Shortly before he left the State Department in the summer of 1947, Undersecretary Dean Acheson summarized the main objectives of American foreign policy during his term in office. These, he said, had been principally two. One was to “establish the unity and mutual confidence and cooperation of the great powers.” The other, he said, was to “create international organizations necessarily based on the assumption of this unity and cooperation, in which all nations could together guarantee both freedom from aggression and the opportunity for both the devastated and undeveloped countries to gain and expand their productivity under institutions of their own free choice.''x Following out this policy, the United States has helped to create and has participated in an impressive number of international organizations. Some, like the United Nations and its affiliates, are directed mainly to the continuing task of building and maintaining a secure peacetime order among nations. Others, like the Allied control bodies in former enemy countries, have the more temporary job of filling in the gap of leadership until peace treaties have been signed.

The Bretton Woods institutions were set up long before physical warfare ceased. They are part of a wider undertaking to further international cooperation in the postwar world. Befitting its imposing influence, the United States took a prominent part in this enterprise. The overall design lending coherence to the blueprints for economic collaboration is predominantly of American authorship. It is too early yet to assess the worth of these blueprints and the merits of American policy, but even now it isclear that some of the new institutions may not function as intended. Adverse and unforeseen circumstances may force either drastic revision or failure. According to some observers, the companion agencies established at Bretton ”Woods belong in this category.

The charter of the International Trade Organization, as drafted at Geneva in the spring of 1947, is a pact expressing the rules of behavior which nations undertake to observe in their economic relations with one; another. Regardless of the subsequent history of this draft, it merits ^ examination as an illustration of the practical difficulties to be surmounted I by those who seek to implement by international agreement even so obj vious a goal as economic cooperation. Not only must idealism and theory I come to grips with the fact that every transaction in international trade ; affects someone's pocketbook, but methods and techniques must be devised to create a semblance of uniformity in a world of vastly different economic practices. Since the Geneva draft seeks to regularize international trade conduct after fifteen years of both autarchic control and war, it bears witness to the fundamentally long-range character of the problem.

Palestine: Seven months after the first special session of the General Assembly met to consider the question of Palestine, the problem was again before the Assembly. Three agenda items dealt with the topic: 1) the original British proposal for discussion of the question, which had resulted in the convening of the special session, 2) the Report of the Special Committee on Palestine, established by that session, and 3) a proposal by Iraq and Saudi Arabia for termination of the mandate over Palestine and recognition of its independence as a unitary state.

On July 31,1947, the Security Council began its discussion of the Indonesia question as the result of communications from two Members of the United Nations. India, under Article 35(1) of the Charter, contended that the “large scali military action against the Indonesian people” initiated by the Dutch endangered the maintenance of international peace under Article 34. Australia stated that the hostilities between the armed forces “of the Netherlands and of the Republic of Indonesia” constituted a breach of the peace under Article 39 and suggested that the Council should call upon the two governments to cease hostilities and commence arbitration in accordance with Article 17 of the Linggadjati Agreement signed by the two parties on March 25, 1947.

The Economic and Social Council opened its fifth session at Lake Success on July 19, 1947 and remained in session until August 16. In the absence of the president of the Council, Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar (India), Jan Papanek (Czechoslovakia) assumed the presidency. Following the adoption of the agenda, ECOSOC turned to the more than thirty substantive items awaiting its consideration.

The Trusteeship Council convened for its second session on November 20, 1947, with the added participation of the Philippines and Costa Rica, which were elected to the Council on November 13 by the General Assembly. These elections were required to preserve the balance between administering and non-administering members, since the United States became an administering member when the trusteeship agreement for the former Japanese-mandated islands was approved.

Budget Estimates and Management Survey: Part III of the Report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions was considered by the administrative and budgetary committee of the Assembly in its deliberations on the Secretary-General's budget estimates for the Secretariat. In addition, the committee had before it the revised budget estimates based on the Secretariat management survey, which had been instituted by the Secretary-General after the first session of the Assembly for the purpose of remedying defects in the structure of the Secretariat; its reports were internal administrative documents. At the time the Assembly committee considered the survey it was noted that the summary report was incomplete, notably with regard to the Geneva Office, the Languages Division and the Editorial Division. During discussion the Assistant Secretary-General for Administrative and Financial Services (Price) explained that the Secretary-General had studied the recommendations of the management survey and had accepted the general conclusions reached, and that he supported the recommendation of a reduction in the expected costs of maintaining Secretariat departments. Although the report of the survey made proposals for consolidations and transfers of functions, it was the opinion of the Secretary-General that no final decisions could be reached on administrative matters without full discussion among officials of the Secretariat; such discussions were not feasible during the second session of the General Assembly. A proposal to create a subcommittee to examine the survey met with considerable opposition in the administrative and budgetary committee, since it was felt by many delegates that the report should be left to the Advisory Committee and the Secretary-General for their consideration in the matter of administration on a restricted budget.

Corfu Channel Case: Following the resolution of the Security Council on April 9, 1947, recommending that the United Kingdom and the Albanian governments should immediately refer the Corfu Channel question to the International Court of Justice, the United Kingdom on May 22, 1947, filed an application with the Registry of the Court instituting proceedings against Albania. By a reply dated July 21, filed July 23, 1947, Albania accepted the jurisdiction of the Court, protesting against the unilateral act of the British government in its application. On December 9, 1947, the Albanian government filed a document entitled “Preliminary Objection”.

The Third Session of the Conference of FAO was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from August 25 through October 11, 1947. In addition to representatives from 48 member nations, observers from six non-member countries, 16 intergovernmental organizations and 10 non-governmental groups attended.1

The second annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development convened in London on September 11, 1947. On September 12 the Board adopted a report presented by John J. McCloy, president of the Bank, in which were included an outline of the activities of the Bank since the first annual meeting of the Board a year before, financial statements covering the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1947, and the administrative budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1948.

The second session of the ICAO Council convened in Montreal on September 2, 1947. In the course of its session, the Council received reports on ICAO's activities during the summer of 1947 and on two regional air navigation meetings: that for the South American region which met in Lima and that for the South Atlantic area held in Rio de Janeiro. Stuart Graham (Canada), Henri Bouche (France) and P. David (US) were named to the chairmanships of the Air Navigation Committee, the Air Transport Committee and the Committee on the Convention on International Civil Aviation, respectively. Members were also designated for the Finance Committee and for the Committee on the Joint Support of Air Navigation Services.

Regional Conferences:The ILO Preparatory Regional Asiatic Conference which convened in New Delhi on October 27,1947, considered such topics as problems of social security, enforcement of the social standards embodied in the ILO conventions and recommendations not yet applied in the individual Asiatic countries, and a report of the preliminary mission to Asiatic countries which the 99th session of the Governing Body established at Montreal in September, 1946.

On October 20 the Fund issued its second financial statement for the quarter ended August 31,1947. Authorized subscriptions of members had increased from the equivalent of $7,721.5 million to the equivalent of $7,921.5 million when Australia accepted membership in the Organization, and the equivalent of $6,579.2 million had been paid by members by August 31, as contrasted to $6,519.9 million at the end of the first financial quarter. The Fund's holdings of gold were estimated at $1,345.0 million for the period reviewed, and its holdings of currencies (including non-negotiable and non-interest bearing notes) amounted to the equivalent of $5,232.6 million.

Despite the fact that the General Assembly of the United Nations established a budget of $155,860,500 for first year of operation of the IRO, as of September, 1947, contributions were at the rate of only $90,000,000 a year, and actual payments represented only one-fourth of the annual contributions of the twelve member governments. With these funds the Preparatory Commission, which had taken over operational activities of UNRRA and IGC on June 30, 1947, maintained 640,000 people in European and Middle Eastern camps, and was providing legal assistance and administrative aid to 900,000 others not in camps. Food and transportation was being given those who voluntarily returned to their former homes, and the immigration of some 12,000 people who monthly moved to new countries was being aided.

Three conferences were held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from May 15 to October 2, 1947, under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union. These three, the International Telecommunications Plenipotentiary Conference, and two special conferences dealing with radio and high frequency broadcasting, considered a number of technical changes in existing conventions and reorganized the structure of the International Telecommunications Union as a whole.

The Geneva meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the International Conference on Trade and Employment, in session from April 10 to October 30,1947, had the twofold task of completing the charter for an International Trade Organization and carrying out detailed negotiations among the 18 countries for a general agreement on tariffs and trade. Work on the charter was completed on August 22, 1947, when in plenary session the Preparatory Committee adopted the draft document. On October 30, representatives of 23 countries signed the Final Act, thus completing over 100 separate negotiations for the purpose of reducing trade barriers of various types. The results were incorporated in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

General Conference: The second general conference of UNESCO met in Mexico City on November 7, 1947, and elected Manuel Gual Vidal, Mexican Minister of Education, as Chairman. Four additional states — Italy, Switzerland, Hungary and Austria — were admitted to membership, the first two by unanimous vote, and the Spanish Republican Government in Exile was invited to attend the conference as an observer. Items on the agenda included a) consideration of the Director-General's report for 1947; b) approval of a budget for 1948; c) extension of the work of UNESCO to Germany; and d) a report on the definition of the scope and purpose of UNESCO's fundamental education project.

The twelfth Congress of the Universal Postal Union, which was held in Paris from May 6 to July 5,1947, was the first post-war meeting of the Congress, and in consequence was faced with questions of administrative and procedural as well as substantive character. An agenda of some 700 items was considered by delegates by 76 countries, and a number of changes in the basic framework of the Union were made.