Note by Australian Delegation, United Nations

New York, 9 February 1951

[matter omitted]

International Control of Atomic Energy

Course of the Debate

The joint resolution was introduced by Australia, which opened the debate on the item.1 The Australian representative2 paid a tribute to President Truman as having given a lead to the proposal, and recalled the principles for disarmament which the President had mentioned and which the joint resolution reaffirmed. He went on to say that although the two Commissions had done useful work, they had failed to make any real progress towards planning for disarmament. In these circumstances of deadlock, it might be useful if a new start could be made by combining their functions in a single body. Further, disarmament was a single problem, and should be approached as such. Although the first duty of the free world was to build up its strength so that aggression could be met with effective force, attempts to reach agreement on disarmament were still necessary and should be preserved.

[matter omitted]

[NAA: A1838, 720/1 part 5]

• 1 In an address to the Fifth Session of the UN General Assembly in 1950, President Truman had submitted that the work of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Commission on Conventional Armaments (established in 1947) might be discontinued and a new consolidated commission on disarmament established in order to relieve the deadlock in the work of the two commissions. Later in the same session, a resolution was drafted by Australia, and co-sponsored by Canada, Ecuador, France, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The resolution, adopted by 47 to 5 (Soviet bloc), established a Committee of Twelve consisting of the members of the Security Council together with Canada to consider ways of merging the two commissions. This culminated, in January 1952, in the establishment of the UN Disarmament Commission. See Current Notes , vol. 21, 1950, p. 834 and Barton and Weiler (eds), International Arms Control , p. 73.
• 2 K.C.O. Shann, Counsellor, Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York.