steady prog-
ress has been made generally in the improvement of
the Territory’s social conditions, and that valuable
assistance has been given by United Nations specialized
agencies;

. . . Approved of the Administration’s view that en-
couragement of nomadic people to participate more
fully in the life of the Territory is an important step
in the solution of the problem of nomadism itself;

. . . Noted that Somali women enjoy many funda-
mental rights and freedoms, and that increasing num-

63

When the Trusteeship Council on June 11 began its annual examination of conditions

in Somaliland, four members of the new Somali Government were present: Abdullah

Issa, Prime Minister; Aden Abdullah Osman, President of the Legislative Assembly;

Abdi Nur, Assembly Vice President; and Omar Mohallim, Secretary of the Assembly

Here Mr. Osman is addressing the Trusteeship Council. Behind him are Vittorio
Zaddoti (left), Italy’s Special Represenative, and Mr. Mohallim

bers of women are being educated and are king nd that particular attention should be given to the

practical interest in political party activities; it expresse problem of educating the children of nomads, It took

the hope that Somali women will soon enjoy full par appreciative note of assistance given by UNESCO and the

cipation in community life; Governments of Italy and Egypt in attacking the educa-
Expressed interest in a c nittee establis! tion problems of the Territory.

study further labor legislatior nd ur: lactment of In regard to the difference of opinion among Somali

such legislation as soon as possible; leaders on the development of the Somali language in

Applauded progress in the field public healt! written form and as a medium of instruction, the Council

and preventive medicine, noted the assistance given ittention to the view of the United Nations Edu-

WHO and UNICEF, and urg ! $101 t training nal, Sci ic and Cultural Organization that “many

program for medical an ) per periments in this fi iducted in many countries

res Other than the

tion reduces the effec-

tends to discourage

mental education,

ntinuing

UNR—August 1956

International Convention on F amily Support

Ameliorates Desertion Problem

A’ important milestone in the humanitarian field was

passed at United Nations Headquarters early this
summer with the adoption of a new international conven-
tion on family support, culminating more than twenty-
five years of dedicated effort on the part of individuals,
social service societies and relief agencies from all over
the world.

The twenty-one-article Convention on the Recovery
Abroad of Maintenance is designed to alleviate the
plight of families left destitute by a breadwinner who
has moved to another country. By the practical method
of establishing a “transmitting agency” in one country
and a “receiving agency” in another, the Convention
will provide the means through which a dependent may
obtain support without prohibitive costs and intermin-
able legal complications.

The chief difficulty facing abandoned dependents—
mainly wives and children—is the necessity for action
across international boundaries. Dissimilarity of legal
systems, not to mention staggering prosecution costs,
have baffled social service organizations working over
this problem for a long period of years. The mass
dislocations brought about by the Second World War,
together with the factor of foreign military forces in
various countries, have multiplied desertion cases by the
thousand-fold. Thus those who have worked, hoped and

dreamed for the «

blishment of an international legal
means for assisting abandoned dependents view the new

United N

toward the solution of a gravy

Convention as a shining achievement
e humanitarian problem.
yn on the Recovery Abroad of Main-
1 procedure whereby a “claimant”—

y appl smitting

agency” located in the country where lives. The
transmitting agen would forward the documents to a
“receiving ¢ located in the country to which her
defaulting hu d has moved. The receiving agency

11
il

would take all appropri:

i

te steps to obtain payment from
the husband, and if necessary,

would bring

suit against
him before the appropriate tril A support order
would be enforcible in the same manner as if the claim-
in re a resident of the country in which the debtor

lO

The above procedure will involve no change in the
domestic laws of the contracting states. The designation
of receiving and transmitting agencies will be left to the
contracting states after the latter have ratified or acceded
to the Convention.

A further significant feature of the Convention is that
it safeguards the claimant against the payment of ex-
orbitant legal fees. Article 9 provides that claimants
“shall be accorded equal treatment and the same exemp-
tions in the payments of costs and charges as are given
to residents or nationals of the state where the proceed-
ings are pending.” The article goes on to state that
claimants will not be required to furnish any bonds or
deposit payments as security for costs, and that the
transmitting and receiving agencies of countries con-
cerned shall not charge any fees for services rendered
under the Convention. Article 10 explains that “the
highest priority” will be accorded “to the transfer of
funds payable as maintenance or to cover expenses in
respect of proceedings under the Convention.”

“Amazing Achievement”

Thirty-two governments participated in the recent
United Nations Conference on Maintenance Obliga-
tions, and fifteen of them signed the Convention on
June 20, the day the conference was concluded. Nine
other governments were represented by observers and
also attending were delegates from the International
Labor Organization, the International Institute for the
Unification of Private Law, the Inter-governmental Com-
mittee for European Migration and twenty-one non-
vovernmental organi Elected as the conference
president was Sir Senerat Gunewardene, of Ceylon. On
the concluding day, he pointed out that, considering the
wide variety of legal systems represented, it was “an
ymazing achievement” for the conference to have
reached unanimity on such a complicated subject within
the short period of three weeks.

[his achievement was possible, however, only be-
cause of the impressive backlog of long and earnest
work which had preceded the conference. The draft
Convention prepared by a Committee of Experts meet-
ing in Geneva in 1952, was built on a foundation laid

65

as far back as 1926, when the League of Nations began
a study of legal means which would make it easier for
dependents to obtain support from a defaulter abroad.
Closely allied with this study project were the Interna-
tional Association for the Protection of Children and
the International Social Service (then known as the
International Migration Service). It was at the sug-
gestion of the latter that the League of Nations, in 1929,
asked the International Institute for the Unification of
Private Law in Rome to work on the legal aspects of
maintenance support across state boundaries.

The Rome Institute, after a preliminary survey, con-
vened a Committee of Experts which held two sessions,
one at Brussels in 1937 and the other at Santa Margher-
ita Ligure, in 1938, where a draft Convention was
drawn up. The work was interrupted by the Second
World War, adding its cruel toll of evidence of the need
for relief in millions of new desertion cases.

United Nations Accepts Challenge

Ten years later, in 1948, the United Nations, taking
up the challenge inherited from the League of Nations,
asked the Institute at Rome to resume work on the
1938 draft and to bring the document up to date. At the
specific request of the Economic and Social Council’s
Social Commission, the Rome Institute again convened
a Committee of Experts, which met at The Hague in
November 1949 and prepared a revised draft conven-
tion. The text of this was circulated to various govern-
ments for comment. At that time the United States
suggested that a procedure similar to the one followed
between its own states concerning reciprocal support
laws might be used as a basis for an international con-
vention.

After studying the text of the Rome Institute draft
convention at its August 1951 session, the Economic
and Social Council requested the United Nations Secre-
tary-General to draw up a working draft and convene
a Committee of Experts “with a view to formulating, on
the basis of the working draft or drafts prepared by the
Secretary-General, the text of a model convention or
model reciprocal law, or both.”

The Secretary-General prepared two working drafts
from which the Committee of Experts, meeting in
Geneva in August 1952, prepared two conventions, one
a draft Convention of the Recovery Abroad of Claims
for Maintenance and the other a model Convention on
the Enforcement Abroad of Maintenance Orders. Both
of these documents were discussed at the Economic and
Social Council’s meeting in April 1954, and the model
Convention was recommended to governments as a
guide for the preparation of bilateral treaties or uniform
laws to be enacted by individual states.

With respect to the draft Convention on the Recovery
Abroad of Claims for Maintenance, the Council re-
quested the Secretary-General “to ascertain from states
Members of the United Nations and those non-Members
of the United Nations which are members of specialized
agencies whether they consider it desirable to convene
a conference of plenipotentiaries to complete the draft-
ing of the Convention on the Recovery Abroad of

66

Claims for Maintenance, and whether they are pre-
pared to attend such a conference.”

Conference Invitations Issued

In May 1955, after the results of the Secretary-Gen-
eral’s consultations were reported, the Economic and
Social Council decided to call such a conference of
plenipotentiaries to complete the drafting of and to sign
the Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Claims for
Maintenance. The printed text of the draft Convention
drawn up by the Committee of Experts was attached to
the Secretary-General’s letter of invitation to the con-
ference, dated November 15, 1955.

In addition to Members of the United Nations and
members of specialized United Nations agencies, invita-
tions were also issued to the Hague Conference on
Private International Law, the International Institute
for the Unification of Private Law, the interested spe-
cialized agencies and non-governmental organizations
having consultative status with the Economic and Social
Council.

The governments of the following states Members of
the United Nations were represented at the conference,
which opened at Headquarters on May 29; Afghanistan,
Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cey-
lon, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark,
the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France,
Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands,
Norway, the Philippines, Sweden, Uruguay and Yugo-
slavia—twenty-seven, slightly more than one third of the
United Nations’ seventy-six Member states. Non-mem-
ber governments which sent plenipotentiary delegations
were the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, the Re-
public of Korea, Monaco and Vatican City. Eight United
Nations Member states sent observers: Canada, Czech-
oslovakia, Guatemala, Lebanon, Peru, Turkey, the
United Kingdom and Venezuela; and Switzerland, a
non-member state, also sent an observer.

The International Labor Organization participated in
the conference without the right to vote, as did the
Inter-governmental Committee for European Migration
and the International Institute for the Unification of
Private Law, and the following non-governmental
organizations: International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions, International Federation of Christian
Trade Unions, World Federation of Trade Unions,
Catholic International Union for Social Service, Com-
mission of the Churches on International Affairs, Co-
ordinating Board of Jewish Organizations, Interna-
tional Catholic Migration Commission, International
Conference Catholic Charities, International Council of
Women, International Federation “Amies de la Jeune
Fille,” International Federation of University Women,
International Federation of Women Lawyers, Interna-
tional Social Service, International Union for Child
Welfare, Liaison Committee of Women’s International
Organizations, Pan-Pacific South East Asia Women’s
Association, Salvation Army, World Alliance of Young
Men’s Christian Associations, World Jewish Congress,
World Union of Catholic Organizations and World
Young Women’s Christian Association.

UNR—August 1956

Two of the countries most keenly interested in the
conference were Japan and West Germany, where the
high proportion of unwed mothers and illegitimate chil-
dren left in war’s aftermath constitutes an acute eco-
nomic and social problem for both nations. Other
nations in the Far East where war has caused family
dislocation are Korea, Cambodia and the Republic of
China. The constant flux of immigration and emigration
groups in the South American countries keeps the fam-
ily maintenance problem constantly in the forefront
there, while the newly formed state of Israel has unique
problems in this respect.

Scandinavian Treaty

The five Scandinavian countries represented at the
conference have already in force between them a con-
vention concluded in 1931, whereby, if a national of
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden fails to
support his wife or his children, regardless of whether
the latter are illegitimate, and if he goes to live in any-
one of the five other countries, he is subject to rules vir-
tually as strict as those in the country which he left.
At the opening of the conference, Erik Dons, of the
Norwegian delegation, reminded the other delegates
that it had been a representative of his country who
had formally proposed the convening of the conference
to the Economic and Social Council.

At one of the early meetings, Dr. Mario Matteucci,
of Italy, who is Secretary-General of the International
Institute for the Unification of Private Law and was
a member of the Committee of Experts who had drawn
up the draft convention, expressed regret at the ab-
sence of the United States as well as of the United
Kingdom and other states of the Commonwealth.

The Committee of Experts which met in Geneva
in August of 1952 to prepare the draft Convention
included a member from the United Kingdom and one
from the United States. Professor Kurt Lipstein, Trinity
College, Cambridge, replaced Professor Harold Cooke
Gutteridge, University of Cambridge, who was unable
to attend, and the American member was Professor
Hessel Yntema, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, who was elected vice-chairman of the com-
mittee. The chairman was the late Professor Eduard
Maurits Meijers, Leyden, Netherlands, one of the
world’s most renowned authorities on international and
comparative law, to whose memory many of the mem-
bers paid warm tribute during the recent conference.

Other members of the Committee of Experts were
Mrs. Marcelle Kraemer-Bach, member of the bar in
Paris, France; Anis Saleh, Director-General at the
Ministry of Justice, Beirut, Lebanon; and Professor
Francisco Clementino de Santiago Dantas, member of
the Bar, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During the 1952 Gene-
va session, wl..ch lasted from August 18 to 28, the
Secretary-General of the United Nations was represent-
ed by Paolo Contini, of the Legal Department, as legal
adviser, and by Witold Langrod, of the Department
of Social Affairs, as Secretary of the Committee.

UNR—August 1956

The non-governmental organizations have been most
vocal in their demands for an international legal instru-
ment to help enforce maintenance claims, One of the
most eloquent speakers at the June conference was
William T. Kirk, General Director of the International
Social Service. Recalling that the International Social
Service had first been established in 1924, Mr. Kirk
said that his agency had been dealing with separated
families, deserted wives and children, illegitimate child-
ren and other similar problems for more than thirty-
five years.

During the year 1955 alone, reported Mr. Kirk, the
International Social Service handled 45,600 cases in
seventy-two different countries, These cases involved
problems so widely spread that, in his opinion, only
a multilateral agreement could deal with them in a
practical fashion. The social agencies, he said, are
powerless in the face of the vast numbers of persons
who have fied from their own homes to dodge family
responsibilities.

Among the typical examples given by the Interna-
tional Social Service Director was that of a White
Russian refugee in Austria who acknowledged paternity
of a baby girl and was required to pay maintenance
for her to her mother. These payments, fixed by the
Austrian courts, were paid regularly by the man until
two years later he emigrated to Australia where he
married, started a new life and completely washed his
hands of his daughter in Austria. As there was no
legal means of enforcing in Australia the sentence
passed in Austria, the mother, who was living in miser-

able conditions, was obliged to separate from her child,
who was placed in a foster-care home by a court order.

In another case, a father contacted in Brazil by the
International Social Service was frank to admit that,
unless legally coerced, he would do nothing about the
wife and child he had deserted in Israel.

It is the strong opinion of many social agency work-
ers that the existence of international machinery for
the enforcement of maintenance obligations would have
effect without the necessity to take court action in every
case. Some men will be deterred from deliberately
migrating across national boundaries if they know they
will not, by so doing, escape their legal responsibilities
in the country they have left.

Effect On Public Funds

In addition to the moral and psychological hardships
resulting from desertion cases, Mr. Kirk pointed out
that the care of abandoned families through foster
homes and state support constitutes an enormous drain
on the public funds of all countries concerned. An
illustration of this is the practical value of the reciprocal
state laws now obtaining in the United States to enforce
the support of dependents. The first of these laws was
passed in 1949, and in 1951, the Domestic Relations
Court in New York City handled 939 cases and col-
lected $80,000 for dependents under the Reciprocal
Support Law. In 1952, this court handled 1,528 cases

67

under this law and collected $219,000, In 1953, the
cases numbered 2,216, and the collections were $500,-
OOO.

While the problem of children born out of wedlock
was discussed at length during the United Nations con-
ference, it was also clearly brought out that unwed moth-
ers and illegitimate children are not the only victims
of non-support to be affected by the new Convention.
In many countries the problem of indigent aged persons
is an acute one, and parents who have been left behind
in mass migration projects often have children in other
countries who are well able to contribute something
to their support. And, as Mrs. Marcelle Kraemer-Bach
of the French delegation pointed out, it would be
illogical for a well-to-do wife not to support a disabled
husband incapable of earning his own living.

Convention Flexible

In the draft Convention prepared by the Geneva
Committee of Experts the “claimant” was designated
as the person who claims to be entitled to maintenance

by an “ascendant, descendant or spouse.” This defini-
tion, however, resulted in a good deal of discussion as
to the exact nature of a family group: whether or not
this should be extended to include brothers and sisters
or other close relatives, and whether or not divorced
spouses and their respective children entered into the
picture. Hence, in its finally adopted form, the Con-
vention omits all mention of “ascendants, descendants
and spouses” in connection with the “claimant,” leaving
these matters to be determined by the laws of the
countries concerned.

Because of its extreme flexibility, the Convention
on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance is believed
by its supporters to be an extremely practical document.
Article 14 provides that the instrument will come into
force within thirty days after it has been ratified by
three governments. The door has been left open for
other governments to adhere to the Convention by
providing that it may be acceded to “at any time,” so
no time limit is placed on the later entry of further
interested states.

DISARMAMENT

continued narrowing

(Continued from page 58 )

was convinced that, on the basis of careful considera-
tion, the question of tests was inseparable from that of
a larger agreement. At the same time, the United States,
he declared, would continue to work, as it did in the
past, for an agreement to bring the nuclear threat under
control, in which the limitation of tests must be an in-
tegral part. In the meantime, the United States would
do everything in its power to ensure that radiation from
all sources, including nuclear tests, does not arise above

tolerable levels.

idoption of the Peruvian Proposal

In submitting his draft resolution, Mr. Belaunde
explained that the Disarmament Commission should not
end its series of meetings on a note of pessimism and
disillusion, especially since there had been a narrowing

of differences. He declared that with a little patience

638

of differences sought

and perseverance, the Commission could ultimately
reach agreement.

To the Soviet contention that the Peruvian draft did
not reflect the Soviet point of view, several representa-
tives, including those of Belgium, Canada, Iran, Peru
and the United Kingdom, considered that the Peruvian
draft reserved everybody’s point of view and did not
call on anyone to abandon his position. Mr. Nutting
maintained that the draft covered all the proposals the
Soviet Union had made or might want to make in the
future, as well as the proposals of other countries. Mr.
Lodge pointed out that the four-Power draft resolution
would not be withdrawn, nor was there any need for
the other resolutions to be withdrawn. They could all
be transmited to the Sub-Committee. The United States
would have preferred to have had the four-Power draft
adopted, he said, but it would support the Peruvian
resolution in the interests of harmony.

UNR—August 1956

NEWS-PERSONNEL SEMINAR

6 bee first United Nations Seminar for News Person-

nel, attended by twenty distinguished editors and
radio officers from as many different countries, nomi-
nated by their respective governments, met for two
weeks in Geneva from July 23 through August 8. The
seminar was addressed by Secretary-General Dag Ham-
marskjold, the President and Committee Chairmen of
the Economic and Social Council, the Directors-General
of a number of specialized agencies, United Nations
Under-Secretaries, and the Executive Secretaries of the
three Regional Economic Commissions.

The Seminar had its genesis in the Economic and
Social Council’s resolution to set up “advisory Services
in the field of human rights,” and had as its purpose
development of “a wider knowledge of the work of the
United Nations, of foreign countries and of international
affairs, with a view to promoting friendly relations
among nations based on the purposes and principles of
the United Nations,” with due emphasis given to the
promotion of freedom of information.

The program consisted of a series of morning and
afternoon meetings at which key addresses by authorita-
tive speakers were followed by question-and-answer dis-
cussion periods. The seminarists were accorded all the
facilities of accredited press and radio correspandents to
enable them to write for the press or to broadcast; inter-
views with representatives to the twenty-second session
of the Economic and Social Council were arranged, as
well as visits to the headquarters of the specialized
agencies in Geneva. A special week-end study tour was
arranged in cooperation with the Swiss Government.
Seminarists were invited to attend Council meetings
whenever possible, and the Seminar program, concen-
trating on world economic and social progress, was
closely related to the major issues before the Council.

Although the plan for the Seminar was not fully con-
solidated until early May of this year, the response from
governments was enthusiastic. After approval of the
project by the Economic and Social Council, the Sec-
retary-General wrote to the Foreign Ministers of Mem-
ber states, inquiring whether they wished news personnel
from their countries to participate, and requesting that
if so, they nominate candidates.

In order to make arrangements for the Seminar it was
necessary to receive answers almost immediately. Not-
withstanding this difficulty, thirty-seven countries an-
swered within four weeks requesting participation. Out
of the nominations received—some countries had nomi-
nated as many as five—the Secretary-General had to
make his selection.

Since funds were limited and, equally, the time for
preparatory work, it was decided that twenty fellowships
should be the maximum number for this first Seminar.

UNR—August 1956

The twenty participants were selected with due regard
to wide geographic distribution and professional quali-
fications. It was made clear that seminarists were chosen
as individuals, not specifically as representatives of their
countries, or even, necessarily, as spokesmen of their
newspapers or radio services. They were, rather,
selected as a group of information experts, meeting to
study the United Nations and to exchange ideas among
themselves on the topics discussed.

In addition to the establishment of a program of
news-personnel Seminars, the Economic and Social
Council also has endorsed the provision, in collaboration
with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, of such services as expert aid
and fellowships in the news gathering field. These are
envisaged as part of the advisory services in the field of
human rights program, which also includes the promo-
tion of the rights of women, the eradication of discrim-
ination and the protection of minorities.

The Participants

Of the twenty nominees, two were women: Mrs.
Lydia Surichan Na-Rnong, of Thailand, Representative
of Agence France Presse in Bangkok, and Miss Kath-
leen Teltsch, of the United States, on the United Na-
tions Bureau of the New York Times. The other par-
ticipants included: Alberto F. Rivas, Argentina, former
editor of La Razon, Buenos Aires, and President of the
Asociacon de Peridistas; Paula Filho, Brazil, Director,
Correio da Manha, Rio de Janeiro, and Vice-President
of the Brazilian Press Association; Raul Ferrada, Chile,
Managing Director of La Nacion, Santiago; Jiri Nedela,
Czechoslovakia, Editor, Foreign Division, Czech Radio,
Prague; Gunnar Naesselund-Hansen, Denmark, Chief of
Foreign News Service of Ritzkaus Bureau, Danish News
Agency; Mohamed Abdel Kader, Egypt, Director, News
Section, Egyptian Broadcasting Corporation; Paul Per-
ronnet, France, Editor, Journale Parle and Chief of For-
eign Services, Radio Diffusion Television Francaise;
D. P. Wagle, India, General Manager, Press Trust of
India; Sutojo, Indonesia, Director, Overseas Service,
Radio Republik Indonesia; Abdol-Rassool Azimi, Iran,
editor Kehyan, Teheran, Ghalib Naoum Sakriah, Iraq,
News Editor, Iraq Broadcasting Station; Moshe Pearl-
man, Israel, Director, Government Information Services,
E. Evenhuis, Netherlands, Editor-in-Chief, Leeuwarder
Courant, Leeuwarder; R. C. Sayers, New Zealand, As-
sistant Editor, Auckland Star, Auckland; Mohsin Ali,
Pakistan, Editor, Morning News, Karachi; Gonzalo
Rodriguez Castillo, Spain, Office of Information, Min-
istry of Foreign Affairs; B. K. Shtal, U.S.S.R., Chief,
Foreign News Department, TASS Agency, and Djordje
Vukmanovic, Yugoslavia, Secretariate of Information,
Federal Executive Council.

The following United Nations publications are suggested for readers who wish more background informa-
tion on articles which appear in this issue of the UNITED NATIONS REVIEW. United Nations publica-
tions are obtainable from sales agents listed on the back inside cover; specialized agency publications may
be obtained from many of these agents or by writing to the headquarters of the agency. Almost all
publications may be purchased by visitors at the bookshop in United Nations Headquarters.

THE POSTWAR ECONOMIC RECORD

Wor_p Economic Survey, 1955. 2/0
pp. U.N. Sales No. 1956.11.C.1.
Price: $2.00, 14/-, Sw. fr. 8.50.

This report is the eighth in a series
of comprehensive reviews of world
economic conditions published by the
United Nations. Part I reviews the
growth of production and trade, dur-
ing the first postwar decade, in the
private enterprise economies and in
the centrally planned economies. Part
II is devoted to an examination of
recent developments in the world
economy.

(A complete listing of the World
Economic Survey series can be ob-
tained from the Sales Agents.)

ENCOURAGING PROGRESS
IN MID-EAST ECONOMIES

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN THE
Mippte East, 1954-1955. 1/49 pp.
U.N. Sales No. 1956.11.C.2. Price
$7.50, 11/-, Sw. fr. 6.50.

A general description of trends in
production, trade, finance and devel-
opment programs during 1954 and
1955

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN THE
Mippie East, 1945 to 1954. 236
pp. U.N. Sales No. 1955.11.C.2.
Price: $2.50, 17/6, Sw. fr. 10.00.

A review of the main economic
trends in the Middle East during
1945 to 1954. It also reports on the
individual economies of seven coun-
tries in the area and their effect on
the economy of the Middle East as a
whole. The countries are: Egypt, Iran,
Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN AFRICA

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN AFRICA,
1954-1955. 100 pp. U.N. Sales No.
1956.11.C.3. Price: $1.00, 7/-, Sw.
fr. 4.00

This report, issued as a supplement
to the World Economic Survey, 1955,
reviews the growth of economic ac-
tivity in Africa in 1954 and 1955,
noting differences in the economic
structure of the principal regions—

70

northern, tropical and southern Africa
—and the differing rates of develop-
ment in each region. (The report ex-
cludes Egypt but includes the outlving
islands in the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans.) There is also a statistical
appendix, consisting of some twenty-
six tables, covering different aspects
of the economy in annual and, where
appropriate, quarterly series beginning
with 1950.

REVIEW OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN
Arrica, 1950 to 1954. 146 pp.
U.N. Sales No. 1955.11.C.3. Price:
$7.50, 11/-, Sw. fr. 6.00.

A review of the growth of economic
activity in Africa in the five-year
period 1950 to 1954.

CHALLENGE IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT ON THE AD-
MINISTRATION OF THE TRUST TER-
RITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.
202 pp. U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washineton, D.C. Price: 70¢.

This report, covering July 1, 1954.
to June 30, 1955, is the eighth annual
report by the United States to the
United Nations, pursuant to Article 88
of the Chafter, on the administration
of the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands. (See also listing in the Re-
view, Vol. 2, No. 2, August 1955,
p. 85.)

TRUST TERRITORY OF SOMALILAND

See listings in the Review, October
1955, Vol. 2, No. 4, p. 57; and July
1956, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 58.

WATER AND THE WORLD TODAY

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION. 85 pp. U.N.
Sales No. 1954. 11.F.1. Price: 80¢,
6/-, Sw. fr. 3.00.

This report analyzes the problem
of rural electrification in the various
countries of Asia and the Far East.
Technical and economic questions re-
lating to electric power development
in rural areas are discussed and suit-
able methods and practices suggested.
Financial considerations relating to
rural electrification projects are dealt

with in some detail. Contains numer-
ous charts and tables.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED NATIONS
SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE ON THE
CONSERVATION AND UTILIZATION OF
RESOURCES. VOLUME IV—WATER
Resources. 466 pp. clothhound.
U.N. Sales No. 1950.11.B.5. Price:
$4.50, 32/6, Sw. fr. 18.00.

Proceedings of the Water Resources
Section of the Conference: The Ap-
praisal of Water Resources; Water
Supply and Pollution Problems; Com-
prehensive River Basin Development

A Symposium; Drainage Basin
Management; Water Control Struc-
tures; Flood Control] and Navigation;
Irrigation and Drainage; Hvdro Power
and Other Water Uses; List of Con-
tributors.

INLAND WATER TRANSPORT IN EUROPE
AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMER-
ca. 14/7 pp. U.N. Sales No. 1953.
VIli.1. Price: $1.50, 11/-, Sw. fr.
6.00

This report reviews the main fea-
tures of inland water transport in
Europe and the United States and
their applicability to Burma, India,
Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam. The
report is a result of a study tour
(August-November 1951) made bv a
group of experts who made an on-the-
spot survey of inland water transport
in the four countries, followed by a
trip to Europe and the United States.

STRIKING RISE IN TECHNICAL AID

EIGHTH REPORT OF THE TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE BOARD TO THE TECH-
NICAL ASSISTANCE COMMITTEE. 104
pp. Official Records, Economic and
Social Council, Twenty-Second Ses-
sion, Supplement No. 5. Price:
$1.00, 7/-, Sw. fr. 4.00.

The Technical Assistance Board
describes the progress and develop-
ments of the Expanded Programme of
Technical Assistance for Economic
Development during 1955. The report
also contains some details of activities
to be undertaken in 1956 and brief
indications of plans for 1957.

UNR—August 1956

1 INTERNATION

SG ee ee

UNITED NATIONS

AUGUST 13-23 EUROPEAN REGIONAL CON-
SULTATIVE GROUP ON PREVENTION OF
CRIME AND TREATMENT OF OFFENDERS.
Geneva.

(Convened by the Secretary-Gen-
eral in accordance with resolution
155/C VIII of the Economic and
Social Council. )

Provisional agenda includes: 1.
Treatment of types of offenders
against whom society needs par-
ticular protection: (a) habitual
offenders, and (b) abnormal of-
fenders. 2. Treatment of young
adult offenders.

AUGUST 13-SEPTEMBER 7 UNITED NATIONS
CONFERENCE OF PLENIPOTENTIARIES
ON A SUPPLEMENTARY CONVENTION
ON THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, THE
SLAVE TRADE AND INSTITUTIONS AND
PRACTICES SIMILAR TO SLAVERY. Ge-
neva,

Provisional agenda includes: Com-
pletion of the drafting of the Sup-
plementary Convention on the
Abolition of Slavery, the Slave
Trade and Institutions and Prac-
tices Similar to Slavery; adoption
and signature of the Supplemen-
tary Convention and of the Final
Act of the Conference.

AUGUST 14-31
Geneva.

ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL.

AUGUST 16-SEPTEMBER 12 COMMITTEE OF
EXPERTS ON TRANSPORT OF DANGER-
ous Goons. Geneva.

Agenda includes: Examination of
views and comments from govern-
ments and international organiza-
tions on the report of the Commit-
tee of Experts, and establishment
of final recommendations; pro-
cedure for keeping the list of prin-
cipal dangerous goods up to date;
further consideration of the prob-
lem of packaging.

AUGUST 24 MEETING OF SPECIALIZED
AGENCIES AND NGO’S INTERESTED IN
THE PREVENTION OF CRIME AND
TREATMENT OF OFFENDERS. Geneva.

(Convened by the Secretary-Gen-
eral in accordance with General
Assembly resolution 415 (V) ).
Provisional agenda includes: Pres-
entation of the report on the ac-
tivities of specialized agencies and
non - governmental organizations
and statement of the U.N. pro-
gram of work; discussion on the
cooperation between the partici-
pating organizations and the U.N..,
and on the coordination of activi-
ties.

SEPTEMBER 2 NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
FOR ExTRA-BUDGETARY FUNDS. Head-
quarters.

SEPTEMBER 10-15 UNREF STANDING PRo-
GRAM SUBCOMMITTEE. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 10-21 AD Hoc COMMISSION
ON PRISONERS OF War. Geneva.
Seventh session.

UNR—August 1956

‘mms

SEPTEMBER 20-24 CONFERENCE ON STAT-
UTE OF INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC
ENERGY AGENCY. Headquarters.

SEPTEMBER 20-27 ICEM COUNCIL EXECU-
TIVE COMMITTEE. Geneva.

COMMITTEE
OF ATOMIC

LATE SEPTEMBER ADVISORY
ON PEACEFUL USES
ENERGY, Headquarters.

SUBCOMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORT.

¢
SEPTEMBER 28 ICEM
THE COORDINATION OF
Geneva.

IN CONTINUOUS SESSION SECURITY COUN-
ciL. Headquarters.

IN CONTINUOUS SESSION DISARMAMENT
COMMISSION, COMMITTEES AND SuB-
COMMITTEES Headquarters.

“ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE

AUGUST 13-17 COAL COMMITTEE: EXPERT
GrRouP ON CONDITIONS OF SALE OF
CoaL. Geneva.

AUGUST 20-SEPTEMBER 1 INLAND TRANS-
PORT COMMITTEE: WORKING PARTY
ON THE INTERNATIONAL ROAD TRANS-
PORT REGIME. Geneva.

AUGUST 2-SEPTEMBER 1 COMMITTEE ON
DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE: WORKING
PARTY ON ARBITRATION. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 3-8 INLAND TRANSPORT COM-
MITTEE OF EXPERTS TO STUDY CER-
TAIN RAILWAY QUESTIONS. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 3-8 INDUSTRY AND MATERIALS
COMMITTEE: WORKING PARTY ON
CONTRACT PRACTICES IN ENGINEERING.
Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 10-11 INLAND TRANSPORT COM-
MITTEE: SUBCOMMITTEE ON RAIL
TRANSPORT. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 12-14 Ap Hoc SESSION OF IN-
LAND TRANSPORT COMMITTEE. Ge-
neva.

SEPTEMBER 17 INLAND TRANSPORT COM-
MITTEE: WORKING PARTY ON INTER-
NATIONAL PASSENGER TRANSPORT SERV-
ICES BY ROAD. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 17-21 TRADE COMMITTEE:
CONSULTATION ON PAYMENTS DEC-
LARATION. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 18-22 INLAND TRANSPORT COM-
MITTEE: SUBCOMMITTEE ON ROAD
TRANSPORT. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 18 COAL TRADE SUBCOMMIT-
TEE. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 18-20 CoaL COMMITTEE. Ge-
neva.

SEPTEMBER 20-22 WORKING PARTY ON

CoaL STATISTICS. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 24-28 COMMITTEE ON AGRI-
CULTURAL PROBLEMS: WORKING PARTY
ON STANDARDIZATION OF PERISHABLE
FoopsTuFFs. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 24-29 COMMITTEE ON AGRI-
CULTURAL PROBLEMS: AD Hoc WorRK-
ING PARTY ON STANDARDIZATION OF
CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR CEREALS.
Geneva.

AL MEETINGS

Sie

ene

ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR ASIA
AND THE FAR EAST

AUGUST 8-18 JOINT ECAFE-UNESCO SEMI-
NAR ON URBANIZATION IN THE ECAFE
REGION. Bangkok.

SEPTEMBER 5-12 WORKING PARTY ON RaAlL-
WAY TRACK SLEEPERS. Bangkok.

SEPTEMBER 17-29 WORKING PARTY ON
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PLAN-
NING. Bangkok.

SPECIALIZED AGENCIES
iLO

AUGUST 13-24 MEETING OF EXPERTS ON
DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES. Geneva.

AUGUST 27-SEPTEMBER 1 GOVERNING Bopy
COMMITTEE ON REDUCTION OF HOURS
OF WorK. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 3-15 SIXTH REGIONAL CONFER-
ENCE OF AMERICAN STATES MEMBERS
OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGAN-
IZATION. Havana.

SEPTEMBER 10-29 JOINT UN/ILO/WHO
MEETING OF EXPERTS ON MAINTE-
NANCE OF FAMILY LEVELS OF LIVING.
Geneva,

SEPTEMBER 19-OCTOBER 2 PREPARATORY
TECHNICAL MARITIME CONFERENCE.
London.

FAO

AUGUST 20-SEPTEMBER 30 StruDy TOUR ON
ROLE OF FoREST COVER IN PROTEC-
TION AND UTILIZATION OF ARID ZONE
Soits. USSR.

The seminar and tour will deal
with the role of forests and shel-
terbelts in the protection and use
of the soil in semi-arid zones. Par-
ticipants will study forest manage-
ment problems in connection with
soil protection and utilization in
these zones, the methods used, and
the results achieved in the USSR.

AUGUST 27. COMMITTEE ON
CONTROL. Rome.

FINANCIAL

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER EXTENSION TRAINING
PROGRAM FOR CENTRAL AMERICA.
Costa Rica.

SEPTEMBER 3 FAO COUNCIL. Rome.
Twenty-fifth session.

SEPTEMBER 12-15 STUDY Group ON HAN-
DLING AND TRANSPORT OF TIMBER IN
MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS. Geneva.

SEPTEMBER 17-22 GENERAL FISHERIES
COUNCIL FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN.
Istanbul.

Fourth session.

SEPTEMBER 17-OCTOBER 14 REGIONAL MEET-
ING AND TRAINING CENTRE ON AGRI-
CULTURAL MECHANIZATION. Egypt.

The purpose of the Centre is to
provide the opportunity for senior
men engaged in agricultural engi-
neering work to study and discuss
the organization, management and
operational problems connected
with farm mechanization and land
development projects, to seek ad-
vice on the types of equipment

71

most suitable under various soils,
climatic and operational conditions
and to study maintenance require-
ments and techniques.

SEPTEMBER 10 FAO CONFERENCE. Rome.
Special session to appoint a new
Director-General.

SEPTEMBER 24-28 EXPERT GROUP ON IN-
DEX NUMBERS. Rome.

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 2 REGIONAL Nvu-
TRITION FOR SOUTH AND EasT ASIA-—
FAO/WHO, Tokyo.

SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 6 (tentative) CPP

-WORKING PARTY ON COCONUT. Cey-
ion.

SEPTEMBER 29 INTER-AGENCY
GROUP ON MILK. Rome.

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER IRRIGATION PRACTICES
[RAINING CENTER. Chile

WORKING

UNESCO

AUGUST 1-3 MEETING OF EXPERTS ON
THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND PRACTICAL
ASPECTS OF EVALUATION, Paris.

AUGUST 4-7 MEETING OF REPRESENTA
TIVES OF HIGH ALTITUDE LABORA-
TORIES IN LATIN AMERICA. Chacaltaya,
Bolivia

AUGUST 6-10 MEETING OF EXPERTS ON
STUDIES OF COMMON IDEAS REGARD
ING FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Paris.

AUGUST 8-18 JOINT UN/UNESCO SEMINAR
ON URBANIZATION IN THE ECAFE RI
GION. Bangkok.

SEPTEMBER 3-15
ORY COMMITTEE ON
Paris

SEPTEMBER 17-19 LIAISON COMMITTEE
OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN
THE Fie&lLD OF ARTS AND LETTERS
Paris

SEPTEMBER 24-29 REGIONAL CONFERENCE
ON THE EXCHANGE OF PUBLICATIONS IN
LATIN AMERICA. Havana

INTERNATIONAL ADVIS
CURRICULUM

icAO
SEPTEMBER 4 JOINT FINANCING CONFER
ENCE TO REVISE THE DANISH AND
ICELANDIC AGREEMENTS. Paris.
THIRD AIR NAVIGATION
Montreal

SEPTEMBER 18
(ONFERENCE

WHO

AUGUST 7-11 STUDY
EFFECT OF RADIATION ON
GENETICS. Copenhagen.

SEPTEMBER 2-30 PAN AMERICAN SANITARY
BUREAU TRAINING COURSE FOR OPERA-
TORS OF WATERWORKS. Mexico City

SEPTEMBER 3-15 PAN AMERICAN SANITARY
BUREAU SEMINAR ON APPLICATION Of
INTERNATIONAL SANITARY REGULA
TIONS. Caracas

SEPTEMBER 7-13 WESTERN Paciric RE
GIONAL COMMITTEE OF WHO. Manila.
Seventh session

SEPTEMBER 9-15 PAN AMERICAN SANITARY
BUREAU FOURTH REGIONAL CONGRESS
ON NurRsING. Mexico City

SEPTEMBER 10-13 EUROPEAN
COMMITTEE, Geneva
Sixth session

SEPTEMBER 11-13 PAN AMERICAN SANI-
TARY BUREAU. Guatemala
Iwenty-ninth meeting of the Ex-
cutive Committee Working
Party of the Regional Committee
of the Directing Council.

GROUP ON THI
HUMAN

REGIONAI

SEPTEMBER 16-19 PAN AMERICAN SANI-
TARY BUREAL NINTH MEETING OF
THE DIRECTING COUNCIL. Guatemala.

SEPTEMBER 20-26 STUDY GROUP ON Psy-
CHOBIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THEI
CHILD, Geneva

SEPTEMBER 20-28 EASTERN MEDITERANEAN
REGIONAL COMMITTEE: SUBCOMMIT
TEE “a.” Teheran.

SEPTEMBER 24-29
COMMITTEE

SEPTEMBER 24-29 SOUTHEAST AsiIA RE
GIONAL COMMITTEE. New Delhi
Ninth session

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 2 WHO/FAO REI
GIONAI NUTRITION COMMITTEE IN
SOUTHEAST Asia, Tokyo.

SEPTEMBER 29 PAN AMERICAN SANITARY
BUREAU. Guatemala
rhirtieth meeting of the Executive
Committee—Working Party of the
Regional Committee of the Direct
ing Council.

AFRICAN REGIONAL

Launda

ITU

AUGUST 9-SEPTEMBER 13
ASSEMBLY. Warsaw.

EIGHTH PLENARY

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANI-
ZATIONS IN CONSULTATIVE
STATUS WITH THE ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

AUGUST 1-8
ORGANIZATIONS OF THE
-ROFESSION. Manila.
Theme: The Teacher and the Well-
being of Society.

AUGUST 3-10 INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION
OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN. Paris.
[welfth Conference.

AUGUST 6-SEPTEMBER 1 INTERNATIONAL
MATHEMATICAL UNION, Mexico City
International symposium on alge

braic topology and its applications.

AUGUST 10-15 INTERNATIONAL
AGAINST CANCER. Rome.

AUGUST 10-18
HOSTEL FEDERATION
and Carbisdale.

Rally and conference. Subjects
How can youth hostels meet the
needs of today’s youth; How to in-
crease usage of youth hostels in
the off-season.

AUGUST 12-17 WORLD FEDERATION FOR
MENTAL HEALTH. Berlin.

Ninth annual meeting. Theme

Mental health at home and school

AUGUST 14-16 WORLD FEDERATION Of
DEMOCRATIC YOUTH. Moscow.

AUGUST 15 INTERNATIONAL UNION Of!
PURE AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY. Co-
pennagen

AUGUST 16-21 INTERNATIONAL UNION OF
PURE AND APPLIED Puysics. Cam-
bridge.

Colloquium on X-ray microscopy.

AUGUST 17-25 PERMANENT COMMITTEE
OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OI
ENTOMOLOGY. Montreal.

AUGUST 18-23 WORLD FEDERATION OF

DEMOCRATIC YOUTH. Sofia.
Annual conference.

AUGUST 20-24 INTERNATIONAL FEDERA-
TION OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE. Copen-
hage mn

AUGUST 21-25 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZA-
TION FOR STANDARDIZATION. Leningrad

WoORLD CONFEDERATION OI
TEACHING

UNION

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH
Loch Lomond

AUGUST 22-29 WoRLD ALLIANCE Of
yMCa’s. Winchester.
International Young Men’s Con
ference.
AUGUST 24-SEPTEMBER 29 INTERNATIONAL
ALLIANCE OF WOMEN. Sweden.
4 Social Study for Women from
the East.

AUGUST 26-SEPTEMBER 2 INTERNATIONAL
Law ASSOCIATION. Dubrovnik.

AUGUST 27-29 INTERNATIONAL FEDERA
TION FOR DOCUMENTATION. Stuttgart.

AUGUST 27-31 INTERNATIONAL ASTRO
NOMICAL UNION. Stockholm.
Symposium on_ electromagnetic

phenomena in cosmical physics.

AUGUST 27-SEPTEMBER 1 INTERNATIONAL
STUDENT MOVEMENT FOR THE UNITED
NATIONS. Gmunden, Austria.

AUGUST 28-SEPTEMBER 1 INTERNATIONAI
UNION OF PURE AND APPLIED PHYSICS
Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany.

AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 1 INTERNATIONAI
ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION.
Stuttgart.

AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 1 THE ECONOMET-
ric Society. Aix-en-Provence.

AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 2 INTERNATIONAI
CONFERENCE OF RELIGIOUS SOCIOL-
ocy. Louvain, Belgium

AUGUST INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SERVICE
Munich.

Resolution Adopted by the
Disarmament Commission
on July 16, 1956

The Disarmament Commission,

Having studied the Third Report of
the Disarmament Sub-Committee,

Recording its appreciation of the Sub
Committee’s efforts,

Considering that new proposals have
been formulated and proposed in the
course of its current sessions,

Considering that the resolution intro-
duced on July 3 by the United Kingdom,
Canada, France and the United States,
as amended, sets forth the principles
upon which an effective program for the
regulation and limitation of all arms and
armed forces can be based,

Welcoming the narrowing of differ-
ences on certain aspects of the disarma-
ment problem that has been achieved
both in the Sub-Committee discussions
and in the present session of the Dis-
armament Commission,

Noting that major difficulties remain
to be solved before agreement is reached
on an international disarmament pro-
gram with safeguards which will ensure
the faithful observance of the program
by all States,

Convinced that a reconciliation of the
opposing points of view is both possible
and necessary,

Recalling the terms of resolution 914
(X) adopted by the General Assembly
on December 16, 1955,

Asks the Sub-Committee to study these
propositions at the appropriate time,
taking account of the principles affirmed
therein and striving to increase the area
of agreements; and

Requests the Sub-Committee to report
to the Commission which will then ex-
amine the various resolutions and pro-
posals already presented to it or which
shall have been presented between now
and its next session.

UNR—August 1956

SALES AGENTS FOR UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS

ARGENTINA

Editorial Sudamericana S.A.,
Buenos Aires,

AUSTRALIA

H. A. Goddard, 255a George St., Sydney, and
90 Queen St., Melbourne.
Melbourne University Press,

Alsina 500,

Carlton N.3,
Victoria.

AUSTRIA

Gerold & Co., Graben 31, Wien, 1.

B. Wiillerstorff, Markus Sittikusstrasse 10, Salz-
burg.

BELGIUM

Agence et Messageries de la Presse S.A.,
14-22 rue du Persil, Bruxelles.

W. H. Smith & Son, 71-75, boulevard Adolphe-
Max, Bruxelles.

BOLIVIA

Libreria Selecciones, Casilla 972, la Paz

BRAZIL
Livraria Agir, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and

Belo Horizonte.

CAMBODIA

Papeterie-Librairie Nouvelle, Albert Portail, 14
Avenue Boulloche, Pnom-Penh

CANADA

Ryerson Press, 299 Queen St. West, Toronto
CEYLON

Lake House Bookshop, The Associated News
papers of Ceylon, Ltd., P.O. Box 244, Colombo.
CHILE

Editorial del Pacifico, Ahumada 57, Santiago.
Libreria Ivens, Moneda Casilla 205, Santiago
CHINA

The World Book Co, Ltd., 99 Chung King
Road, Ist Section, Taipeh, Taiwan.

The Commercial Press Ltd., 211 Honan Rd.,
Shanghai.

COLOMBIA

Libreria América, Medellin

Libreria Buchholz Galeria, Bogota

Libreria Nacional Ltda., Barranquilla.
COSTA RICA

Trejos Hermanos, Apartado 1313, San José
CUBA

La Casa Belga, O'Reilly 455, La Habana.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Ceskoslovensky Spisovatel, Narodni Trida 9
Praha 1.

DENMARK

Einar Munksgaard, Ltd
havn, K.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Libreria Dominicana

Norregade 6, Koben-

Mercedes 49, Ciudad
Trujillo

ECUADOR

Libreria Cientifica, Guayaquil and Quito
EGYPT

Librairie la Renaissance d’Egypte,’’ 9 Sh.
Adly Pasha, Cairo

EL SALVADOR

Manvel Navas y Cia., la, Avenida sur 37, San
Salvador.

FINLAND

Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, 2 Keskuskatu, Hel-
sinki.

FRANCE

Editions A. Pédone, 13, rue Soufflot, Paris V.
GERMANY

R. Eisenschmidt, Kaiserstrasse 49, Frankfurt
Main

Elwert & Meurer, Hauptstrasse, 101, Berlin—
Schoneberg.

Alex. Horn, Spiegelgasse 9, Wiesbaden.

W. E. Saarbach, Gereonstrasse 25-29, Koln
22c
GREECE
Kauffmann
Atheénes.
GUATEMALA
Sociedad Econémico Financiera, Edificio Briz
Despacho 207, 6a Av. 14-33, Zona 1, Guate-
mala City

HAITI

Librairie “A la Caravelle,” Port-au-Prince
HONDURAS

Libreria Panamericana, Tegucigalpa.

HONG KONG

The Swindon Book Co., 25 Nathan Road,
Kowloon.

ICELAND

Bokaverzlun Sigfusar Eymundssonar H-F.,
Austurstraeti 18, Reykjavik.

INDIA

Orient Longmans, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras
and New Delhi.

Oxford Book & Stationery Co., New Delhi and
Calcutta.

P. Varadachary & Co., Madras.

INDONESIA
Pembangunan, _Ltd.,
Djakarta.

IRAN

“Guity,” 482 Avenue Ferdowsi, Teheran

IRAQ

Mackenzie’s Bookshop, Baghdad.

ISRAEL

Blumstein’s Bookstores Ltd., 35 Allenby Road,
Tel-Aviv.

ITALY

Libreria Commissionaria Sansoni, Via Gina
Capponi 26, Firenze.

JAPAN

Maruzen Company, lLtd., 6
Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

KOREA

Bookshop, 28 Stadion Street

Gunung Schari 84

Tori-Nichome,

Mr. Chin-Sook Chung, President, Eul-Yoo Pub-

lishing Company, Ltd., 5, 2-Ka
Seoul

LEBANON

Librairie Universelle, Beyrouth.
LIBERIA

J. Momolu Kamara, Monrovia.
LUXEMBOURG

Librairie J. Schummer, Luxembourg.
MEXICO

Editorial Hermes S.A., Ignacio Mariscal 41,
México, D.F.

NETHERLANDS

N.V. Martinus Nijhoff, Lange Voorhout 9,
s-Gravenhage

NEW ZEALAND

United Nations Association of New Zealand,
C.P.0. 1011, Wellington

Chongno

NORWAY

Johan Grundt Tanum Forlag, Kr. Augustsgt.
7A, Oslo,

PAKISTAN

The Pakistan Co-operative Book Society, Dacca,
East Pakistan (and at Chittagong

Publishers United, Ltd., Lahore.

Thomas & Thomas, Karachi, 3.

PANAMA

Jose Menéndez, Plaza de Arango, Panama
PARAGUAY

Agencia de Librerias de Salvador Nizza,
Calle Pte. Franco N. 39-43, Asuncién

PERU

Libreria Internacional del Perd, S.A., Lima and
Arequipa.

PHILIPPINES

Alemar’s Book Store, 749 Rizal
Manila.

PORTUGAL

Livraria Rodrigues, 186 Rua Aurea, Lisboa.
SINGAPORE

The City Book Store, Ltd., Winchester House,
Collyer Quay.

SPAIN

Libreria Bosch, 11 Ronda Universidad, Barce-
lona.

Libreria Mundi-Prensa, Lagasca 38, Madrid
SWEDEN

C. E. Fritze’s Kungl. Hovbokhandel A-B, Freds-
gatan 2, Stockholm.

SWITZERLAND

Librairie Payot S.A., Lausanne, Genéve.
Hans Raunhardt, Kirchgasse 17, Zirich 1.
SYRIA

Librairie Universelle, Damas.

THAILAND

Pramuvan Mit Ltd., 55 Chakrawat Road, Wat
Tuk, Bangkok.

TURKEY

Librairie Hachette, 469 Istiklal Caddesi, Beyoglu,
Istanbul.

UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA

Van Schaik’s Bookstore (Pty.), Ltd., Box 724
Pretoria.

UNITED KINGDOM

H.M. Stationery Office, P.O. Box 569, London,
S.E. 1 (and at H.M.S.O. Shops).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

International Documents Service, Columbia
University Press, 2960 Broadway, New York
a, & ¥.

URUGUAY

Representacién de Editoriales, Prof. H. D’Elia,
Av. 18 de Julio 1333, Montevideo.
VENEZUELA

Libreria del Este, Av. Miranda, No. 52, Edf.
Galipaén, Caracas.

VIET-NAM

Papeterie-Librairie Nouvelle, Albert Portail
Boite postale 283, Saigon.

YUGOSLAVIA

Cankarjeva Zalozba, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Drzavno Preduzece,
Terazije 27/11, Beograd,

Avenue,

Jugoslovenska Kniiga,

Prosvjeta,”” Izdavacka Knijizara No. 5, Trg
Bratstva i Ledinstva, Zagreb.

Orders and inquiries from countries where sales agents have not yet been appointed may be sent to: Sales and Circulation Section, United Nations,
New York, U.S.A.; or Sales Section, United Nations Office, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

PICTURE CREDITS: 7, UN-41095; 10, UN-48781

11, UN-48397; 12, UNICEF-778; 17, UN-49879; 31

UN-50172; 33, UN-43686; 34, UN-41067; 35

UN-34704; 37, UN-49689; 38, UNICEF-1642; 39, UN-41096; 40, UN-49684; 44, UN-50277, UN-50230; 45, UN-31622; 47, UN-48469; 49, UN-43578

50, UN-43598; 51, UN-41654; 52, UN-41655; 59, UNREF-640, UN-31695; 61,

UN-49344; 62, UN-43394; 64, UN-50164; back cover, UN-50077

Editors requiring UN or UNATIONS photos for publication may order prints, quoting serial or page numbers, from Photographs Section, Depart-
ment of Public Information, United Nations, New York 17, N. Y. Photographs credited to UN Specialized Agencies may be obtained by writing

directly to the Agency concerned.

i
x

Comparatively rapid recovery from war damage has been a feature of the world

economy since 1945, as evidenced by reconstruction of Italy’s ports. Here a Dutch
freighter loads bags of cement at Genoa. Railroad freight cars marked “Europ” be-
long to a pool for use, without discrimination, by all countries in the pool, which

was set up under the aegis of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

PART II OF THIS VOLUME IS THE INDEX FOR THE
PREVIOUS VOLUME AND DOES NOT NEED TO BE REPLACED.