policy of public debate of all issues in the United Nations because this promotes public knowledge and understanding and gives the peoples of the world a more direct opportunity to influence the results. We have also asked for action to break down the barriers to a wider, freer flow of information in the world. Preparations are now going forward for a world conference on freedom of information before the end of this year as one step in this direction. The provisions of the Charter relating to dependent peoples offer to those hundreds of millions who do not yet govern themselves their best hope for attainment of this and other basic human rights and freedoms. The United States Representatives took a leading part in the General Assembly in bringing about the establishment of the Trusteeship System in the face of sharp disagreements and other major difficulties that might have caused indefinite delay. The United States will support further steps during the coming year toward strengthening the Trusteeship System. America has long been a symbol of freedom and democratic progress to peoples less favored than we have been. We must maintain their belief in us by our policies and our acts. One of the important long-range achievements of the General Assembly's First Session was the adoption of resolutions introduced by the United States on the codification and development of international law. The General Assembly unanimously directed its committee on codification to give first attention to the charter and the decision of the Nuremberg Tribunal, under which aggressive war is a crime against humanity for which individuals as well as states must be punished. The Assembly also agreed that genocide-the deliberate policy of extermination of a race or class or any other human groupwas a crime under international law. These developments toward the application of international law to individuals as well as to states are of profound significance to the state. We cannot have lasting peace unless a genuine rule of world law is established and enforced. The justifiable hope and confidence to which the great progress of the United Nations in the past year has given rise can be betrayed and lost. The difficulties and dangers that lie before us are many and serious. They are strewn across the road that leads to the final peace settlements, to the establishment and maintenance of collective security, to the control of atomic energy and regulation and reduction of other arms, to the attainment of economic recovery and an expanding world economy, and to the wider realization of human rights. Our policy of supporting the United Nations "with all the resources that we possess" must be given effective practical application on a genuinely national, bipartisan basis in every activity of the United Nations. This is just as necessary in the economic and social field as it is in the political field. We must pursue without hesitation bipartisan policies of economic cooperation with the rest of the world in such matters as economic reconstruction and development and the expansion of world trade and employment. Because of the interdependence of the economy of nations, it will also be vital to world recovery as well as to our own prosperity that we maintain at home a stable economy of high employment. The responsibility of the United States is a particularly heavy one because of the power and influence that our history and our material resources have placed in our hands. No nation has a higher stake in the outcome than our own. THE WHITE HOUSE February 5, 1947 HARRY S. TRUMAN Role of the United States in Major Substantive Ques- 2 Political issues; economic and financial problems; social, Important Organizational Decisions Administrative and Budgetary Matters II. SECURITY COUNCIL Role of the United States in the Organization and United States Position in Individual Cases Considered Iranian case; Indonesian case; Greek cases; Syria and Leb- Security Council Recommendations on the Admission Military Staff Committee III. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION Establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission the Atomic Energy Commission Formulation of the United States Position on Inter- Work Accomplished by the Atomic Energy Commission 39 40 41 44 44 45 46 47 52 IV. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL United States Aims Organizational Phase London meetings; Commission structure; Specialized agen- Business of the Council 58 Refugees and displaced persons; economic reconstruction; V. TRUSTEESHIP SYSTEM AND NON-SELF-GOVERN ING TERRITORIES Resolution on Non-Self-Governing Peoples Information on Non-Self-Governing Territories Drafting of the Trusteeship Agreements Assembly Trusteeship Agreements Approved by the General Trusteeship Council Organized Trusteeship Recommended for South-West Africa Italian Colonies Korea Trusteeship of Former Japanese Controlled Islands VI. INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE Organization of the Court United States Acceptance of the Jurisdiction of the 77 1. Major Resolutions Adopted at the Second Part of 95 5. Statement by President Truman, November 6, 1946, Concerning Proposed United States Trustee- ship of Former Japanese Islands in the Pacific 6. Draft Trusteeship Agreement for the Japanese Man- dated Islands, Transmitted by the United States November 6, 1946, for Information to the Other Members of the Security Council and to New Zealand and the Republic of the Philip- 7. United States Proposals for the Control of Atomic Energy, Presented by the Honorable Bernard M. Baruch to the United Nations Atomic En- ergy Commission, June 14, 1946 8. Address by the Honorable Bernard M. Baruch, United States Representative, to the Atomic Energy Commission December 5, 1946 9. Address by the Honorable Bernard M. Baruch, United States Representative, to the Atomic Energy Commission, December 17, 1946 10. Summary of Findings of the Committee on Controls of the Atomic Energy Commission, December 11. General Findings and Recommendations Approved |