“Obvious Need For More Security Council Members”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29389, 16 December 1960, Page 17

“Obvious Need For More Security Council Members”

LONDON, December 15. The need to expand membership of the Security Council of the United Nations, which had been obvious for some years, was now urgent, says the “Guardian’s” diplomatic correspondent.

He says there were 51 founding members when it was decided to constitute the council in 1946. Five permanent members (the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia. France and China) and six non-permanent members elected for a two-year period was reasonable. It no longer was so now that 99 States were members of the organisation. It was sensible enough to come to an informal agreement that six of the non-permanent seats should be allocated to Latin America (two seats). Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the Middle East and the Commonwealth (one each). But the emergence of so many new members from Africa and Asia had made nonsene of this agreement

In any case this gentleman’s agreement had not been fully observed for some years and had been the cause of some bitter disputes in successive sessions of the Assembly. For this the Western Powers must bear even more responsibility than the Russians and their friends.

The correspondent also says the question of enlarging the Security Council is not new but has been under consideration since 1957. A decision, however, had been deferred from session to session of the Assembly, largely because any such expansion would involve an amendment to the Charter, which requires the support of the five permanent members of the council.

Russia had adamantly opposed such an amendment unless and until the Peking Government was

installed in the seat now occupied by the Nationalists. Russia still maintained this position. Resolutions had been tabled at the current session of the Assembly, which would have increased membership of the Security Council by two to 13 and of Economic and Social Council by six to 24, Neither had been adopted, largely because they each also had proposed an immediate reallocation of the existing seats to ensure a more equitable distribution. This was opposed by the Western nations and the Latin Americans, although they supported a simple expansion of the two bodies. “In my view this opposition is ill-conceived.” says the correspondent “It seems to me to be a sensible principle to allocate nonpermanent seats on the council to the main geographical areas or political groupings in the world. And as things stand the AfroAsian group comprises 44 of the 99 United Nations members. “Even though numbers are not the only consideration, it seems to me obvious that provision ought to be made for permanent • representation of this group on the Security Council—even at the occasional expense of one of two seats allotted to the 20 Latin American States. And if the AfroAsians are not given nroper representation they have the voting strength to ensure that noone else is They could prevent any nation gaining the required two-thirds majority and thus indefinitely hold up the constitution of the council,” says the correspondent