The Executive Board of the World Health Organization met in Geneva for its second session from October 25 to November 11, 1948. Some of the more important matters considered from an agenda which comprised more than seventy items included: 1) allocation of $100,000 for an extensive research program on tuberculosis; 2) approval of the report of a committee of experts on venereal disease recommending the large-scale use of penicillin in the treatment of syphilis and calling for WHO to stimulate penicillin production and distribution; 3) authorization to the WHO Director-General to create a Bureau of Medical Supplies to coordinate information and to advise governments on questions concerning the procurement of essential drugs, biological products, and medical equipment; 4) allocation of nearly $1,500,000 for the purpose of giving more direct aid to governments in all parts of the world in the form of field demonstrations and the provision of fellowships for medical and public health personnel; 5) approval of research along lines suggested by the International Congress of Mental Health, including comparative studies, surveys and demonstrations in that field; 6) appointment of Lt. Col. Chandra Mani (India) as director of the WHO Regional Office for South East Asia which was to be established early in 1949 in New Delhi, and 7) authorization to the WHO Director-General to sign a working agreement with the Pan American Sanitary Organization to serve as the WHO regional organization for the Western Hemisphere as soon as fourteen of the twenty-one American republics had completed ratification of the WHO Constitution. The next session of the Executive Board was scheduled for February 21, 1949, also in Geneva.

Plans by Arab League officials to establish an Arab government over the whole of Palestine culminated in an announcement on September 20, 1948, of the formation of such a government at Gaza, to be headed by Premier Ahmed Hilmi Pasha, Arab Military Governor of Jerusalem. King Abdullah of Transjordan promply served notice that he would bar it from the Holy Land as it amounted to recognition of partition, which the Arabs had opposed. A meeting of Palestine Arab leaders at Jericho proclaimed King Abdullah of Transjordan as King of “all Palestine” on November 28 and on December 7 the cabinet of Transjordan gave its consent that King Abdullah accept the crown of a united Palestine and Transjordan. On December 14 the Palestinian Arabs told the Arab League that they would support the Jericho decision in spite of the fact that the League was using all means of pressure to persuade King Abdullah to renounce the plan and even was considering expelling Transjordan from the League. On December 21 Abdullah's appointment of a new Mufti of Jerusalem to replace Haj Aminal-Husseini constituted a direct challenge to the Arab League which declared that it would continue to support the all Palestine government proclaimed at Gaza and that it was up to the Palestinian people to decide their own future.

The third session of the West Indian Conference opened at Guadeloupe, French West Indies on December 1, 1948 and closed on December 14, after considering policy to be followed by the Caribbean Commission for the next two years. The Conference was attended by two delegates from each of the fifteen territories within the jurisdiction of the commission and observers invited by the commission from Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and the United Nations and its specialized agencies.

The third regular session of the Consultative Council of the Western Powers met at Paris October 25 and 26, 1948. According to the communiqué issued by the five foreign ministers of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands at the conclusion of the meeting, four major topics were discussed.

At a meeting on December 1, the Council of the Organization of American States considered a draft agreement between the Council and the Pan American Institute of Geography and History and approved recommendations by which the Institute was to be considered an Inter-American Specialized Organization under Article 96 of the Charter of the Organization. On a United States motion, the Council appointed a Special Committee to consider the subject of specialized inter-American conferences and to recommend to the Council a procedure for the convening of such conferences. The chairman of the Council (Corominas) notified the members that fourteen governments had appointed representatives to the American Committee on Dependent Territories and that in accordance with Resolution XXXIII of the Ninth International Conference of American States the Council should convoke the committee.

In the Allied Council meeting on August 13, 1948, the Soviet High Commissioner (Kurasov) attacked the United States–Austrian ECA Agreement of July 2 as contradictory to the obligations set forth in the Moscow Declaration of 1943 and as making Austria entirely dependent upon the United States. The United States High Commissioner (Keyes) stated that the actual working performance of the ERP would disprove these statements and the British and French High Commissioners joined him in rejecting the Soviet proposal for cancellation of the United States–Austrian ECA Agreement.

Quadripartite Activity: Failure to find a solution of the Berlin currency problem after the question had been considered by the United Nations Security Council was evident when the replies of the western powers and the Soviet Union to Dr. Juan Atilio Bramuglia's questions about the problem were made public on November 26, 1948. The Soviet reply stated that an agreement on the four-power control plan would mean the simultaneous lifting of the Berlin blockade and a return to four-power collaboration in the administration of Berlin, which in effect would mean resumption of direct conversations on the currency questions among the four military governors. The western powers made it clear that they considered the unity of Berlin city administration as the basic prerequisite for an agreement. Several days later, on November 30, a city government was installed in the Soviet sector of Berlin, with Friedrich Ebert as its mayor and on December 21, the western military governments announced formal reconstitution of the Allied Kommandatura on a three-power basis. In announcing the move, Brig. Gen. Jean Ganeval, French sector commandant, stated that fourparty administration of the city could be resumed any time that Soviet authorities decided to abide by agreements to which the four powers were committed.

On December 6, 1948, a note was sent to the United States, France, USSR and the United Kingdom by the Austrian Federal Government pointing out that no progress had been made in the preparation of the Austrian peace treaty since the adjournment of the Deputies of the Council of Foreign Ministers at London in May 1948. The note declared that Austria was anxious for the conclusion of the treaty, the subsequent withdrawal of occupation forces and the elimination of the four zones artificially dividing the country, as it considered the occupation an impediment to Austrian economy.

During the period from July 10, 1947 to December 23, 1948, thirteen policy decisions were adopted by the Far Eastern Commission. These fell primarily into three categories–disarmament, democratization, and the determination of a self-sustaining economy for Japan. In the first category the Commission adopted a policy decision on February 12, 1948, entitled “Prohibition of Military Activity in Japan and Disposition of Japanese Military Equipment”. Under the terms of this decision a ministry of war was forbidden, and possession by Japanese of arms, ammunition and implements of war and the development, manufacture or importation of these articles was prohibited

The eighteenth session of the Assembly of teh Inter-Allied Reparation Agency closed on July 2,1948, after allocation to member nations 80 million Spanish pesetas from the sale of Spanish property owned by the German state and nonresident German nationals. Thiswas the first payment to be followed by much larger amounts, under an agreement reached with Spain on May 10, 1948.

In November 1948, the final verdict against 28 accused Japanese war criminals was delivered in Tokyo by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The Tribunal, established on January 16, 1946, had begun hearings on May 3, 1946, and had been continually in session since that time. The reception of evidence had terminated on February 10, 1948, the tribunal having admitted 4,336 exhibits and 779 depositions in evidence and having heard 419 witnesses testify in court. Hearings had been in English and Japanese, with translation when required into Chinese, Russian, and French; the tribunal noted that language difficulties had materially delayed its work and had even made necessary the establishment of a Language Arbitration Board.

A report on the work of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, issued in October 1948, summarized progress of the organization so far and the problems which it still faced. Stating that the organization was still on the threshold of European cooperation and that the most difficult problems still remained, the report defined OEEC's task as the achievement, by 1952, of a “satisfactory European economy without extraordinary outside aid.” The work of OEEC since its inception had been hampered by the facts that it was the first international organization of its kind, that it had been so quickly forced into programming aid requirements of participating countries that there had been no time for organizational problems, and that during a fairly long initial period it had not had close contact with the United States Economic Cooperation Administration since neither the administrator nor his special representative in Europe had been appointed. Despite these hindrances, however, OEEC had drawn up programs covering aid requirements of the nineteen member nations for the third and fourth quarters of 1948, the first annual program, a long-term program, and a first progress report on cooperation and economic recovery. OEEC had also undertaken to recommend to ECA actual distribution of aid between participating countries, a task which it was originally assumed would belong to ECA.

1. On 21 November 1947, by its resolution 117 (II), the General Assembly requestedthe Interim Committee to:

“1. Consider the problem of voting in the Security Council, taking into account all proposals which have been or may be submitted by Members of the United Nations to the second session of die General Assembly or to the Interim Committee;

“2. Consult with any committee which the Security Council may designate to co-operate with the Interim Committee in the study of the problem;

“3. Report, with its conclusions, to the third session of the General Assembly, the report to be transmitted to the Secretary-General not later than 15 July 1948, and by the Secretary-General to the Member States and to the General Assembly.”

Whereas, recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world;

I have the honour on behalf of the Government of the French Republic, in agreement with the Governments of the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to draw your attention to the serious situation which has arisen as the result of the unilateral imposition by the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of restrictions on transport and communications between the Wester[n] Zones of Occupation in Germany and Berlin. Quite apart from the fact that it is in conflict with the rights of the French, United States and British Governments, this action by the Soviet Government is contrary to its obligations under Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations and creates a threat to the peace within the meaning of Chapter VII of the Charter.

Having Examined the first, second and third reports of the Atomic. Energy Commission which have been transmitted to it by the Security Council in accordance with the terms of General Assembly resolution 1(1) of 24 January1946,

CONSIDERING that, since the creation of the United Nations, the practice had developed of establishing, at the seat of the Organization permanent missions of Member States,

CONSIDERING that the presence of such permanent missions serves to assist in the realization of the purposes and principles of the United Nations and, in particular, to keep the necessary liaison between the Member States and the Secretariat in periods between sessions of the different organs of the United Nations,

CONSIDERING that in these circumstances, the generalization of the institution of permanent missions can be foreseen and that the submission of credentials of permanent representatives should be regulated,

The High Contracting Parties, solemnly reaffirming their commitments made in earlier international conventions and declarations, as well as in the Charter of the United Nations, agree to refrain from the threat or the use of force, or from any other means of coercion for the settlement of their controversies and to have recourse at all times to pacific procedures.