illiteracy, and premature death. Their productivity is low. Their purchasing power is virtually nil. Their political institutions are unstable. They are prey to famine, plague, disease, and propaganda which threaten not only themselves but the peoples of the more privileged areas of the world including Western Europe, Canada, and the United States. The United States and other democracies have no choice but to show the peoples of the world everywhere that our international policies as expressed through the United Nations and the specialized agencies are designed to enable all peoples to share in these essential necessities of life: food, clothing, shelter, education, health.

The world food situation at the close of 1950 was examined and reported on by the FAO Council (the executive body of FAO, composed of 18 member governments) at its tenth and eleventh sessions in Washington. According to this report 1949-50 was a fairly good year as far as food and agricultural production were concerned; total world food consumption about equaled the prewar levels.

However, the total world food position continues to be increasingly serious, since there is an ever-widening gap between food consumption of countries such as Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, and Iceland, which are at the top of the scale, and India, which is at the bottom. Those countries which have the least to eat and are faced with perpetual hunger are those whose populations are increasing at the greatest rate and whose per-capita food consumption is continually decreasing. The effects of the Korean war and the rearmament program on the world food situation were beginning to be apparent at the close of the year, but the full force of these changes could not be assessed at that time.

FAO PROGRAM OF WORK FOR 1950

FAO's program in 1950 was carried out against the background of worldwide need for more food, a dollar shortage which seriously limited the purchasing power of many needy people, revolutionary drives in Asia and other underdeveloped areas for economic and social improvement, and political instability. The greater proportion of FAO's activities in 1950 was a continuation of international cooperative activities developed since FAO's establishment at Quebec in 1945. They included international consultations on agricultural policy and commodity problems; publication of statistical, economic, and technical studies; development of regional and technical meetings and groups for consideration of specialized problems relating to nutrition, forestry, and fisheries; launching the expanded technical

assistance program as a part of the United Nations technical-assistance program. During 1950 the organization also proceeded with two important constitutional and administrative activities: first, the adoption of a series of amendments to the constitution, rules, and financial regulations to implement the conference decision, in 1949, to hold biennial sessions of the conference and to improve the general working of the organization; and, second, taking the necessary financial, administrative, and legal measures necessary to effect the transfer of headquarters to Rome early in 1951, thus implementing the decision of the conference in 1949.

The United States took the lead in implementing the proposal for biennial conference sessions, in bringing information on "surplus" foods before the Committee on Commodity Problems, in promotion and coordination of the technical-assistance program, and in seeking approval of an expanded regular budget for the biennial period 1952-53.

A special session of the conference with limited agenda was held in November 1950, and the annual review, "State of Food and Agriculture," was issued as usual. During the year the Committee on Commodity Problems began its operations, assembling considerable information and providing a useful forum for a discussion of critical problems affecting a number of countries, including the United States. The most significant activity of this Committee was the consideration of the offers by the United States of surplus foods available to other countries at nominal costs, such offers contingent on arrangements made by recipient countries that sales would not interfere with normal commercial channels. The Committee is to be continued for another year with its terms of reference expanded to enable it to consider commodity problems arising out of any cause, not only balance-of-payments difficulties.

The United States joined with other countries during 1950 in intergovernmental consultation on technical problems. For example, the International Rice Commission set up and serviced by Fao in Bangkok held several sessions and set up a joint research program and various technical services designed to increase and improve the quality of rice production and consumption in the vast rice producing areas of the Far East. The Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council, also set up by FAO and located in Bangkok, has organized cooperative research activities and intergovernmental consultations for the purpose of opening up new sources of highly nutritious food through better fish production, processing, and marketing methods. . FAO regional forestry commissions for Asia and the Far East, Europe, and Latin America have brought forest experts together with those from under

developed areas for the consideration of improvement of national forest policies, the improvement and establishment of better national forest services, and consultation on many specialized aspects of forestry such as wood chemistry, standardization of forestry terminology, and silviculture. Regional meetings at Bangkok and at Rio de Janiero have enabled nutrition scientists and administrators to exchange technical information and views on the raising of standards of nutritional knowledge and science in their regions and on promotion of establishment of national nutrition programs. The second Latin American regional meeting on national food and agricultural problems was held at Montevideo in December, jointly with the Fourth Inter-American Conference on Agriculture of the Organization of American States (OAS).

An international meeting at The Hague jointly sponsored by FAO and the Netherlands Government, in May 1949, recommended that FAO establish a world-wide reporting service on plant pests and diseases and drew up a general draft convention on international plant protection. It was given a preliminary reading at the special session of the Conference meeting at Washington, will be sent to governments for further study, and will, it is hoped, be approved by the next session of the Conference.

A major objective of FAO in the statistical field since its establishment has been preparation for and assistance to governments in taking the world census of agriculture in 1950. According to latest information 63 countries and dependencies took part in the census in 1949–50. including all continents. FAO organized special statistical training schools, each lasting about 3 months, in which census officials were enabled to obtain specialized and intensive training in census and statistical methods. In 1950 these schools were held at Paris, Cairo, and New Delhi, and another opened early in 1951 in Costa Rica. The United States Government cooperated actively with FAO in helping to make these schools a success by providing instructors from the Bureau of the Census or other technical departments of the Government.

FAO's regular programs continued during 1950, but plans for expansion were undertaken following the establishment of the United Nations Technical Assistance Program. By the end of the year firm requests had been received by FAO under the expanded program for technical assistance in every field of FAO's work: agriculture, forestry, nutrition, fisheries, economics, and statistics. The kinds of programs carried on by FAO include training in the production and use of teaching materials for agriculture, known in the United States as extension work and being developed in Mexico in cooperation with

UNESCO and the OAS; organization of local vaccine-production facilities against rinderpest, training of local personnel in most countries of southeast Asia, Ethiopia, Iran, and Afghanistan, and other similar assistance to some countries regarding various animal diseases; an Asian training seminar in economic development; engineering assistance to Ecuador in rebuilding its irrigation and grain-storage installations following the disastrous earthquake of August 1949; surveys of fisheries resources and assistance to Ceylon, Thailand, Haiti, India, Pakistan, and others with respect to establishment of national fisheries services and training programs.

The Secretary of State pointed out in the General Assembly the problems which arise from the use and ownership of land, a source of misery and suffering to millions. FAO, in cooperation with the United Nations, has been authorized to make a comprehensive review of this problem, which is at the root of so many of the difficulties today in Asia, the Near East, and elsewhere. The FAO Conference recommended that FAO give special attention to the provision of technical assistance on questions of land tenure as well as problems of immigration and land settlement.

The increasing cooperation between FAO and other United Nations or international agencies presents an impressive pattern of interagency coordination. A nutrition committee has been established to advise both FAO and WHO; a number of FAO-WHO programs of agricultural development and malaria control have been initiated; joint studies on food values and improvement of milk production have been undertaken jointly by FAO and WHO for the U. N. International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). FAO provides the technical secretariat for the agricultural and timber committees of the Economic Commission for Europe and for the agricultural and forestry work of the Economic Commissions for Latin America and for Asia and the Far East. Joint missions and technical surveys have been organized between FAO and the International Bank. A considerable number of FAO's activities in Latin America are carried out in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Turrialba, Costa Rica. FAO has submitted comments to Ecosoc on full employment and is prepared to participate in U.N. studies on this subject.

6. Transport and Communications

The year 1950 has been an important year in the international transport and communications field so far as the United States is

concerned, since during the year the United States has adhered to or has put into effect numerous international agreements and regulations. all of which were negotiated through the U.N. system, under its auspices, or under the auspices of its specialized agencies:

1. Convention of the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization 1

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2. Convention on road traffic

3. Annexes 9 and 10 of the convention on international civil aviation. the first being designed to facilitate international air traffic at national frontiers and the second specifying systems to be used in helping aircraft to land in bad weather.

In the field of maritime transport the setting up of a specialized agency of the United Nations to deal with maritime matters was brought closer by the ratification by the United States of the convention of the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization. since the action of the United States will probably have marked effect upon the attitude of several other maritime nations. The organization, when in being, will work to encourage the removal of shipping restrictions and discriminations, to improve the safety of life-at-sea provisions of existing conventions, and, in general, to occupy a place in the maritime field analogous to those occupied by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in aviation and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in telecommunications.

In the field of inland transport the ratification of the convention on road traffic by the United States will help bring into force an international agreement of world-wide scope which will facilitate tourist traffic by simplifying frontier formalities with regard to passenger automobiles. The agreement provides for general recog nition in all the adhering countries of the driver's license and registration regulations of each of the other countries. It sets maximum size and weight limitations for large vehicles and standard safety requirements (lights, brakes, traffic rules) for the operation of motor vehicles. Meanwhile the United Nations convened the first of a series of meetings, the purpose of which is to obtain uniformity in road signs and signals throughout the world.

Two of the U.N. regional economic commissions, in Europe and in Asia and the Far East, continued their efforts to improve inlandtransport matters in their regions. The Economic Commission for Europe continued its work on such technical but important matters as the standardization of railroad brakes and automatic couplings:

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The Senate ratified the convention on the express understanding that this would not have the effect of altering the antitrust statutes.