of all, we may rejoice that there was available to us a diplomat of such character, such ability and experience, that he could command the unanimous esteem and confidence of the world Organization. That augurs well for the future. The esteem in which he is held has been earned by a lifetime of public service both at home and abroad. We at the United Nations know at first hand the many contributions that he has made to this institution. We have worked with him in his capacity as Permanent Representative of Burma. We know of his notable contribution to the work of the United Nations Conciliation Commission in the Congo. We know of the great regard in which he was held by the late Secretary-General, Mr. Hammarskjold, and we are also aware of his stature as educator, scholar and author. Some of you may not know that almost thirty years ago, when our colleague was a young man of twenty-three, he wrote a book about the League of Nations.22 Even then he understood this century's profound need for a world organization to keep the peace, and this understanding has grown in him with the years.

I must confess that I have sometimes been discouraged during the long weeks of discussion that have preceded today's election. But as we say, all is well that ends well. And this prolonged ordeal has ended brilliantly. Moreover, during these weeks we have often been impressed anew by Ambassador U Thant's independence of mind and spirit, his high intelligence, his energy and idealism, and that becoming modesty which is characteristic of his countrymen and of his coreligionists. We have much to be thankful for today, not only because of the individual who has just been appointed, but equally because of the propitious circumstances in which the General Assembly has appointed him.

The sole objective of the United States delegation, which has carried much of the burden of negotiation, has been to protect the integrity of the Charter and the office of the Secretary-General. That has been the purpose of many others who want to see this Organization grow in strength and influence, and that has been accomplished. There will be no veto in the Secretariat and no weakening of the office. The principles contained in Articles 100 and 101 of the Charter have been fully preserved. He will have the full powers and responsibilities of that exalted office. He will appoint his own staff and consult with them as he decides, as he has told us, and in a manner consistent with the Charter.

When I say, in passing, that I think there is a valuable lesson in the events that led up to today's action, I have in mind that the quiet path of diplomacy often requires endless patience and perseverance, especially when it encounters the seemingly insurmountable obstacles. As I say, there have been many discouraging moments in our long negotiations. There have been other such moments in the history of the United Nations, and they too have been overcome.

My own conviction is that we should always act in the belief that for those who are truly faithful to their ideals, the darkest hour is

"Published in 1932.

the time to light the brightest light. Recently I saw in our Press an item about a scientist who was on the brink of an important breakthrough, and when he described his experiments to a gathering of fellow specialists, the newspaper said, a wave of guarded enthusiasm swept through the audience. In the light of everything, I think that we representatives may be permitted a wave of unguarded enthusiasm. here today. I am happy to report to you that the President of the United States is one of those who shares our hopes here today. I have just received a telegram from President Kennedy which he has asked me to read to you, and I am happy to do so:

The election of His Excellency U Thant is a splendid achievement in which the whole world can rejoice. Please express the congratulations of the United States Government to the United Nations membership for their action in electing so distinguished a diplomat to succeed the late Dag Hammarskjold. In preserving the integrity of the office of the Secretary-General, they have reaffirmed their dedication to the United Nations Charter. To Ambassador U Thant, please express my personal congratulations, and assure him on behalf of the people of the United States that, as he begins one of the world's most difficult jobs, he has our confidence and also our prayers.

Finally, in my own capacity as the United States representative to the United Nations, I should like to say that all of us of the United States Mission feel that we owe a great debt of gratitude to those representatives who have worked so hard and so patiently to solve the problems created by the death of Mr. Hammarskjold.23 And to my dear friend and colleague, the new Secretary-General, I should like to say just one more thing. It is written in the Bible that "To whom much is given, of him also much shall be required." There is little doubt that enormous tasks will be required of you, and there is even less doubt that you will fulfil them. God bless you.

20. SOVIET SUPPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS ACTING SECRETARY-GENERAL: Statement Made by the Soviet Representative (Zorin) Before the U.N. General Assembly, November 3, 1961 24

The Soviet delegation is gratified to note the unanimous decision of the General Assembly, adopted on the Security Council's recommendation, to appoint to the post of Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations for the period up to 10 April 1963 Ambassador U Thant, an eminent statesman and public figure of that peace-loving and neutral Asian State, the Union of Burma.

The delegations of the States represented in the General Assembly are aware that the decision to appoint Ambassador U Thant is the result of numerous consultations between the various delegations.

The Soviet delegation, which in the course of these consultations has invariably striven to secure the achievement of an agreement acceptable to all the parties concerned, is sincerely glad that such an agreement has now been reached. The Soviet Union's position on the subject of the directing of the principal executive organ of the United Nations-the Secretariat-was clearly and exhaustively expounded by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR,

"See post, docs. 392 and 396.

"U.N. doc. A/PV.1046, pp. 552-553.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, at the fifteenth session of the General Assembly and by Foreign Minister Gromyko at the present session." We are firmly convinced that this position, based as it is on the profound changes which have recently taken place in the international situation and in the correlation of world forces, provides for an equitable solution of the problem of the direction of the United Nations Secretariat on a permanent basis.

In view, however, of the necessity of taking speedier action here and now to ensure that the work of the Secretariat is effectively directed, the Soviet Union has agreed to accept a temporary solution of this problem.

We would like to point out in this connexion that the provisional character of this solution does not make the task of Ambassador U Thant as Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations either easier or less responsible. It will be his task to direct the executive organ of the United Nations over the whole field of those functions which, under the Charter, are vested in the chief administrative officer of the United Nations.

The Soviet delegation considers that Ambassador U Thant, whose intelligence, ability and political experience are well known, will succeed in coping successfully with the serious tasks that lie ahead of him.

27

The statement which has just been made here in the General Assembly by Ambassador U Thant leads us to hope that, following his appointment and the appointment by him of a group of principal advisers to him, genuine international collaboration will be ensured in the United Nations machinery and practical steps will be taken to eliminate one-sidedness in the functioning of the executive organ of the United Nations, exclude the possibility of the United Nations Secretariat acting in the interests of any particular group of States, remove discrimination against individual States and ensure fair geographical distribution in the staff of the Secretariat, as required by the United Nations Charter.

We would like to believe that matters will now go better in the United Nations Secretariat-which would be to the advantage of all States and of the United Nations itself.

May I, on behalf of the Soviet Government, wish Ambassador U Thant, Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations, every success in his work and in the fulfilment of the important tasks laid upon him by the United Nations Charter. May I express to Ambassador U Thant the hope that his whole activity in the post to which he has been appointed on the recommendation of the Security Council and the unanimous decision of the General Assembly will serve the interests of consolidating world peace and promoting international co-operation.

21. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ARRANGEMENTS FOR A CONFERENCE FOR THE PURPOSE OF REVIEWING THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER: Resolution 1670 (XVI), Adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, December 15, 1961 28

The General Assembly,

Recalling the provisions of its resolutions 992 (X) of 21 November 1955,29 1136 (XII) of 14 October 1957 30 and 1381 (XIV) of 20 November 1959,31

25

See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960, pp. 35-40.

20 See ante, doc. 16.

27 Ante, doc. 18.

U.N. General Assembly Official Records, Sixteenth Session, Supplement No. 17 (A/5100), p. 66. This resolution, recommended by the committee (see U.N. doc. A/4877), was adopted without formal vote.

Text in American Foreign Policy, 1950-1955: Basic Documents, pp. 333-334. 30 Text in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1957, p. 69.

31 Text ibid., 1959, p. 75.

Conscious of the fact that present international circumstances are not auspicious for a review of the Charter of the United Nations, Recognizing at the same time the need for such a review as soon as international circumstances permit,

1. Decides to keep in being the Committee on arrangements for a Conference for the purpose of reviewing the Charter and to request the Committee to report, with recommendations, to the General As

sembly not later than at its seventeenth session;

2. Requests that the work envisaged in paragraph 4 of General Assembly resolution 992 (X) should be continued.

DECENTRALIZATION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND STRENGTHENING OF THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC COMMISSIONS: Resolution 1709 (XVI), Adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, December 19, 1961 32

C. The United Nations Budget and the Problem of Financing United Nations Peace-Keeping Operations

[NOTE: See also the section on the United Nations Emergency Force in Part VII (post, pp. 686-691) and the subsection on the Congo in Part VIII (post, pp. 748-882).]

22. SOVIET PROPOSAL FOR A FIXED-LIMIT UNITED NATIONS BUDGET: Statement Made by the Soviet Representative (Roshchin) in Committee V of the U.N. General Assembly, October 17, 1960 (Excerpt) 1

1

In reviewing the Secretary-General's activities over the past year, it is also necessary to consider his policy and practice with regard to the finances of the United Nations. Even without the expected additional estimates, which would raise the total budget for 1961 far beyond $70 million, the budget estimates for the financial year 1961, total almost $67.5 million. That unjustifiably high figure exceeds the appropriations for 1960 by $3,794,450 and the actual expenses in 1959 by some $5.6 million. The Secretary-General states in paragraph 1 of his foreword to those budget estimates that they are a first modest departure from the policy of stabilization applied in earlier years; that it would surprise very few that the budget estimates of the Organization for 1961 are at a higher level than

32

3

U.N. General Assembly Official Records,, Sixteenth Session, Supplement No. 17 (A/5100), pp. 16-17. This resolution, sponsored by the representatives of 12 member states, was adopted unanimously.

1 First-person, present-tense adaptation of the text printed in U.N. doc. A/C.5/SR. 768.

they were in 1954; and that times have changed, and the issues to be faced have changed with the times. The USSR delegation can not accept the assertion that a policy of stabilization has been applied in earlier years. It is refuted by the uninterrupted and substantial growth in appropriations and expenditure, from $48.5 million in 1954, through $50 million in 1955 and $53.2 million in 1957, to an estimated $67.5 million in 1961. The expenditure of the United Nations has increased by $20 million, or almost 50 per cent, in the six years of Mr. Hammarskjold's tenure of office as Secretary-General. Far from pursuing a policy of stabilization, the Secretary-General has clearly pursued a policy of increasing expenditure year by year.

In my delegation's opinion, the main causes of that steady increase has been an unwarranted rise in the cost of maintaining the Secretariat; the expenditure of United Nations funds in an unbusinesslike and an uneconomic manner; and the weakening of financial and administrative control over the planning and execution of the Secretariat's activities. These conclusions have been borne out by the Committee's examination of the supplementary estimates for 1960 at the 763rd to 765th meetings. I have already pointed to the disparity between the money spent on technical assistance in Laos and the larger sum spent on co-ordinating it, and to the $39,300 spent in Guinea to ascertain that no special form of technical assistance was required there, and I referred at the 763rd meeting to the $56,000 spent in Guinea to co-ordinate technical assistance to the value of $131,000. Large sums are being spent to maintain representatives of and consultants to the Secretary-General and they are being supplied with expensive motor-cars, in countries where the need for their presence is either doubtful or non-existent. Such representatives should be despatched only in exceptional cases and in virtue of a decision of the Security Council or the General Assembly. Furthermore there is no justification for increasing the size of the Secretariat by establishing new offices and missions in order to meet new tasks, instead of making better-planned and more productive use of existing personnel. My delegation strongly objects to any increase in the budget estimates above the level of the actual expenditure incurred in 1959. The total net expenditure to be covered in accordance with the regular scale of assessments should be stabilized at a level not exceeding $50 million. Every effort should be made to regularize expenditure, to strengthen financial and administrative control over the disbursement of funds, to eliminate unnecessary links in the Secretariat machinery in New York and elsewhere, and to make the Secretariat more compact and more efficient so that the existing establishment can be reduced.

The USSR delegation therefore considers that, to improve the operation of the Secretariat and to adapt it to the tasks confronting the United Nations, the following action should be taken: firstly, a programme for the reorganization of the Secretariat should be worked out and adopted, under which the staff would be selected on a strictly international basis and would be thus adapted to the tasks of the United Nations. Secondly, the Secretary-General should desist from the practice of sending missions and representatives to different countries otherwise than in virtue of a Security Council or General Assembly decision and from staffing such missions on a one-sided basis, predominantly with nationals of the United States and the other Western countries; he should recall those missions which he had sent out unlawfully. Thirdly, the activities of the SecretaryGeneral should be confined within the framework of the Charter, and he should cease pursuing, in the name of the United Nations, a policy which reflected the interests only of one part of its membership, to the prejudice of the interests of the remainder. Fourthly, the expenditures of the United Nations should be prevented from increasing year by year; a fixed limit should be set to the over-all budget; the excessive establishment of the Secretariat should be reduced; and the expenditure of funds contributed by Member States should be placed under stricter control, and thus on a more economic and rational basis. Lastly, the structure of the United Nations Secretariat should be altered so that all three groups of States-the socialist countries, the countries members of the Western Powers' blocs, and the neutralist countries-were represented on an equal footing.