U Thant May Serve Again

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31079, 7 June 1966, Page 13

U Thant May Serve Again

(N.Z P A.-Reuter — Copyright) NEW YORK, June 6. U Thant will decide this month whether to continue his post as United Nations Secre-tary-General and most observers believe he will probably accept a further three - year term.

His present five-year term will expire on November 3, and some time this month the Secretary-General will inform Security Council members of his wishes. The lack of an obvious successor for this world peacekeeping appointment is expec-

ted to convince the 57-year-old Burmese diplomat that he should agree to continue in office. Observers believe he may make his public announce xnent as guest at a luncheon on June 20 of the United Nations Correspondents’ Association. with which he has long maintained close relations.

If he does agree to carry on, there is little doubt he will be accepted. Of the big Powers, Britain and France have already declared that they wanted him to remain. Feels Strain

Although he. has fully recovered from a stomach illness which affected him early in 1965, U Thant is known to feel the strain of what has been described as the most impossible job in the world

He has made clear that he does not want to continue to preside over a bankrupt organisation, and remains hopeful that France and the Soviet Union in particular will make a sizeable financial contribution to the United Nation's depleted exchequerVietnam Conflict

The Vietnam conflict is also a matter of primary concern to U Thant His own private efforts to promote peace have so far been inconclusive and he does not believe the United Nations can do anything while Peking and Hanoi are not members.

Unconfirmed reports have circulated in the United Nat-

ions that the Russians were trying to obtain assurances that U Thant would give greater authority to leading Soviet officials in his secretariat, but observers believe it unlikely the Russians would press this point as far as blocking U Thant’s re-election. Among the smaller nations, U Thant has wide backing, particularly as he himself was formerly the chief delegate of one of these nations — Burma. The United Nations Charter lays down that the SecretaryGeneral be appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council, but it does not stipulate a specific term of office.

U Thant became acting Secretary-General on November 3, 1961, after the death six weeks earlier of his predecessor, Mr Dag Hammarskjoeld, in an air crash in Africa.

The Burmese diplomat was confirmed in the top United Nations post on November 20, 1962, on the understanding that he would serve a fiveyear term dating from his original appointment