22. QUESTION OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE UNITEI NATIONS TRUSTEESHIP COUNCIL: Draft Resolutions Submitted by the Soviet and Tunisian Representatives (Sobo lev and Slim) in the U.N. General Assembly, Defeated by Votes Taken December 12, 1959 1 The General Assembly, 1 (a) Soviet Draft Resolution 2 Guided by the provisions of Article 86 of the Charter of the United Nations Considering that, with the attainment on 27 April 1960 of independence by th Trust Territory of Togoland under French administration,' France will cease t be a member State administering Trust Territories, and that pursuant to Articl 86, paragraph 1 c, of the Charter the composition of the Trusteeship Counci should be changed accordingly, 1. Decides to elect two members of the Trusteeship Council at the presen session, in accordance with Article 86 of the Charter; 2. Resolves to resume, on 28 April 1960, its fourteenth session with a view t taking a decision on the change in the composition of the Trusteeship Council i accordance with Article 86, paragraph 1 c, of the Charter, in connexion with the reduction in the number of Members of the United Nations administering Trus Territories. (b) Tunisian Draft and Revised Draft Resolution" The General Assembly, Guided by the provisions of Article 86 of the Charter of the United Nations Considering, first, that on 27 April 1960, with the attainment of independenc by the Trust Territory of Togoland under French administration, France wil cease to be a Member State administering Trust Territories and that, in ac cordance with Article 86, paragraph 1 c, of the Charter, the composition of th Trusteeship Council [should be modified accordingly] will have to be modified in consequence and, secondly, that on 1 July 1960, with the attainment of in dependence by the Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian administration Italy will cease to be a Member State administering Trust Territories and that in accordance with Article 86, paragraph 1 c, of the Charter, the composition o the Trusteeship Council [should be modified accordingly,] will have to be modi fied in consequence, Considering [that a study should be made of] the desirability of studyin the situation which [will] would result both from the [imminent impossibilit of observing the principle of parity at the same time as that] fact that will soon be impossible to observe simultaneously the principles of parity an of the inclusion of the permanent members of the Security Council in th [composition] membership of the Trusteeship Council, and from the [impendin disappearance of] fact that the category of elected members [who play a ver 1 U.N. General Assembly Official Records, Fourteenth Session, Annexes, agend item 17. 'U.N. doc. A/L.274, submitted Dec. 8, 1959. This resolution failed of adop tion by a vote of 29 to 26 (including the U.S.), with 26 abstentions, taken Dec 12, 1959. For the text of the U.N. Charter, see American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955 Basic Documents, pp. 134–161. *See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, p. 1108. U.N. doc. A/L.275 and Rev. 1, submitted Dec. 10 and 12, 1959. Both th original draft and the revised draft resolution failed of adoption by a vote of 4 (including the U.S.) to 26, with 8 abstentions, taken Dec. 12, 1959. The brackete insertions in the text printed here indicate the phraseology of the original draft As provided in U.N. General Assembly Res. 289 A (IV) of Nov. 21, 1949; tex in A Decade of American Foreign Policy: Basic Documents, 1941-1949, pp 471-475. important part] whose role in the work of the Trusteeship Council' had proved important will be eliminated in the very near future, 1. Decides: (a) To elect two members of the Trusteeship Council at the present session, in accordance with Article 86 of the Charter; (b) That on the date upon which France ceases to be an administering member of the Trusteeship Council and becomes a member under Article 86, paragraph 1 b, [and upon which two of the members elected under subparagraph e of the same Article cease to be members of the Trusteeship Council, the Council shall proceed, by drawing lots, to designate two countries, which shall not, however, belong to the same region of the world] two of the members elected under sub-paragraph c of that Article shall cease to embers of the Trusteeship Council; (e) That on the date upon which Italy ceases to be an administering member and leaves the [Trusteeship] Council [and upon which], one of the embers elected under Article 86, paragraph 1 c [ceases] shall cease to be a Lember of the Trusteeship Council [, the Council shall proceed, by drawing ts, to designate one country]; 2 Decides [to include the question of the composition of the Trusteeship Council in the provisional agenda of the General Assembly at its fifteenth sesS] that, in the absence of voluntary resignations, the Trusteeship Council stall proceed, by drawing lots, on 27 April 1960 and 1 July 1960 respectively, to gate the elected countries which shall cease to be members of the Trusteeship Council: Recommends that consideration should be given to equitable geographical distribution among the remaining elected members, namely, that the two main maps at present represented by the elected members should continue to be 8 represented; 4 Decides to resume consideration of the whole question of the membership the Trusteeship Council at its next session. (c) Second Soviet Draft Resolution' The General Assembly 1 Decides, in accordance with rule 7 of the rules of procedure, to convene on April 1960 a special session of the General Assembly for deciding the question hanging the composition of the Trusteeship Council in accordance with paraEhle of Article 86 of the Charter of the United Nations; 2 Decides to elect at the fourteenth session two members of the Trusteeship Council in accordance with paragraph 1 c of Article 86 of the Charter. In the original draft resolution a comma appeared after the word "Council," inating the second “Considering” clause. N doc. A/L.277, submitted Dec. 12, 1959. This resolution failed of adoption by a vote of 26 to 32 (including the U.S.), with 20 abstentions, taken Der 12, 1959. The rules of procedure in effect as of the date of the Soviet draft resolution De contained in U.N. doc. A/4700. C. The United Nations Budget 23. UNITED STATES OBSERVATIONS ON THE UNITE NATIONS BUDGET FOR 1959: Statement Made by the U.S Representative (Hickenlooper) in Committee V of the U.N General Assembly, October 14, 1958 1 Once again this year we are indebted to the Secretary-General an to the chairman of the Advisory Committee for their general state ments on the budget of the organization for 1959.2 These statements I am certain, have been helpful to all members of this committee i our approach to the budgetary problems which face us for the comin year. Mr. Chairman, I would like to comment briefly on the present leve of the budget and the increase forecast by the Secretary-General fo the 1959 budget. We all consider that the budget level is high, bu frankly, Mr. Chairman, we do not believe that it is too high when w view the responsibilities which governments have placed upon th organization in recent years. By the same token, while we are con cerned at the size of the increase for 1959 forecast by the Secretary General, we cannot say that the increase is excessive in view of th activities which we expect the organization to carry on in the comin year. Having said this, Mr. Chairman, I must caution that the pres ent budget level and the rate of increase has become such that th Secretary-General, the Advisory Committee, and the Fifth Com mittee must exercise the greatest care to assure that no unwise or un necessary expenditures are incurred. Before discussing any of the specific problems involved, I woul like to indicate the general approach of the United States delegation to a consideration of the estimates. First of all, we have full con fidence in the Secretary-General and the Controller, and we conside that any budget estimates which they present to us have been mos carefully prepared with a view to the greatest possible economy con sistent with the efficient operation of the organization. However, th General Assembly has created the mechanism of the Advisory Com mittee a committee of administrative and financial experts-t examine in detail the estimates prepared by the Secretary-General an to bring a competent and objective judgment to bear upon thos estimates. As we all know, that committee spends many months i examining the estimates, and it provides us with its recommendation with respect to them. It is obvious that the Fifth Committee canno repeat the detailed examination carried out by the Advisory Commit tee, and it would seem equally obvious that we should not spend ou time in a detailed discussion of all budget sections when we have of our agenda so many matters of principle requiring decisions. How 1U.S.-U.N. press release 3020 (text as printed in the Department of Stat Bulletin, Nov. 10, 1958, pp. 755–758). 2U.N. docs. A/C.5/748 and A/C.5/749, respectively. ever, we do believe we should make a careful examination of the items as to which there is a difference between the request of the SecretaryGeneral and the recommendation of the Advisory Committee.3 It follows, Mr. Chairman, that it is the view of the United States delegation that this committee should give most serious consideration to the recommendations of the Advisory Committee and should support those recommendations except in those instances of disagreement where the Secretary-General can make a clear and compelling case of his original estimates. It is our position that a recommendation of the Advisory Committee for a modification of the original estimates does not constitute an attack upon the judgment or administrative approach of the Secretary-General but rather represents an objective dgment and appraisal of the situation which results in a conclusion ferent from that of the Secretary-General. We believe that the Secretary-General should, and no doubt does, give serious consideration to the recommendations of the Advisory Committee which differ from his own and that he should accept them unless he believes he can early and persuasively demonstrate that the recommendations of The Advisory Committee are not in the best interests of the rranization. The administrator proposing a budget and the policy-determining body may well view the same problem from different angles and may therefore reach different conclusions. Applying these principles to the budget estimates and to the report of the Advisory Committee which are before us, we are prepared, general, to support the recommendations of the Advisory CommitI have used the phrase "in general," Mr. Chairman, because we ain an open mind and are prepared to hear any case which the Secretary-General may wish to put before us. We listened carefully to the statement made by the Secretary-Genalon October 9 in which he asked for a restoration of $170,000 of the amount which the Advisory Committee has recommended be from his budget request. I must say, Mr. Chairman, that only h respect to the restoration of an amount of $27,800 in Section 11 General Expenses] do we presently agree, but we still reserve our position on this section. I might say at this point that, if it is eded that a restoration is warranted in section 11, we expect that ery possible effort will be made to avoid supplementary estimates th respect to this section next year. We do not believe that a rise prices or increased cost for utilities should automatically become a ss for supplementary estimates, and we would expect that every for would be made to find economies which would compensate for These factors. With respect to Section 6 [Salaries and Wages], my delegation does feel that a case has been made for rejecting the recommendations For the budget estimates of the Secretary-General for 1959, see U.N. doc. 925; for the report of the Advisory Committee and recommendations on d estimates, see U.N. docs. A/3860, 3923, 3924, and 3933. [Footnote in We text.] UN. doc. A/C.5/748. 5 of the Advisory Committee. While we appreciate the willingness of the Secretary-General not to contest the major portion of the recommended cut and not to insist upon the addition of professiona posts, we are not prepared to agree to the establishment of 21 Genera Service posts. We realize, of course, that a strong argument can b made for the necessity of many of these posts as essential require ments for existing regional commissions; nevertheless we believe tha we must look at the picture of regional commissions and economi activities as a whole. 6 In view of the fact that a new regional economic commission i being established for Africa, with a consequent substantial increas in expenditures, my delegation believes we should go more slowly with respect to the other commissions for the time being. In othe words, we are quite prepared to accept a growth of expenditure with respect to the regional economic commissions as a whole, but we be lieve that the pace of this growth must be maintained within th financial capabilities of the organization. With respect to Section 8 [Travel], we again are not persuaded tha the Advisory Committee's recommendation should be rejected. might recall at this point, Mr. Chairman, that last year we supporte the Secretary-General's request for restoration of a cut proposed i the estimates for travel on official business. This year, however, w believe that the situation is somewhat different, and we believe tha the cut proposed by the Advisory Committee will not make impossibl any travel which is really necessary. In this connection we hav noted the recent statement of the Controller that an attempt is bein made to reach agreement with the specialized agencies on a modif cation of certain of the regulations presently in force with respec to travel. We hope that any agreement which is reached will make possible to achieve additional economies. As regards Section 10 [Office of the High Commissioner fo Refugees], the U.S. delegation is, of course, prepared to withhold an judgment until we have heard the views of the High Commissione himself. The last item of reduction which is contested by the Secretary General relates to the proposed appropriation of $2,000 for the pay ment of honoraria to the president and members of the Administrativ Tribunal. We regret that this proposal has been made by the Se retary-General in view of the decision arrived at by this committe 2 years ago on the matter of paying honoraria. We are not awar of any change in circumstance during the past 2 years. Accordingl it is our present feeling that we should not change our earlier decisio in this matter. I would like to refer, Mr. Chairman, to several other matters whic were mentioned by the Secretary-General and by the chairman of th Advisory Committee in their statements to us. First of all, my del gation believes that an increase in the level of the Working Capita "U.N. doc. A/3933. See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pp. 96–99. |