Trusteeship Council

From June 16 to July 21, 1953, at United Nations headquarters, the Trusteeship Council convened in its twelfth session. At the opening meeting Leslie K. Munro (New Zealand) was elected president and Miguel R. Urquia (El Salvador) vice-president. After a United States proposal to postpone discussion for the duration of the session of a Soviet resolution to invite a representative of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China to participate in the work of the session was adopted by 10 votes to 1 with 1 abstention, the Council adopted an agenda of eighteen items. The greater part of the session was devoted to the examination of annual reports on the administration of the trust territories of Somaliland under Italian administration, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Nauru, New Guinea, and Western Samoa. The reports submitted by the administering authorities on the Pacific trust territories were considered in conjunction with the reports on these territories submitted by the Visiting Mission to Trust Territories in the Pacific, 1953, which visited the area from February to May, the Council incorporating many of the mission's findings in its own conclusions. Also before the Council were observations submitted by UNESCO on all these annual reports except that on the administration of Western Samoa for the year ending December 31, 1952. After a French proposal to hold the next regular session of the Council in January 1954, in Geneva was rejected with successive tie votes of 5 in favor, 5 against and 2 abstentions, the Council adopted, by a vote of 7 to 4 with 1 abstention, a Belgian proposal that the General Assembly be asked to reconsider its previous decision on meeting schedules, to provide for alternate summer sessions in Geneva of the Trusteeship Council and the Economic and Social Council.