Editorial Note
A brief summary of subsequent handling of the refugee question in the United Nations is given below. Since the United States position was publicly stated repeatedly in the various organs of the United Nations which dealt with the problem, no attempt has been made here to document that position more elaborately. The chief sources of documentary material within the Department of State are the master files of the Reference and Documents Section of the Bureau of International Organization Affairs (IO).
On February 16, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) [Page 139] adopted a resolution establishing a Special Committee on Refugees and Displaced Persons to investigate and report the problem to ECOSOC; see United Nations, Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, First Year, First Session, p. 160. The Special Committee met in London from April 8 to June 1 and presented its report at ECOSOC’s second session; for the text of the report, see United Nations, Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, First Tear, Second Session, Special Supplement No. 1, Annex 12. Its principal recommendation called for the establishment of an International Refugee Organization, in addition to which it attempted to give a definition of displaced persons and refugees. For documentation relating to certain major points in dispute during the meetings of the Special Committee, see post, pp. 158, 164, and 167–168. For a summary of subsequent events during ECOSOC’s handling of the refugee question, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, Second Part, Supplement No. 2, Report of the Economic and Social Council to the General Assembly covering the period from 23 January to 8 October 1946, pp. 55–62.
On October 3, ECOSOC approved a draft constitution for the International Refugee Organization and referred the matter to the General Assembly. For a summary of subsequent developments, see Yearbook of the United Nations, 1946–1947 (United Nations, 1947), pp. 164–170; ECOSOC’s recommendations are printed ibid., p. 549. The General Assembly referred the questions of IRO and its finances to its Third and Fifth Committees, respectively. The Third Committee’s meetings, beginning with its fifteenth on November 4, proved to be the main forum for a continuation of the disputes on repatriation and resettlement; see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, Second Part, Third Committee, pp. 81–319, passim. The financial aspects of the disputes were heard in the Fifth Committee and revolved chiefly around attempts by Yugoslavia, Byelorussia, Poland, and the Soviet Union to prevent large scale resettlement programs for refugees unwilling to return to their countries of origin; see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, Second Part, Fifth Committee, pp. 178–284, passim. Ultimately, on December 15, 1946 the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh meeting, by a 30–5 vote with 18 abstentions, adopted a resolution which approved the IRO constitution and called for establishment of a Preparatory Commission to operate until the IRO came into existence; see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, Second Part, Plenary Meetings, pp. 1453–1454. The reports of the Third and Fifth Committees to the General Assembly are printed ibid., pp. 1595 and 1600, respectively.
The Constitution of the IRO was accepted by the United States on July 3, 1947 and entered into force on August 20, 1948; for text, see [Page 140] Department of State, Treaties and Other International Acts Series No. 1846. The agreement on interim measures to be taken in respect of refugees and displaced persons, which established the Preparatory Commission of IRO, was accepted by the United States on December 16 and entered into force on December 31, 1946. The text is in Department of State, Treaties and Other International Acts Series No. 1583.