the administering authorities on their administration of the trust territories. accepts petitions concerning trust territories and examines them in consultation with the administering authorities, provides for periodic visits to the respective trust territories at times agreed upon with the administering authorities, and takes other actions in conformity with the terms of the trusteeship agreements. With respect to strategic trust areas, the Trusteeship Council has been requested by the Security Council, pursuant to article 83 of the Charter, to assist in performing those functions of the United Nations under the trusteeship system relating to political, economic, social, and educational matters.

The Trusteeship Council holds two regular sessions each year, one beginning in January and the other in June. Accordingly, during 1950 the Council met in its sixth regular session from January 19 to April 4 at Geneva and in its seventh session from June 1 to July 21 at Lake Success. In addition, the Council held one special session, its third such session, on November 22.

The following major ad hoc committees were established by the Council during the year:

Committee of the Whole on Annual Reports, which held five meetings from February 11 to February 23;

Committee on Petitions, which during the sixth session of the Council held 30 meetings from February 8 to April 1 and during the seventh session of the Council held 12 meetings from June 14 to July 18;

Committee on Italian Somaliland, established to negotiate a draft trusteeship agreement for that territory, which held 17 meetings between January 9 and January 26;

Committee on Rules of Procedure, which held seven meetings from January 23 to February 8;

Committee on Administrative Unions, which held 15 meetings from May 3 to July 11; and

Committee on the Provisional Questionnaire, which held one meeting on July 7, 1950.

Also during 1950 the Trusteeship Council's third regular visiting mission spent the period from April 15 to August 28 visiting the trust territories in the Pacific: namely, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, New Guinea, Nauru, and Western Samoa.

5. The International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice is, in accordance with chapter XIV of the Charter of the United Nations, "the principal judicial organ of the United Nations." Its jurisdiction is determined by the Statute of the Court annexed to and forming an integral part of the Charter. The Statute came into force on October 24, 1945. The inaugural session of the Court was held in April 1946 The Court is permanently in session except during the judicial vacations, and it functions according to rules of court which, by article 30 of the Statute. it is authorized to lay down. There are also staff regulations and instructions for the registry. The seat of the Court is established at The Hague, but it is not prevented from sitting and exercising its functions elsewhere as it may consider desirable. The president resides at the seat of the Court. By an agreement concluded between the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the president of the Carnegie Foundation at The Hague, the Peace Palace for

merly occupied by the Permanent Court of International Justice (the predecessor court under the League of Nations) has been made available to the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

The Court consists of 15 members elected by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. The first election of judges took place at London in February 1946 during the first session of the General Assembly. With the exception of the judges chosen at the first election, the members are elected for 9-year terms. Of the judges first elected, the terms of five expired at the end of 3 years and the terms of five more expire at the end of 6 years.

In October 1948, during the session of the General Assembly held at Paris, a second and partial election took place owing to the fact that the terms of the five judges with 3-year terms were due to expire in February 1949. These five judges were reelected for 9-year terms.

The present membership of the Court is as follows:

Article 29 of the Statute of the Court provides that "with a view to the speedy despatch of business, the Court shall form annually a chamber composed of five judges which, at the request of the parties, may hear and determine cases by summary procedure. In addition, two judges shall be selected for the purpose of replacing judges who find it impossible to sit." The Chamber for Summary Procedure for May 3, 1950-May 2, 1951, is composed as follows:

Members

President Basdevant

Vice President Guerrero

Judges

Sir Arnold McNair

Sergei B. Krylov

Hsu Mo

Substitutes: Judges

Green H. Hackworth

Charles de Visscher

The Registrar of the Court is Edvard Hambro. The Deputy Registrar is Jean Garnier-Coignet.

6. The Secretariat of the United Nations

The Secretariat is the central point of contact in United Nations affairs he tween members themselves, between members and the principal organs, between the public and the organization, and between the organization and the specialized agencies. The Secretary-General, Trygve Lie of Norway, was reelected during the fifth assembly as chief administrative officer for a term of 3 years. He and his staff provide secretariat services for the other principal organs. except for the International Court of Justice, which has its own administrative body at The Hague known as the Registry. Nationals of about 60 countries including a few nonmember countries are employed in the Secretariat. There are presently 4,117 employees on the staff, 3,228 serving in New York and 889 in other offices. The staff includes political scientists, historians, economists, lawyers, journalists, engineers, mimeograph operators, translators, librarians, and secretaries, as well as general administrators and persons in other fields of skill.

The Secretariat differs in two important aspects from the career services of national governments. A unique characteristic is that its staff is drawn from all over the world and represents diverse cultures and customs. This creates problems not encountered in a national civil service whose staff is drawn from a fairly homogeneous group. The second marked difference is that staff members are bound by an oath of loyalty to a nonnational body. The oath of loyalty to the United Nations is, of course, not inconsistent with an individual's loyalty to his own government. In the performance of their duties the SecretaryGeneral and his staff are proscribed by the Charter from seeking or receiving instructions from any government or from any other authority external to the United Nations. Each member has agreed to respect the exclusively international character of the responsibilities of the Secretary-General and his staf and not to seek to influence them in the discharge of their responsibilities.

The Charter stipulates that the paramount consideration in the employment! of personnel "shall be the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency. competence, and integrity," due regard being paid to the "importance of re cruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible." Guided thereby. the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a Personnel Selection Committee. has kept the qualifications of his staff under continuous review. Efforts co tinue to improve geographic distribution in the Secretariat. In reaching the desired percentage of nationals from any one country in the internationally recruited staff at headquarters, the Secretary-General uses a formula based primarily upon the percentage which that country contributes to the financial support of the organization. This formula allows variations necessary to insure the flexibility essential to good administration. As of December 31, 1950, all of the 59 member nationalities were represented on the staff.

The Secretariat has four major tasks. The first is the servicing of meeting of the other principal organs (except the International Court of Justice) and of their subsidiary bodies. Such service includes provision of physical arrange ments and such technical services as translating and interpreting, preparation of minutes of the meetings, and procuring of documentation. The Secretaria: also provides services and expert staff for the field missions, examples of which are the Commission for Korea, the Conciliation Commission for Palestine, and the Trusteeship Council's missions to trust territories.

The second task is preparation of studies and background material for meeting of the several organs and their subsidiary bodies. These papers are circulated

THE UNITED NATIONS SECRE