Balkans (UNSCOB) has maintained vigilance over the situation along the northern frontiers of Greece and has been continued in existence for another year by the General Assembly. It has been authorized to recommend its own dissolution prior to next fall, if conditions permit.

WORK OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON

THE BALKANS

The General Assembly originally established the Special Committee on the Balkans in its resolution of October 21, 1947, after efforts by the Security Council to restrain the northern states from aiding the Greek guerrillas had been obstructed by the Soviet use of the veto. The United States brought this question before the General Assembly and made proposals which resulted in the establishment of the Special Committee with functions of observation and conciliation. The resolution of October 21, 1947, also called upon Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia to cease aiding the Greek guerrillas, urged the four Balkan States to establish normal diplomatic and good neighborly relations, and instructed the Special Committee to observe compliance with those recommendations by the states concerned.

The Special Committee on the Balkans consists of delegations from nine states: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The U.S.S.R. and Poland were also originally named by the General Assembly to membership on the Committee, but they have declined to serve. Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia have similarly refused to recognize or cooperate with UNSCOB, although Yugoslavia, of late, has shown more inclination to act in accordance with the recommendations of the General Assembly on the problem. Greece, in whose territory the Special Committee has its seat, has cooperated with it. The Committee's most effective work has been its continuing observation of conditions along the northern frontiers, which has been carried on by several observation groups stationed at vantage points in the border areas. The United States continues to furnish its share of the observers needed for this work.

In 1948 UNSCOв reported to the General Assembly that the northern Communist countries were continuing to furnish large-scale aid to the Greek guerrillas. In its report UNSCOB also first brought to the attention of the United Nations the plight of over 25,000 Greek children who had been removed by the Greek guerrillas, in numerous cases forcibly, into neighboring countries. Acting on this report the General Assembly, on November 27, 1948, adopted a resolution under which the Special Committee was continued and its terms of reference

were improved. Another resolution, unanimously approved, called for the earliest possible return to their homes of the Greek children who had been removed into countries of Eastern Europe. During the two parts of the third session of the General Assembly (at Paris in the fall of 1948 and at New York in the spring of 1949) and again during the fourth session, a special Conciliation Committee, presided over by the General Assembly president, attempted to devise a formula which the four Balkan States could accept as a basis for restoration of normal relations and the regulation of frontier questions. The Governments of Albania and Bulgaria blocked agreement on the proposals made on methods for achieving pacific settlement of questions at issue between them and Greece.

On November 18, 1949, the General Assembly adopted a resolution continuing the Special Committee. The 1949 resolution reaffirmed the earlier resolutions and contained several new elements. Chief among these were a call for the verification by an international agency of the Albanian and Bulgarian claims that they had disarmed and interned the Greek guerrillas who had fled into their territory and a recommendation that members of the United Nations refrain from shipping arms or materials of war to either Albania or Bulgaria until those countries had ceased their illegal assistance to the Greek guerrillas. The General Assembly also called for accelerated efforts to bring about the return of Greek children.

Thereafter UNSCOB continued its work of observation in the frontier areas and completed its regular annual report to the General Assembly on July 31, 1950, at Geneva. The principal conclusions in that report may be summarized as follows:

1. A threat to Greece, although altered in character since the elimination of large-scale guerrilla activity, still persisted since Albania, and Bulgaria in particular, continued to give aid to scattered guerrilla groups in Greece;

2. No improvement in relations between Greece and Albania and Bulgaria had occurred; Greek-Yugoslav relations, following agreement on May 21, 1950, to exchange ministers, showed definite prospect of improvement;

3. The states harboring Greek guerrillas since their flight from Greece in 1949 had failed to permit verification by an international agency of the disarming and disposition of those guerrillas;

4. No Greek children had as yet been returned to their homes in Greece by the harboring countries of Eastern Europe, although Yugoslavia had sent a few Greek children to their parents in Australia and showed apparent readiness to take further steps to implement the earlier General Assembly resolutions on this question.

Looking at the Balkan picture in the larger setting of world conditions which had so recently taken on a menacing aspect in view of Communist aggression in Korea, the Special Committee recommended

"That the General Assembly consider the advisability of maintaining an appropriate United Nations agency in the Balkans, in the light of the current international situation and of conditions prevailing along the northern frontiers of Greece."

ACTION OF THE FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Discussion of the UNSCOB report began in the Assembly's Political and Security Committee on November 11. Early in the debate three draft resolutions were introduced. The first (presented by Australia, France, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States), while taking into account the improvement of the situation along Greece's northern frontiers, provided for the continuance of UNSCOв on the established basis. The draft resolution recognized the possibility that conditions during the coming year might permit the dissolution of UNSCOB and empowered it, at its discretion, so to recommend, such recommendation to be put into effect by the Interim Committee if the latter thought proper.

A draft resolution on Greek children was presented jointly by Australia, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands. After noting "with grave concern" that no Greek children had as yet been returned to Greece, the draft resolution again called on the governments concerned to cooperate with the Secretary-General and the International Red Cross organizations in arranging for the early return of the children. The draft also provided for establishment of a standing committee, composed of representatives of three member states, to advise and consult with the Secretary-General and the representatives of the governments concerned for the purpose of speeding the repatriation of the children.

The third draft resolution, introduced by Greece, called attention to the fact that the northern states, with the exception of Yugoslavia. were still detaining Greek military personnel captured and taken across the border by the Greek guerrillas. The draft called upon the states concerned to permit the repatriation of all such personnel who expressed a desire to return to Greece.

In contrast to the above-mentioned proposals the U.S.S.R. submitted its own draft resolution in an obvious attempt to divert the General Assembly's attention from the international aspects of the Greek question to internal Greek affairs. As in past years the Soviet

draft called for a general amnesty in Greece, universal and “free” parliamentary elections with proportional representation, an end to "military and political intervention in Greek affairs" by the United States and the United Kingdom, and the dissolution of UNSCOB. The Soviet Delegation, supported by other Eastern European delegations, also revived its familiar charge that Greece, backed by the United States and Britain, harbored aggressive designs against Albania and Bulgaria. Early in the Committee debate another Soviet draft resolution calling for the repeal of death sentences against persons convicted in Greece of crimes against the state was rejected by a vote of 31 against to 6 in favor, with 12 abstentions. The Soviet proposal was in line with their propaganda campaign since late summer on the allegedly "terroristic" regime in Greece.

Speaking on November 10, the United States representative, Benjamin V. Cohen, hailed the progress which had been made with the Greek problem. The general improvement, he said, was attributable to the efforts of the Greek people to maintain their independence, to the increased respect shown by Yugoslavia for the General Assembly's recommendations on this question, to the "affirmative assistance" given to Greece by the United States and other member nations, and to the active and persistent work of the Special Committee on the Balkans. He recognized that a cause of continuing friction lay in the residual problems of the period of guerrilla warfare. These included the lack of substantial progress toward repatriation of Greek children, the still unverified status of Greek guerrillas in northern territory, the unwarranted detention by the northern states of Greek Army personnel, and the absence of satisfactory arrangements for the mutual regulation by Greece and the northern states of frontier relations. Nevertheless, he concluded,

"It is the hope of the United States that if the situation along the northern frontier of Greece continues to improve the Special Committee may be able to complete its assigned tasks or at least the major portion of them during the coming year."

The United States assumed, Mr. Cohen stated, that, if the Special Committee should be dissolved, it might be necessary to continue the function of observation a while longer. This function perhaps could be carried on under the authority of the Peace Observation Commission established by the General Assembly on November 3, 1950, in its resolution "Uniting for Peace."

The General Assembly's Political and Security Committee adopted three resolutions on the Greek case on November 14 and 16. These were (a) the joint resolution of Australia, France, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States on the continuance of

UNSCOB; (b) the joint resolution of Australia, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands on Greek children; and (c) the Greek resolution on repatriation of Greek military personnel. The Soviet draft, which sought various forms of intervention by the General Assembly in Greek internal affairs, was rejected by a vote of 51 against, 5 in favor, and 2 abstentions.

The three resolutions submitted by the Political Committee were adopted by the General Assembly on December 1, 1950. The proposal for the continuance of UNSCOB was approved by a vote of 53 to 6, with no abstentions. The resolution on the repatriation of Greek military personnel was approved 53 to 5, with 1 abstention. The resolution on the return of the Greek children was adopted by a vote of 50 to 0, with 5 abstentions. Two Soviet drafts, going into the subject of death sentences and other Greek internal questions, were decisively rejected.

While no improvement took place in the relations between Greece on the one hand and Albania and Bulgaria on the other, Greek-Yugoslav relations took a definite turn for the better toward the end of 1950, along lines already laid down by General Assembly resolutions on the subject. In November a number of captured Greek soldiers and the first group of Greek children were returned by Yugoslavia to Greece. Shortly afterward the Yugoslav and Greek Governments established full diplomatic relations, by the appointment of ministers to Athens and Belgrade, respectively.

2. Palestine

Progress in the solution of the Palestine problem during 1950 occurred not in the area of political settlement but in the growing recognition of the political realities involved. The endeavors of the United Nations to achieve final peace settlements between the Arab States and Israel met with little success. Arising from these efforts, however, was an increased awareness that the plight of the Palestinian Arab refugee is a joint and urgent responsibility of all the parties and that action in this field must precede a lasting solution of political problems. As for Jerusalem, the inability of the United Nations to reach a decision on an international regime for that city reflected a wider understanding that any such regime must have the approval of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of the Jordan, as the two states occupying the Jerusalem areas, as well as the endorsement of the majority of the members of the United Nations. This failure to reach a solution in the General Assembly also reflected a realization