Article 21 of the Charter of the United Nations provides that the General Assembly shall adopt its own rules of procedure and shall elect its President for each session. No other mention of the President of the General Assembly is to be found in the Charter and, as in the British fashion, his role is more a reflection of evolution than definition in the rules of procedure. It is perhaps for this reason that the highest office of the General Assembly has not been described at any length in the literature about the United Nations.

Several categories of suggestions have been put forth in recent years aimed at the relief of the financial problems of the United Nations. Major attention in the United Nations itself and in many writings has focused on modification of budgetary procedures, assessment criteria, and collection administration designed to induce adequate support from Members. Paralleling this, some Members and the Secretary-General as well have called for strict economy, a stabilized level of UN conferences and activities, and even some retrenchment. The principal alternatives proposed seek new sources of UN financing analogous to those open to governmental fiscal policy, including direct or indirect UN levies on the citizens of Member States and further development of UN deficit financing. Others call for intensified exploitation of potential sources of direct “independent” income to the Organization. Aside from the encouragement of gifts from private and public sources and the admittedly limited potential profit from tourism, rentals, and sales at the UN site, proposals for an independent UN income have concentrated on UN exploitation of the “new sources of wealth which are being opened by advances in science and technology, preferably outside the jurisdiction of national states …” in outer space, the poles, and the seas. This study seeks primarily to evaluate this last alternative.

The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion is now almost universally considered to be “one of those rare politico-military events—a perfect failure.” One of the conclusions usually derived from that affair is the general inadvisability of direct United States intervention in the internal affairs of other nations to bring about desired changes in their domestic political structures. Almost simultaneously, however, the United States was doing just that in the Dominican Republic with a considerable degree of success, indicating that the lessons of the Cuban experience should not be overdrawn.

The universal and regional international organizations that are part of the twentieth century political scene confront one basic question: how to move successfully from international recommendation to national action. Mechanisms that offer at least a partial answer to this problem are of interest; and one such approach is the official pressure group of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, its Permanent Working Party on Parliamentary and Public Relations.

The General Assembly held its eighteenth session, comprising the 1206th–1285th plenary meetings, at UN Headquarters from September 17 to December 17, 1963, during which time it took action on 86 agenda items. Zanzibar and Kenya were admitted to membership at the 1281st plenary meeting on December 16, 1963, thereby bringing the total UN membership to 113.

The Security Council considered the situation in the Republic of South Africa resulting from the apartheid policies of the South African government during its 1073rd–1078th meetings held from November 27 to December 11, 1963. The Council had before it the request made by 32 African and Asian states in a letter of October 23, 1963, addressed to the President of the Security Council; and the report by the Secretary-General submitted pursuant to the request made in the Security Council's Resolution of August 7, 1963, that he keep the situation in South Africa under observation and report to the Security Council by October 30, 1963. At the President's invitation Mrs. Pandit (India), Mr. Grimes (Liberia), Mr. Rakotomalala (Madagascar), Mr. Slim (Tunisia), and Mr. Karefa-Smart (Sierra Leone) took places at the Security Council table.