At the request of the United States the Council began consideration on March 26, 1956 of the extent of compliance by Israel and the Arab states with the Armistice Agreements and with the Security Council's resolutions of March 30, 1955, September 8, 1955 and January 19, 1956. The representatives of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria took part in the Council's discussions. The Council had before it a draft resolution submitted by the United States in the preambular part of which the Council recalled the three earlier resolutions; noted that in each of these resolutions the Chief of Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization and the parties to the General Armistice Agreements concerned had been requested by the Council to undertake certain specific steps for the purpose of ensuring that the tensions along the armistice lines should be reduced; and noted with grave concern that despite the efforts of the Chief of Staff the proposed steps had not been carried out. Under the terms of the operative part of the resolution, the Council 1) considered that the situation currently prevailing between the parties concerning the enforcement of the Armistice Agreements and the compliance given to the above-mentioned resolutions of the Council was such that its continuance was likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security; 2) requested the Secretary-General to undertake, as a matter of urgent concern, a survey of the various aspects of enforcement of and compliance with the four General Armistice Agreements and the three earlier resolutions;

Report of the Committee on South West Africa: The report of the Committee on South West Africa to the eleventh session of the General Assembly stated that the Committee had again extended to the government of the Union of South Africa the invitation it had sent in 1954 and 1955 to participate in the Committee's work, but that the Union government had refused the invitation, stating that it had not changed its former position; it still considered the mandate in respect of South West Africa as lapsed and it had no other international commitments in regard to that territory. In view of this unchanged attitude of the Union government, the Committee had continued to apply the alternate procedure contained in its rules of procedure with respect to the examination of reports adopted on February 11, 1954.

The tenth session of the General Assembly met at UN Headquarters from September 20 to December 20, 1955. At the opening plenary meeting, Mr. José Maza (Chile) was unanimously elected President of the session. On the motion of the United States, the Assembly by a vote of 42 to 12 with 6 abstentions decided not to consider any proposals to exclude the representatives of the government of the Republic of China or to seat representatives of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China during the tenth session.

The Economic and Social Council resumed its 20th session at UN Headquarters with its 894th meeting on December 5, and concluded the session with its 899th meeting on December 15. The Council formulated its basic program of work for 1956, considered and with minor changes approved the provisional agenda for its 21st session which had been drawn up by the Secretary-General, and adopted a draft list of items for the 22d session, which it planned to review at the 21st session. The Council dealt as follows with questions arising out of the tenth session of the General Assembly: 1) it decided that in the course of considering the general agenda item financing of economic development at its 22d session, it would deal with the establishment of the Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development (SUNFED), the international flow of private capital, and international tax problems, as sub-items; 2) it approved without discussion the Secretary-General's proposals relating to advisory services in the field of human rights;1 and 3) it approved without objections the Secretary-General's proposals with regard to the administration of programs of technical assistance. The question of re-establishing the Council's discontinued Economic, Employment and Development Commission was considered at the resumed 20th session, as were its terms of reference in the event that it should be reactivated. A number of representatives held the view that the functions performed by the Commission had been assigned to other bodies, and that revival of the Commission would lead to overlapping and inefficiency; it was also argued that while a commission of experts had been invaluable in the planning stage of economic development, governmental representation, as in the case of the Council's other commissions, could be more effective in the stage of actual operations.

The following summary covers the activities of the Security Council from its 729th meeting on June 26, 1956, through its 733d meeting on September 6, 1956.

At the request of the General Assembly at its tenth session, the Council considered the question of admission of new members to the UN from its 701st meeting on December 10, 1955, through its 706th meeting on December 15, and at its 708th meeting on December 21.

The Sub-Committee of the Disarmament Commission (Canada, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States) held its 69th through 86th meetings, from March 19, 1956 through May 4, 1956, in London. France and the United Kingdom submitted a working document on March 19 providing for a plan in three stages, each of which was divided from the following one by the operations which were to be carried out by the control organ; each signatory was entitled to request an extension after each stage if one of the contracting parties had in good faith been unable to fulfill its obligations, the case being referred to the Security Council in certain clearly specified serious cases. The first stage called for the following sequence: 1) states would prohibit the use of nuclear weapons except in defense against aggression; 2) the general assembly of the international disarmament organization would meet to designate the non-permanent members of the executive committee and the director-general of the control organ; 3) the director-general would begin the recruitment and positioning of the first elements of the control organ; 4) after states had declared the levels of their armed forces and conventional armaments, they would not exceed those levels or their total declared military expenditure; 5) simultaneously, the aerial surveys provided for in the Eisenhower plan at Geneva, the fixed controls provided for in the Bulganin plan, and financial inspection would come into operation; 6) a meeting of the general assembly of the international disarmament organization would determine levels of armed forces and conventional armaments for states other than the permanent members of the Security Council, on the understanding that the highest of those levels would be “considerably below” the lowest of those fixed for the permanent members of the Security Council;

The fifth special session of the Trusteeship Council was held at Headquarters from October 27, 1955 through December 17, 955, under the presidency of Miguel Rafael Urquia (El Salvador).

Economic Commission for Europe: The eleventh session of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) was held in Geneva from April 5 to 21, 1956, under the chairmanship of Pierre Forthomme (Belgium). Attending the meeting were more than 250 delegates from 29 European countries and the United States, as well as observers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Israel, Venezuela, and several inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations. The Commission considered the reports of its committees on agriculture, coal, electric power, housing, inland transport, steel, timber, and the development of trade, and expressed praise for their accomplishments. The Commission also invited the Executive Secretary to convene a working party of experts on water pollution in Europe, the recommendations of which would be submitted to the twelfth session of the Commission. During its lengthy debate on the status of the German Democratic Republic in ECE the Commission had before it a draft resolution submitted by Czechoslovakia which proposed 1) that the Economic and Social Council, at its 22d session, accept the German Democratic Republic as a member of ECE, and 2) that the Executive Secretary invite representatives of the German Democratic Republic to participate in the current session with the right of consultative vote. Among those supporting the resolution were representatives of the Soviet Union, Poland, Rumania, Hungary, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Bulgaria, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and Albania, who maintained that the German Democratic Republic had made useful contributions in ECE subsidiary organs and should be entitled to a place in the Commission itself; on the other hand, the representatives of the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Netherlands, Ireland, Turkey, the United States, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy and Denmark opposed admitting the German Democratic Republic to ECE. In order to reconcile the conflicting points of view on the matter, Czechoslovakia revised its draft resolution to propose that observers of the German Democratic Republic be allowed to take part in the current session of the Commission. The resolution was rejected by 17 votes to n with 1 abstention.

The twenty-first session of the Economic and Social Council was held at Headquarters from April 17 to May 4, 1955. Hans Engen (Norway) was elected president of the Council for 1956 and an agenda of 21 items was approved. In the light of a United Kingdom proposal for a conference on the proposed convention on slavery, it was decided to debate agenda item 12, “slavery”, at a plenary session without referring it to the Social Commission. All items on the agenda were considered with the exception of the proposal for calendar reform, on which discussion was adjourned sine die.

Right of Passage Through Indian Territory (Portugal v. India): In an order of March 13, 1956, the Court fixed June 15, 1956, as the time-limit for the filing of the memorial of the Republic of Portugal, and December 15, 1956, as the time-limit for the filing of the counter-memorial of the Indian government.

The Sub-Committee of the Disarmament Commission (Canada, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States) held its 21 st meeting at UN Headquarters on December 8, 1954, considered administrative and procedural arrangements, and agreed to continue its discussions in London. Meetings from February 25 (22d) through May 18 (49th) were held there. The 50th meeting was held at UN Headquarters on June I, and the Sub-Committee reconvened at Headquarters for the 51st through the 68th meetings (August 29 through October 7).

The first part of the 20th session of the Economic and Social Council was held in Geneva from July 5 through August 5,1955; Sir Douglas Copland (Australia) continued as president of the Council. The second part of the 20th session was scheduled to take place during or shortly after the tenth regular session of the General Assembly. At the opening meeting a discussion was held on adoption of the sessional agenda;1 a proposal by the United Kingdom delegate that a coordination committee be established to deal with matters of detail that might arise under item four of the agenda, general review of the development and coordination of the economic, social and human rights programs and activities of the UN and the specialized agencies as a whole, was adopted. The United Kingdom representative also proposed that consideration of 1) the status and functions of the Interim Coordinating Committee for International Commodity Arrangements and 2) the status and functions of the Commission on International Commodity Trade be postponed until the 21st session; the proposal was adopted by a vote of 10 to 5 with 3 abstentions. Also at its opening meeting the Council agreed it would decide at a later meeting whether or not to include in the provisional agenda the question of Spain becoming a party to the protocols of 1946 and 1948 on narcotic drugs. The agenda, as amended, was adopted unanimously, and fifteen of the nineteen agenda items were discussed at the first part of the session.

The Acting Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Herbert Broadley, stated in his forward to the annual report for 1956 that the world food and agricultural situation had in recent years tended to change less rapidly than it had during the years of postwar recovery. It had therefore been decided to modify the form of the annual report, giving less emphasis to the current situation and short-term outlook and more to longer-term problems and to other special subjects. In reviewing the world situation and outlook, the report stated that during 1955/56 world production had continued to increase, reaching a level some 3 percent higher than in 1954/55. Increases had been greatest in North America and Oceania, the regions already most troubled by surpluses, but apart from a substantial gain in the Far East, production in the other regions had shown little change and in some cases had declined. Demand for agricultural products had been stimulated throughout the world during the period under review by the boom in industrialized countries; broadly speaking, there had been a tendency towards decreased prices for agricultural raw materials and some strengthening in the prices of foodstuffs. An increase of about 5 percent in the volume of world trade and agricultural commodities had occurred during 1955, with more than half of the increase due to larger western European imports. World trade in agricultural products was still, however, only 5 percent above the 1934–1938 level, in contrast to a rise of 70 percent in the volume of world trade as a whole. The total addition to stocks by the end of 1955/56 appeared to have been fairly modest, the report stated.

The seventeenth session of the Trusteeship Council was held at UN Headquarters from February 7 to April 6, 1956, with Mason Sears (United States) acting as president and Max Dorsinville (Haiti) as vicepresident. The Council adopted an agenda of thirteen items, and devoted the greater part of the session to examination of the annual reports on the administration of the trust territories of Tanganyika, Ruanda-Urundi, Cameroons under United Kingdom administration, Cameroons under French administration, and Togoland under French administration; in connection with the annual reports, the Council also considered the report on Togoland under French administration of the visiting mission to Togoland under United Kingdom and under French administration, and the reports on Cameroons under United Kingdom and under French administration of the 1955 visiting mission to those territories. Before concluding the session the Council also dealt with petitions relating to trust territories, and with a number of questions referred to it by the General Assembly and by the Economic and Social Council.

The 22d session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was held in Rome from October 28 to November 2, 1955, under the chairmanship of Josué de Castro. The Council reviewed the detailed arrangements for the eighth session of the Conference and requested the Director-General to circulate a revised text of the provisional agenda for the Conference, inserting items for discussion on associate membership and observer status. At the request of the seventh Conference the Council had drafted amendments to the Constitution and rules of procedure to provide for the admission of associate members to FAO and had forwarded them for consideration to the eighth session of the Conference. The Council recommended to the eighth Conference that, after amending the Constitution and rules of procedure, it might invoke the rule of procedure which would suspend the rule requiring 30 days notice for the presentation of applications for associate membership in order that applicants would not have to wait a further two years in order to gain admission to FAO. The Council also recommended that the Conference consider amending the Constitution and rules of procedure to eliminate any ambiguity in regard to the granting of observer status and the participation of observers in meetings arranged by FAO. Pending a decision by the Conference as to the desirability of including this question on its agenda, the Council requested the Director-General to defer any action on the granting of observer status in instances which were not clearly covered by existing rules.

The eleventh annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was presented to the Board of Governors on September 25, 1956, covered the activities of the Bank for the period July 1, 1955—June 30, 1956. During the year under review, the Bank had made 26 loans, totalling the equivalent of $396 million, in 20 countries and territories, in six of which the Bank had not lent before. Lending since the Bank had begun its operations totaled the equivalent of $2,720 million ($2,667 million net of cancellations and refundings) in 42 countries. About 70 percent of the total loaned during the year under review had been directed toward the development of electric power and the improvement of transportation. Notable features in the year's lending operations had been the increased activity of the Bank in Asia, where lending totaled $166 million, the size of the projects assisted, and the extent to which the loans had supported programs rather than single projects.

During the period from December 22, 1955 to February 21, 1956, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development made two loans in two countries. A loan of $4.2 million to Honduras was announced by the Bank on December 22, to enable a highway maintenance organization to be set up and begin operations; the loan was also to finance preliminary engineering studies for the improvement and new construction of various sections of two of the country's important highways. The Bank of America of San Francisco, the American Security and Trust Company of Washington, D. C. and the Whitney National Bank of New Orleans participated in the loan, without the Bank's guarantee, to the extent of $872,000. The total cost of the project was estimated to be equivalent to $8 million The loan was for a period of nine years at an annual interest of 4½ percent, including the Bank's commission; amortization was to begin on December 1, 1957. This was the first Bank loan to Honduras.

Case of the Norwegian Loans Issued in France (France v. Norway): In an order of April 24, 1956, the Court fixed June 4, 1956, as the time-limit within which the French government might present a written statement of its observations and submissions in regard to certain preliminary objections raised by the Kingdom of Norway, questioning the jurisdiction of the Court and contending that the claim submitted by the application of France was inadmissible. In an order of May 29, 1956, the Court decided, as a result of a request presented on behalf of the Kingdom of Norway, to depart from its original intention of opening the oral hearings on June 25, 1956, and postpone the opening of the oral proceedings. In the same order, the Court extended to August 31, 1956, the time-limit for the filing by France of its observations and submissions in regard to the preliminary objections raised by the Kingdom of Norway.

The sixteenth session of the Trusteeship Council was held at UN Headquarters from v June 8 to July 22, 1955. At the opening meeting Mason Sears (United States) was elected president and Max Dorsinville (Haiti) vice-president. An agenda of 20 items was adopted by the Council, which devoted the greater part of the session to examination of the annual reports on the administration of the trust territories of Somaliland, the Pacific Islands, Western Samoa, New Guinea and Nauru. The Council also made arrangements for visiting missions for 1955, and dealt with a number of questions referred to it by the General Assembly. Before concluding its sixteenth session, the Council adopted the report of the Secretary-General on credentials, and elected R. M. Urquía (El Salvador) temporary president for the fifth special session of the Council, which was to be held at UN Headquarters in October or November, 1955 for the purpose of considering the special report of the 1955 visiting mission to the trust territories of Togoland under British administration and Togoland under French administration.