INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DIVISION WEEKLY SUMMARY NO.24

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-01090A000100030004-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 21, 1999
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 20, 1950
• Content Type: PERRPT

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INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DIVISION
''EEKLY SUr '.4ARY NO. 24
For week ending 20 June 1950
Volume II
The Intern tional Lek
West Germany joined the Council of Europe with the Bundestag's
approval (220-152). The UN Trusteeship Council voted 9-1 to return
the problem of internationalizing Jerusalem to the General Assembly
pointing out its inability to implement the statute. In Geneva the
Economic Commission for Europe wound up its 5th session with agree-
ment on a plan of work On the international labor front the Free
Trade Union Confederation will shortly snd aadelegation thtosSoSouth-
east Asia to plan action to strengthen ICFTU
of Communist influence in that area.
Pale tine impasse continues. Both Egypt's sudden recall of
its representative to the UN Palestine rConciliation aCCommission
inaed-
inter-
the Trusteeship Council's decision to return
nationalizing Jerusalem to the General Assembly accompanied by its
non po sumus, pointedly underline the failure of the UN to achieve
any progress toward a Palestine settlement.
It had already been apparent last spring when the PCC launched
its "new approach" that the UN's conciliation endeavors had bogged
down. Arab rejection of the proposed new conciliation procedures
extinguished whatever small hope remained of the PCC's being able
to bring the adverse parties together. Egypt's decision to pull
out its special representative to the PCC amounts merely to a rec-
ognition of the futility of the commission's task which in large
measure is attributable to virtual Arab determination not to nego-
tiate. The only presently foreseeable role still open to the PCC
future
Is to prvide rachinery for
may conceivably be reached.
Israeli-Jordan
ECl D -rc S C
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an the case of the Jerusalem statutes the TC only recognized
the self evident impracticability of implementing the GA's resolu-
tiona Meanwhile the UN Mixed Armistice Commission is performing
a good job in the field, smoothing over frontier incidents. In
this work it is aided by the underlying factor that none of the
states in the area have any wish to resume hostilities for the
present.
The fifth ECE session. On its purely functional side, the
Economic Commission for Europe acquitted itself well at Geneva by
authorizing continuation of useful technical and research work.
it directed committees engaged in constructive activity to carry
on while It was generally agreed that committees like those on
trade and agriculture which had been hamstrung by Soviet obstruc-
tionism and propaganda would not be reconvened until chances for
accomplishing something practical improved.
On the political side, the session presented an interesting
and now almost unique example of a UN organ where both Western
and Soviet blocs still participated. The USSR showed no deviation
from its accustomed behaviour pattern and concentrated on propa-
ganda. While generally pulling every familiar stop on the propa-
ganda organ, it particularly exploited the secretariat proposal
to expand East-West grain trade to charge the US with the design
of dumping agricultural surpluses and exerting pressure on Western
Europe to prevent East-West trade. The most effective retorts to
Soviet propaganda came from Vilfan of Yugoslavia who excoriated
Moscow's economic squeeze on Belgrade and from Andre Philip of
France who refuted the notion that the Soviet Union was free from
unemployment. However most West European delegations were vocally
ineffective while the Scandinavians were generally wobbly. While
the Westerners displayed somewhat greater solidarity than before,
there still remains much room for improvement in political coor-
dination and tactics as evidenced by the lack of support for
Vi If ark.
Finally all participants including the Soviet bloc appeared
Interested in keeping ECE alive.
The European Payments Union. The Organizations for European
conomi vCooperation OPEC) is now engaged in the highly techni-
cal and difficult task of fixing initial creditor and debtor posi--
?'eions of the various member countries which must be completed b
fore EPU can be activated. These positions will depend on whether
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the respective participating countries are found to be per., ,teat
debtors or creditors -within the European payments system. In
effect, before countries can safely enter into a payments union
with multilateral convertibility, appropriate "handicaps" takint
the form of EPU credits must be set in an endeavor to equalize
starting conditions as far as possible between strong and weak.
Obviously this operation is full of thorns. Hardly had progress
been achieved on an agreement according some special treatment to
the UK and sterling balances, when Belgium demanded $110,000 000
direct aid as a condition of joining EPU. Although a persistent
intra-European creditor Belgium, at the same time a dollar debtor,
felt that after taking Into consideration its domestic investment
program, it was being asked to extend excessive credits in EPU
which would threatened it with inflation. Another difficult issue
is the treatment of the German adverse trade balance with EPU
countries, particularly the UK, resulting from Germany's trade
liberalization in the fall of 1949.
Despite these problems general confidence prevails that the
necessary mutual aecozl; odatIons will be made so that by next mox th
a payments union of scene sort will be a reality. While it will
fall short of the blueprint originally sketched out by ECA5 it
will nevertheless represent a substantial improvement over todays
Intra-European Palgtradenpat~rni'`~~-chthasaretfrom arded~~rope~s
the stultifying bilateral
economic progress.
UNESCO will concentrate n eac W Although the general CO
ference of the i,14 ~iona scientific and Cultural Organize-
tion failed to call for any meeting to discuss further action to-
'k auently withdrawn by
se
ward peace, the dramatic resignr tiun su
unanimous request) of Its able Director General,, Torres-Bodet
ct.
gives assurance of 8io~'eCx~~'future failednevent~treac~ethe
After three specific Peace Propcsals
coiference floor, GNESCO finally authorized its Executive Board
to draft a peace program for thatl}finn edroutsiddedthea regular
study special peace projects to e
budget. Since the effectiveness of these rather nebulous decisions
will depend entirely upon how they are implemented, UNESCead tuno?i.ni.-
mous vote of confidence in its Director General may yet
worthwhile program At the same time, the confer ene took a nu ?her
bud-
of steps in line v~ithtUce~heo~8omi11ion0or3.ginallyTfavrPd
get was increased $200,000 beYoncct..
by most countries; biennial rath r than annual conferences were
authorized for the future, and s recia 1. programs are to be initiated
in Japan and Germany (nci now 4 N,aSC0 members) to promote respect
for human rights and to nculca tO an international outlook,
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I;`TU seeks to strengthen nqn-Cormunist labor in Southeast
Asia, A special delegation of the Free Trade Union Confederaticn
(ICFTU) will leave Brussels shortly on a two months tour of South-
east Asia designed to prepare the ICFTU to take a stronger initia-_.
tive in this area and help combat the mounting Communist drive for
domination of the Southeast Asian countries. The ICFTU delegation
(consisting of trade union representatives of the US, UK Belgium
and one Asian nation) will seek a first hand view of trace union
organizations and of the economic status of labor in Pakistan,
India, Burma, Thailand, Indochina, Malaya, Hong Kong Japan,. Korea,
the Philippines, Indonesia and Ceylon. Simultaneously, it will
assess the means for developing ICFTU activity in these countries
and for assisting non-Communist labor movements.
To carry out this assignment effectively, the ICFTU delegation
will have to surmount two major problems which have recently
plagued Western labor efforts in Southeast Asia. It will first
have to overcome the belief of some Asian nations, particularly
India, that the British and US labor leaders are competing for i.,.m
fluence in this area and that the British Trades Union Congress
(TUC) does not wish to encourage any regional labor organization
which might work too closely with the US (such as the Calcutta
based Asian Labor Federation). This belief has gained acceptance
largely as the result of recent statements in India by the TUC
President deprecating the US and of a similar campaign against U`
Influence by the British Workers Delegate at the January ILO Asian
Conference In Mysore..
The ICFTU representatives will_ also have to deal with the
problem created by the ICFTU refusal to admit the Thai Labor Unlori
to membership until changes are rude reducing or eliminating govern-
ment direction of its organization and outlook. Although the Thai
Union will. receive the ICFTU visitors cordially, it is reported to
be hostile to any such changes and actually less interested in inter=
national associations than in domestic considerations.
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