A in REPORT FOR 1948 SIGNIFICANT aspect of the record of the United Nations any year is the development of the organization and work of each of its major organs. A second significant aspect is the development of the work of the organization as a whole in respect of each of the concrete problems which has come before any of its organs. In the practical handling of its work, the United Nations. functions to a considerable extent as an organism and not as a group of dispersed and isolated agencies. In part A of this report attention is focused briefly on the organizational developments and work of each of the six principal organs of the United Nations during 1948. Part B traces the consideration given or action taken in respect of the main problems in the following major fields: political and security; economic, social, and human rights, including freedom of information; trusteeship and non-self-governing territories; budget, administration, and organization; and international law. GENERAL ASSEMBLY The General Assembly, consisting of all 58 Members of the United Nations, meets in regular session each September and in special session as occasion may demand. Because of its wide membership and the broad range of its responsibilities, it is a most significant forum for the views of governments and a potent factor in the development of collective international policies. The importance attached by governments to the Assembly's work is reflected in the large attendance of governmental leaders and in the vigor with which national viewpoints are put forward and defended in the debates. The work of the Assembly touches practically the entire range of activity of the United Nations. To deal in detail with this broad subject matter, the Assembly's rules provide for six main committees of the whole membership, to which the different types of problems are 825285°- 49 3 referred before action by the Assembly itself. These are as follows: 1. Political and Security Committee (including the regulation of armaments); 2. Economic and Financial Committee; 3. Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee; 4. Trusteeship Committee (including non-self-governing territories); 5. Administrative and Budgetary Committee; and 6. Legal Committee. As in 1946 and 1947, the Assembly was in session twice during the year. Its Second Special Session, from April 16 to May 14, 1948, was called at the request of the Security Council to consider the problem of the future government of Palestine in the light of developments which had occurred since the Assembly's resolution of November 29, 1947.1 The Assembly adopted on May 14 a resolution providing for a United Nations Mediator to carry forward in Palestine itself, in conjunction with the parties, the efforts of the United Nations to reach a solution for this problem. This action represented a stage in the practically continuous consideration of this problem by the General Assembly and the Security Council. Pursuant to its 1947 decision, the Third Regular Session of the General Assembly was held in Paris rather than at the headquarters at Lake Success, N. Y. The Session began on September 21, 1948, and on December 12, 1948, was temporarily adjourned until early April 1949, when it will reconvene at the headquarters. Attended in unprecedented numbers by representatives of European press and radio services, the Paris meetings may have served to bring the work of the United Nations more vividly to the European peoples. Herbert V. Evatt of Australia was elected President of the Assembly. The chairmen of the six main committees were as follows: First Committee, Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium); Second Committee, Hernan Santa Cruz (Chile); Third Committee, Charles Malik (Lebanon); Fourth Committee, Nasrollah Entezam (Iran); Fifth Committee, S. Dana Wilgress (Canada); Sixth Committee, Ricardo Alfaro (Panama). The Heads of the Delegations of China, France, Mexico, 1 The officers of the Assembly for the Second Special Session were as follows: President; José Arce (Argentina); chairmen of committees: First, T. F. Tsiang (China); Second, Eduardo Anze Matienzo (Bolivia); Third, Carlos Garcia Bauer (Guatemala); Fourth, C. A. Berendsen (New Zealand); Fifth, Joza Vilfan (Yugoslavia); Sixth, Nasrollah Entezam (Iran); Vice Presidents: Representatives of France, Peru, Sweden, Turkey, U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, and United States. Poland, the U.S.S.R., the United Kingdom, and the United States were elected Vice Presidents of the Assembly. The Assembly was presented with an agenda even heavier than those of previous sessions. At the beginning, some 75 items had been submitted for consideration; several items were added during the course of the Session. Especially noteworthy was the number of political and security matters which, as in preceding years, were placed before the Assembly. The work of the Session in the political field was conditioned largely by the continuing differences between the Soviet Union and the other Members. In all the important political questions considered except that of Palestine, i.e. the questions of atomic energy, the reduction and regulation of conventional armaments, Greece, Korea, the veto, membership in the United Nations, and the Interim Committee, the issues were sharply drawn between Soviet and non-Soviet views. Consideration of these questions-particularly those of atomic energy, reduction of conventional armaments, and the Greek question-led to debates on foreign policies generally and on the broad issues separating the Soviet Union from other countries. Concern was manifested by many of the delegations from smaller countries over the serious differences among the great powers reflected in Assembly debates and in the Berlin case, which was then under consideration by the Security Council. A resolution proposed by Mexico, calling upon the major allied powers to compose their differences and to reach as quickly as possible the agreements necessary to liquidate the results of the war and establish peace, was adopted by the Assembly. The decisions on all of the specific political matters were, with isolated exceptions, opposed only by the Soviet group. The Assembly did not automatically adopt the proposals made by any one Member, as often alleged by Soviet spokesmen. On the contrary, national proposals were, in practically all instances, modified through the process of discussion. They expressed the views of a large majority, and they emerged with the support of practically the entire Assembly except the Soviet bloc. This fact reflects clearly the extent of the divergence of Soviet aims and policies from those of practically all other Members. Unfortunately, no tendency was seen on the part of the Soviet group to reconcile its views with those of the rest of the membership. The impressive measure of agreement reached on these mattersall of which are continuing problems-probably resulted to some extent from the fact that in most instances the Assembly had before. it the report of a specialized body that had dealt continuously with |