Stand-by arrangements

In addition to the provision of direct financial assistance to member countries through the sale of currencies, the Fund in the current period also approved stand-by arrangements totaling in excess of $238 million to Argentina ($100 million), Colombia ($75 million), Iran ($35 million), El Salvador ($11.25 million), Nicaragua ($7.5 million), Haiti ($6 million), and Paraguay ($3.5 million). On December 31, 1960, $383 million was available under these and other arrangements in effect on that date. (See table 2.) 22

The Fund also concluded stand-by arrangements with three additional countries although these agreements did not become effective in the 6-month period under review. In October, the Fund announced a stand-by arrangement with the Government of Uruguay which would permit that country to draw the equivalent of $30 million over a 12month period, in support of a program of internal financial stability and trade and payments liberalization.23 In December, the Fund agreed to make available to the Government of Yugoslavia up to $75 million in various currencies, to be used for a program of exchange reform and trade liberalization. Of the total of $75 million to be provided by the Fund, the equivalent of $45 million in various currencies would be subject to immediate withdrawal, with the remaining $30 million available under a 1-year stand-by arrangement. Yugoslav Government also obtained assurance of substantial credits from the United States and from a number of European countries. Also in December the Fund entered into a 1-year stand-by arrangement which would authorize the Government of Turkey to draw the equivalent of $37.5 million in various currencies in support of its stabilization program which was initiated in 1958.24 As indicated in table 3, 25 since June 1952, when the Fund negotiated its first stand-by arrangement, the equivalent of approximately $2.4 billion had been authorized by the Fund through December 31, 1960.

INVESTMENT OF FUND ASSETS

In the period under review, the Board of Executive Directors authorized the Fund to sell an additional $300 million of the Fund's gold to the United States and to invest the proceeds in short-term U.S. Treasury obligations. In two earlier transactions, the Fund sold a total of $500 million of its gold for this purpose. As of the end of the period under review, $800 million was held either in U.S. Treasury bills or in funds awaiting investment. Upon termination of the investment, the same quantity of gold may be reacquired by the Fund.

22 Not reprinted here.

26

23 The stand-by arrangement becomes effective only after Uruguay becomes eligible to engage in exchange transactions with the Fund and its quota is increased to $30 million. [Footnote in source text.]

24 See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, p. 226.

25 Not reprinted here.

20

See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1957, p. 220, and ibid., 1959, p. 283.

Investment income under this program was placed in the Special Reserve Account which on December 31, 1960, amounted to $34,834,296.

The U.S. Executive Director of the Fund or his Alternate, acting on the advice of the Council supported the decisions taken with respect to the foregoing matters.

THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE ORGANIZATION

[See Section F, "The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade," in Part XI, post.]

THE UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION

56. ELEVENTH SESSION OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION, PARIS, NOVEMBER 14-DECEMBER 15, 1960: Report of the U.S. Delegation (Excerpts)1

The United States accredited to the Conference a delegation composed of five representatives who had been selected for their interest and experience in international education, science, and cultural activities. Assisting them with their extensive responsibilities was a group of advisers drawn from both within Government and outside. Chairman of the delegation was Mr. Robert H. Thayer, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for the Coordination of International Educational and Cultural Relations. Dr. William S. Dix, Chairman of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and Librarian of Princeton University, served as Vice Chairman; Miss Bertha Adkins, Under Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Dr. George N. Shuster, past President of Hunter College, and Mr. Horace E. Henderson, until recently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, were the other dele

27 Asterisks in source text.

1

An Informal Report of the U.S. Delegation to the 11th Session of the UNESCO General Conference, Paris, November 14-December 15, 1960 (Department of State unnumbered publication).

Of the 99 members and 6 associate members listed in the annex below, Gabon, Iraq, Singapore, and Togo were not represented at the 11th session; the representative of Chad attended as an observer.

690-494-64- -15

gates. Mr. Henry J. Kellermann, Permanent U.S. Representative for UNESCO Affairs, served as Principal Adviser to the delegation.

... Before the real business of the Conference-the program and budget-could be undertaken, it was necessary to verify credentials and establish the right of the delegations to participate in the proceedings. In the Credentials Committee, created to expedite this task, the United States introduced a proposal designed to defeat any move to exclude the representatives of the Government of the Republic of China or to admit the representatives of the Chinese Communist Government. The United States also proposed that the Conference not take any decision to give formal approval to the credentials of the Hungarian delegation, thus following the policy first set by the United Nations in 1957. . . . At the end of a long afternoon of discussion, the Conference voted by a reassuring margin to uphold the position of the United States on the two questions at issue; ...

5

3

The admission of the delegations of 16 new member states and of 3 associate members' proceeded smoothly with only one exception, the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). Since members of the United Nations may automatically become members of UNESCO by simply acceding to the UNESCO Constitution, the General Conference was required only to pass upon the credentials of the delegations from these States. On the second day of the Conference the credentials of 13 states were accepted formally, or provisionally pending certain technical actions. Four other new states, including the Republic of the Congo, did not accede to the UNESCO Constitution until later. When the approval of credentials was taken up again on December 3, the session became a very stormy one indeed. Already in the Credentials Committee the Soviet bloc had attempted without success to prevent acceptance of the credentials presented on behalf of Joseph Kasavubu, President of the Republic of the Congo. The Soviet bloc again opposed their acceptance in the plenary session,

8

2 Text in UNESCO, Records of the General Conference, Eleventh Session, Paris, 1960: Proceedings (Paris: UNESCO, 1962), p. 53.

3 See U.N. doc. A/3773.

4

See UNESCO, Records of the General Conference, Eleventh Session, etc., pp. 53-64.

5 The vote on the question of the representation of China was 43 (including the U.S.) to 27, with 15 abstentions, and 4 absent. The vote on Hungarian credentials was 39 (including the U.S.) to 31, with 15 abstentions, and 4 absent.

The Federal Republic of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), the Republic of Dahomey, the Gabon Republic, the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Ivory Coast, Kuwait, the Malagasy Republic, the Republic of Mali, the Republic of Niger, the Federation of Nigeria, the Republic of Senegal, the Somali Republic, the Republic of Togo, and the Republic of Upper Volta.

7 Mauritius, Ruanda-Urundi, and Tanganyika.

* See UNESCO, Records of the General Conference, Eleventh Session, etc., p. 54.

The other three were the Gabon Republic, Kuwait, and the Republic of Togo.

and a movement was initiated by Morocco and Guinea to accomplish the same purpose by postponing the debate. Both efforts failed, however, and the credentials presented on behalf of the Kasavubu government of the Republic of the Congo were accepted by a vote of 38 to 19, with 7 abstentions and 33 absent.10

In the plenary session of November 18, 12 members were elected or reelected to the Executive Board to reconstitute the Board at the expiration of the terms of one-half its members. [The Board as reconstituted had the following membership: Mohamed Awad (United Arab Republic), Chairman; Rodolfo Baron Castro (El Salvador),* Vice-Chairman; Julien Cain (France), Vice-Chairman; Georges Averoff (Greece),* C. E. Beeby (New Zealand),* Paulo E. de Berredo Carneiro (Brazil), José Martínez Cobo (Ecuador), Hilding Eek (Sweden), Mohammed El Fasi (Morocco), Mrs. Indira Gandhi (India), Julien Kuypers (Belgium),* Akira Matsui (Japan),* Mrs. Geronima Pecson (Philippines), Albert Rakoto-Ratsimananga (Madagascar),* Sumitro Reksodiputro (Indonesia), Mariano Picón-Salas (Venezuela),* Otto von Simson (Federal Republic of Germany),* S. M. Sharif (Pakistan), George N. Shuster (United States),* Norair N. Nissakian (U.S.S.R.),* Sir Ben Bowen Thomas (United Kingdom), Bedrettin Tuncel (Turkey), Stefan Wierblowski (Poland),* and Silvio Zavala (Mexico).]

*

THE UNESCO PROGRAM FOR 1961-62

Education

Foremost among matters for special consideration in the program was the United States proposal to increase by $1 million the funds to be devoted to educational activities in Africa." This proposition had been submitted to the Executive Board in the opening days of the Conference. The General Conference approved the increase of the budget level as the United States proposed, but was unwilling to recommend, in view of the many urgent needs in other parts of the world, that the increase be used exclusively for Africa. It did agree, however, that priority in the allocation of this increased amount should be given to education.12 With this directive at hand the Program Commission proceeded to constitute a working party to develop a specific program of activities for Africa for integration with those already proposed by the Director General. . .

Two other working parties on education subjects were established: one to consider the draft texts of an international Convention and an international Recommendation Against Discrimination in Education,

19 See UNESCO, Records of the General Conference, Eleventh Session, etc., pp. 331-343.

"Contained in UNESCO doc. 11C/DR/50.

"See UNESCO doc. 11C/PRG/32.

*Elected or reelected at the 11th session of the General Conference.

and one to consider the advisability of drafting an international instrument on Technical and Vocational Education. . . .

the working party on Technical and Vocational Education, despite some difference of opinion on timing, agreed that an international instrument would be desirable and that it should take the form of a recommendation rather than a convention. With this the United States was in full agreement. The majority of the working group favored the development of the text of the recommendation for presentation to the Twelfth General Conference despite the expense this could entail. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Federal Republic of Germany would have preferred the project to be completed for presentation at the Thirteenth General Conference in 1964. In order to accommodate the project, two items on technical and vocational education proposed by the Director General for 1961– 62 were eliminated, and the money originally budgeted for them was applied to the preparation of an international instrument.13

The working party on the Draft Convention and Draft Recommendation Against Discrimination in Education continued the work of the experts' meeting which UNESCO convened in June of 1960. In the course of its sessions several amendments were brought to the texts principally for purposes of clarification and precision.1 On the whole the revised language was considered by the United States to be an improvement over the earlier drafts. Unfortunately, in the plenary session of December 14, when the work of the Program Commission was submitted for approval of the General Conference, it was voted to modify the text of article 8 in such a way that in the event of a dispute arising between two or more states, reference to the International Court of Justice would be made only at the request of the parties to the dispute rather than at the request of any one of the parties. This revision in the opinion of many delegations greatly weakened the character of the Convention. Other efforts to emasculate the Convention were successfully defeated.15

The United States in its participation in the working group on projects for Africa stressed its desire to support projects which responded to the needs and wishes of the African countries themselves. Members of the U.S. delegation kept in close touch with African delegates throughout the Conference to learn what they expected from UNESCO and the type of activity which would be of greatest value to each of them at the present time. As a result of this cooperative work, the United States proposed several activities which won wide support. Ultimately approved were the basic projects outlined by the Director General 16 and additional projects relating to teacher training, to the improvement of secondary education, to the training

15 See UNESCO, Records of the General Conference, Eleventh Session, etc., pp. 477-481.

16 As contained in UNESCO docs. 11C/5, and 11C/5 Corr. and Adds. I and II.