U.N. SESSION ENDS WITH LITTLE DONE: TENSION EASED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22818, 13 December 1948, Page 5

U.N. SESSION ENDS WITH LITTLE DONE: TENSION EASED

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter— Copyright.) (10 a.m.) PARIS, Dec. 12. Twelve weeks’ session of the United Nations General Assembly accomplished very little and left behind a number of loose ends.

The session opened in an atmosphere of war tension under the cloud of the Berlin dispute. It ended with the tension partially reduced. Its practical accomplishments were very small. The one practical matter the Assembly should have dealt with—the future of the former Italian colonies —was buried under an overloaded agenda.

The session left many delegates with the conviction that drastic reforms must be made in the Assembly s procedure to prevent a repetition of this year’s partial fiasco. The main criticisms arc that the agenda is too large and the. flood of repetitions and after irrevalent speeches hopelessly out of control. Attempts will be made in April in New York to amend the rules of procedure to bring some order out of the existing chaos.

Forum for Verbal “Cold War”

Many United Nations’ delegates now feel the ultimate function of the Assembly will be mainly that of an international forum for a “cold war” of words. It was felt generally that the holding of the Assembly in Europe had been beneficial. The European press gave more coverage to the United Nations than ever before, but its attitude on the whole was cynical and sceptical. Parisians showed some interest in the Assembly but without much enthusiasm or confidence in it. The work of the delegates was greatly slowed down by the city's temptations which many said made the_ session’s atmosphere more lackadaisical than in New York. The United Nations’ session cost member Governments at least £1,250,000. Less than half this sum was spent by the United Nations organisation and the rest by individual delegations. Delegates’ money flower into the hotels, theatres, shops, restaurants and cabarets of Paris. Probably half of the money went into the black market. The session gave a great boost to the city in a period that is normally dull.