35

" The New Zealand delegation are conscious of the great difficulties involved in framing the first estimate for the expenses of the United Nations. They must, however, confess to a feeling of disappointment that the total is as high as it is. "To provide the required contributions in United States dollars will be for New Zealand by no means a negligible burden, especially when there must be added the substantial contributions to other international agencies established outside the framework of the United Nations. "New Zealand will not, of course, grudge the payment of her share of the costs of peace, whatever they may be. Moreover, if it appears on the evidence before us that the policies we have adopted in the General Assembly require the proposed amount of expenditure, we shall draw the consequences. We therefore do not adopt an attitude of opposition on principle. But we must retain our liberty of appreciation when the various items of the budget come up for consideration; and we express the strong hope that it will prove possible to keep the actual expenditure in the first year well below the budget total. " In particular we hope that the Secretary-General will be in no hurry to appoint staff up to the suggested maximum of 2,470 officials. This seems to us a very large number indeed. It seems very doubtful whether the Secretary-General will be able to recruit within a short period a sufficient number of officials of high quality from States outside the United States to maintain the desired balance between the different nationalities. If, therefore, the staff is to be both of high quality and widely representative, as it is intended to be under Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter, considerable time will be necessary for recruitment. It is of the greatest importance that the Secretary-General should aim at quality rather than number in the appointment of the staff, even at the cost of a little delay. We want an administration which is efficient but not over-elaborate." In keeping with these remarks the New Zealand representative supported various motions for a reduction of the estimates, which were finally reduced (largely under pressure from the delegation of the Soviet Union) to United States $21,500,000. It will be realized that these estimates, though they provide for the International Court of Justice, do not include the expenses of the International Labour Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and various other international organizations set up outside the United Nations. The cost of the new premises and buildings of the United Nations will also have to be added. Advisory Administrative and budgetary Committee and Contributions Committee The recommendations of the Preparatory Commission for the establishment of a standing Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions and of a Committee on Contributions were adopted. The Advisory Committee was designed to replace the Advisory Group of experts responsible for the provisional budget and other financial and administrative planning. Its functions, in the terms of a resolution adopted later by the assembly, were —