ECOSOC and Specialized Agencies Respond To Security Council Request for Action The following resolution concerning Korean relief was adopted by the United Nations Security Council on July 31: "The Security Council, "RECOGNIZING the hardships and privations to which the people of Korea are being subjected as a result of the continued prosecution by the North Korean forces of their unlawful attack; and "APPRECIATING the spontaneous offers of assistance to the Korean people which have been made by governments, specialized agencies, and nongovernmental organizations; Ambassador Warren Austin, U.S. Representative on the U.N. Security Council. "Requests the Unified Command to exercise responsibility for determining the requirements for the relief and support of the civilian population of Korea, and for establishing in the field the procedures for providing such relief and support; "Requests the Secretary-General to transmit all offers of assistance for relief and support to the Unified Command; "Requests the Unified Command to provide the Security Council with reports, as appropriate, on its relief activities; "Requests the Secretary-General, the Economic and Social Council in accordance with Article 65 of the Charter, other appropriate United Nations principal and subsidiary organs, the specialized agencies in accordance with the terms of their re spective agreements with the United Nations, and appropriate non-governmental organizations to provide such assistance as the Unified Command may request for the relief and support of the civilian population of Korea, and as appropriate in connection with the responsibilities being carried out by the Unified Command on behalf of the Security Council." In a speech before the Security Council, Ambassador Warren Austin, U. S. representative, commented on the resolution as follows: "... Under this resolution the Ecosoc and the specialized agencies associated with the United Nations can begin to examine their programs and to recast them as necessary in line with practical action they can take in the present emergency. They can also begin to plan ahead for the long-run problem of rehabilitation and reconstruction. "This is true in many fields. In matters of health, the World Health Organization will have a great contribution to make in preventing epidemics and in restoring the physical health of the nation. "The Food and Agriculture Organization can contribute to the furnishing of emergency food supplies; later to the restoration of Korean farm production. UNESCO can reorganize disrupted educational facilities in the aggrieved country and utilize its experience in mass communications to tell the great story of today's international effort and to make clear the nature of the aggression in (Continued on page 14) U. S. NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Chairman: George D. Stoddard . . . Vice Chairmen: Detlev Bronk, Erwin D. Canham, Mrs. Henry Potter Russell. Executive Committee: William Benton, Mrs. Harvey N. Davis, Frederick S. Dunn, Milton S. Eisenhower, Robert M. Gates, Charles S. Johnson, Waldo G. Leland, Raymond F. McCoy, Earl J. McGrath, C. J. McLanahan, Stanley H. Ruttenberg, Mrs. Raymond F. Sayre, A. J. Stoddard, Robert L. West, George F. Zook. Other Members: Barclay Acheson, Frank Altschul, Ellis Arnall, Paul D. Bagwell, Keith Beery, Jaime Benitez, Karl W. Bigelow, Livingston L. Blair, Miss Selma Borchardt, Chester Bowles, Miss Helen D. Bragdon, Ben M. Cherrington, Wayne Coy, Everette L. DeGolyer, Henry Grattan Doyle, J. W. Edgar, George Harold Edgell, John T. Edsall, Luther H. Evans, David E. Finley, John Hope Franklin, Miss Rosamond Gilder, Willard E. Givens, Arthur E. Goldschmidt, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, Willard E. Goslin, Ross G. Harrison, Mrs. John E. Hayes, Ralph E. Himstead, Lewis G. Hines, Mrs. Douglas Horton, Ernest M. Howell, B. W. Huebsch, Rees H. Hughes, Herbert C. Hunsaker, Eric Johnston, L. C. Larson, Rensis Likert, Milton E. Lord, Miss Myrna Loy, Archibald MacLeish, Mike Mansfield, James Marshall, Roscoe C. Martin, Richard P. McKeon, Justin Miller, Mrs. Grace L. McCann Morley, C. J. Nuesse, Charles E. Odegaard, Mrs. William Barclay Parsons, I. I. Rabi, Hubert H. Race, Frederick D. G. Ribble, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum, J. T. Sanders, C. A. Scott, Miss K. Frances Scott, Paul Sheats, Lawrence M. C. Smith, Mrs. Margaret Chase Smith, Harold Spivacke, Elvin C. Stakman, P. G. Stromberg, Davidson Taylor, Stanley D. Tylman, Harold C. Urey, Mrs. Pearl A. Wanamaker, Howard E. Wilson, M. L. Wilson. Executive Secretary: Charles A. Thomson, Department of State, Washington 25, D. C. UNESCO'S BOARD MEETS TO CONSIDER KOREAN CRISIS: EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM ON U.N. ACTION PLANNED IN U.S. The members of the UNESCO Executive Board, called into special session in Paris, August 26, unanimously condemned the attack on the Republic of Korea and authorized a program to advance understanding of the United Nations action and responsibilities in the current situation. These decisions, taken as the NEWS went to press, will be described in the next issue. The Executive Committee of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO has called a special meeting in Washington, September 11-12, to consider means of undertaking an educational program in this country on the responsibilities of the U.N. in Korea and other areas of possible aggression. This will be a follow-up of plans initiated by the Committee at its last meeting, July 21-22. Ten of the 18 members of the UNESCO Executive Board went on record as asking Count Stefano Jacini of Italy, Board chairman, for the special session. In addition to Luther H. Evans, Librarian of Congress, the members include Paulo Carneiro, Brazil; Jean Maroun, Lebanon; C. Parra-Perez, Venezuela; Senator Geronima Pecson, Philippine Republic; Alex Photiades, Greece; Roger Seydoux, France; Alf Sommerfelt, Norway; Kursi Tecer, Turkey; and Louis Veniers, Belgium. The call for the meeting of the Executive Board originated with the Executive Committee of the National Commission at its July meeting. The Executive Committee voted full support to the action taken by the United Nations Security Council in using force to repel the aggression of North Korea against the Republic of South Korea. In considering the role of UNESCO in upholding the U.N. action, the Executive Committee urged that an emergency session of the Executive Board be held in Paris "to take appropriate and vigorous action with respect to the impact of the Korean situation on the peace of the world and in regard to other areas where acts of aggression may occur." The Executive Committee also requested the National Commission's Committee on Activities in the United States to make plans for the development of information materials and discussion programs which would help clarify both the immediate and long-range implications of the Korean situation. Acting on this request, a subcommittee of the Committee on Activities in the United States has been engaged in formulating a plan for an expanded National Commission program on Teaching About the United Nations, with emphasis on the Korean situation and the issues involved, from Below: A general view of the U.N. Security Council conference room during the vote on the sanction resolution presented by the United States, opening the way for military operations by U.N. member nations to repel the attack of North Korean forces on the Republic of Korea. the standpoint of both the United Nations and its specialized agencies. A special meeting of the Committee on Activities is scheduled for September 7 and 8, when the subcommittee's report will be presented. Paul H. Sheats, chairman of the Committee on Activities, will submit the final report to the Executive Committee, when it meets a few days later. The program approved by the Executive Committee will then be launched by the Activities Committee, which will seek the aid of national organizations, schools and universities, State and local UNESCO councils, and other community groups. UNESCO GROUPS ALREADY ACTIVE Several State and local councils for UNESCO are moving ahead on their own initiative in implementing the Executive Committee's call for action in the Korean crisis. Victor W. Haflich, Chairman of the Kansas Commission for UNESCO, has called a meeting of its Executive Board and about 150 other leaders on September 14, "to consider the impact of the Korean situation on an educational program whose aim is the defense and maintenance of peace." The letter announcing the meeting states: "The situation in Korea raises questions in the minds of many people as to the responsibility and function of UNESCO in such a time of crisis. If the Kansas Commission for UNESCO is to assume a constructive role and not be lost in the upsurge of 'more important' matters, its leaders must plan a constructive, dynamic program for the coming months." The UNESCO Policy Committee of the World Affairs Council of Northern California has formulated a project "for stimulating well-informed public discussion in northern California on 'The Role of the United Nations in the Korean Crisis."" Purposes of the project would be "(1) to help the citizens of northern California to understand the immediate and long-range function of the United Nations in the Korean crisis and in regard to acts of aggression which might occur in other areas, [and] (2) to bring about an understanding of UNESCO's program as it relates to the above, particularly in the field of human rights." To achieve these ends, an educational program of considerable magnitude would be launched, Right: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, right, Commander of U.N. forces in Korea, shakes hands with Gen. J. Lawton Collins, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, after receiving the blue and white U.N. flag sent him by U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie. with major emphasis placed on making contact with community leaders and interested groups throughout the area to arrange local, on-the-spot, active educational programs. The project is envisaged as "an important part of the Field Service program offered by the World Affairs Council of Northern California," and the "cooperation of informational and opinion-forming agencies and civic groups would be invited." An estimated $10,500 would be needed to carry out the project. To become effective, the program and its budget must have the approval of the World Affairs Council of Northern California. The Coordinating Council for UNESCO of Elmira, N.Y., will hold a meeting of its affiliates on U.N. Day, October 24, at which the principal speaker will discuss the United Nations in the present crisis. WRITERS EMPHASIZE UNESCO's ROLE That UNESCO can play a vital role in presenting the truth on the Korean situation to offset the Russian propaganda against the U.N. action has been emphasized recently by two writers. Thomas L. Stokes, writing in the Washington Star, states: "The truth must get out to the people of the world who are being reached by Russian [propaganda] attacks. The U.N. has an agency for just this purpose in UNESCO. . . whose purpose, as set forth in its Constitution, is the 'unrestricted pursuit of objective truth and the free exchange of ideas and knowledge.' "UNESCO has many avenues through which to tell the true story of the UN's function in cases of aggression, such as that in Korea, including the UN radio facilities which it could well use far more than the brief program it now presents, as well as publications of all sorts that circulate widely through national commissions in member states." Raymond McConnell, Jr., editor of the Nebraska State Journal and winner of the Pulitzer prize for his editorials on international affairs, speaks of demands, voiced in Congress and elsewhere, for strengthening the Voice of America or devising other means of reporting this country's action in Korea and its democratic purposes everywhere to the peoples of the world. He quotes General Eisenhower's statement that "the truth can almost be classified as our T-bomb in this war," and adds: "There was nothing the statesmen were urging upon the United States that could not be undertaken better, more convincingly to the peoples of the world, and on a broader world front, by the United Nations itself." He cites as the specialized agency best suited to carry out this campaign UNESCO, whose member nations "dedicated themselves to the 'unrestricted pursuit of objective truth and the free exchange of ideas and knowledge," and adds: "Now is the time for UNESCO to be recast in its rightful role. "Now is the time for a voice, not of America alone, but of the United Nations. . . . "Let us be as bold and imaginative in the cause of truth as in lesser things. The UN Security Council, at our request, met in emergency session to issue its military orders. Let us ask for an emergency session, under UN auspices, of the free world's best brains, to outline an all-out UN truth offensive aimed at counteracting the ignorance and prejudice that makes possible, in the words of UNESCO's Charter, the denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality, and mutual respect of men.' Let Congress pledge all possible Publications Describe Korean Crisis, U.N. Action Against Aggression Three publications are available on the Korean situation and events leading up to the action taken by the United Nations Security Council on June 27, calling for assistance from United Nations member nations to repel the armed attack by North Korean forces against the Republic of Korea. United States Policy in the Korean Crisis, a "white paper" issued by the Department of State, contains the texts of the Security Council resolutions on Korea, statements by President Truman and Ambassador Warren Austin, U. S. Representative on the Security Council, and other pertinent documents, together with replies from member nations to the Secretary-General's communication asking assistance in repelling the armed attack on the Republic of Korea. Copies are available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D.C., at 25¢ a copy. Enforcing the Peace in Korea, published by the United Nations, presents a running account of the situation in Korea and events leading up to it, with full texts of the Security Council's resolutions in regard to the conflict. Excerpts from replies of member nations of the U.N. appeal for assistance are also included. A limited supply of copies is available free at the U.N. Department of Public Information, Lake Success, N. Y. Facts on the Korean Situation, prepared by the American Association for the United Nations, is exactly what its title implies-a single-page fact sheet, listing in chronological order 25 steps leading up to the present crisis. Copies are available from AAUN headquarters, 45 East 65th Street, New York 21, N. Y. United States resources in support of such an offensive, putting the T-bomb in a supervehicle that can deliver it most effectively. "Only when we have done that can we truthfully say that we have utilized to the fullest, as Secretary Acheson, backed by Marshall, Eisenhower and Dulles urged, the great resources of the free nations." (Mr. McConnell's article, from which the above excerpts were taken, was reproduced in the appendix to the Congressional Record of July 10, 1950.) |