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The Secretary-General believed that as the work of the United Nations in the fields of conciliation and mediation increased, a force of several thousand men might eventually be required, but that as a first step a force of 800 men should be set up, of which 300 would be in a permanent establishment located and trained at headquarters and 500 would form a voluntary reserve cadre, remaining in their national homes at the call of the Secretary-General. These men would not constitute a military force and. their arms would be limited to personal emergency defence weapons. . Units of the guard would function in a territory only with the consent of the Government of that territory. It was emphasized :that the guard was not intended to carry out any military enforcement measures under Article 42 of the Charter. This proposal had been made at the earlier part of the session, and in view of the improvement in the Palestine situation, the question of the guard had become less urgent. The Secretary-General consequently sta'ted that, in view of the desirability of further study, he was willing to see a committee established to study all aspects of the problem and report to the fourth regular session of the General Assembly. The Soviet Union and other Eastern European States strongly attacked the proposal of the Secretary-General, claiming that it had as its objective not merely the establishment of a guard but the organization of an actual armed force. Such an armed force, however, could be created only in accordance with Article 43 of the Charter, and the '.Secretary-General's proposal, therefore, had no legal basis. It was unthinkable that the Secretariat should perform functions connected with the maintenance of peace and security, including the use of armed force, which were the sole prerogative of the Security Council. The political design behind this proposal was, in the view of the Slav •countries, the circumvention of the Security Council and as such, they alleged, it had the approval of the leading circles of the United States and the United Kingdom, who wished to have at their disposal methods •of interfering more and more in the internal affairs of other countries. The majority of the Committee, however, expressed approval in principle of the Secretary-General's proposal and were in. favour of referring it to a special committee. The representative of France, although in favour of establishing a special committee to study all /the implications of the establishment of a guard, doubted whether i.t would serve a practical purpose, and the representative, of South Africa felt that lull consideration should be given to the possibility Of utilizing foTvguard duties the national police of countries concerned. Eventually a proposal submitted by the representative of the y 'Philippines was adopted by the Committee by 41 votes (N.Z.) to 6 'with 3 abstentions. This resolution, which was subsequently adopted by the General Assembly by 47 votes (N.Z.) to 6 with 1 abstention,