Secretariat

Annual Report of the Secretary-General: In the introduction to the eleventh annual report of the Secretary-General on the work of the United Nations, which covered the period from June 16, 1955 to June 15, 1956, Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold stated that during the period under review the most important development bearing upon the future role of the UN in world affairs was the decisive step taken toward universality of membership. He noted that sixteen new members had been admitted at the tenth session of the General Assembly, and that the Security Council had unanimously recommended the admission of three additional new Members in the intervening period. Stressing that the UN, being a world institution, was a unifying force in a divided world, Mr. Hammarskjold held that the UN was faced by three great challenges: the relationship of the peoples of Asia and Africa with the peoples of western traditions; economic development for the majority of mankind; and the unresolved conflict between the ideologies dividing the world. The admission of many new Members, he stated, created new constitutional, political and organizational problems for the UN. Constitutionally, there were questions raised by proposals to enlarge the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council; politically, there were problems of adjustment to the fact that changes in world relationships would in the future be more fully reflected in the debates and decisions of the UN; and for the Secretariat, organizational and administrative problems arose. Constructive solutions for those problems would be needed if the UN were to make good use of the increased capacity for service resulting from its wider membership.