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very inter-governmental disputes which had made the settlement of Libya so difficult in the past. No amendment, however, proved possible. The section of the draft resolution dealing with Libya was adopted by the General Assembly by 49 votes in favour, none against, and 9 abstentions. Those abstaining were France (whose representative maintained that the resolution was quite unrealistic), New Zealand,. Sweden, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The representative of the United Kingdom, the country primarily concerned with carrying out the resolution, declared that even though his delegation had doubts as to the wisdom and realism of certain' details in the proposed machinery for Libya, his Government would do its utmost to co-operate in making a success of " this bold experiment." For the office ,of United Nations Commissioner in Libya the Assembly appointed Mr Adrian Pelt (Netherlands), an international official of long experience. Somaliland The Bevin-Sforza agreement, which proved unacceptable to the Assembly in May, 1949, had provided that Italian Somaliland should be placed for an indefinite period under Italian trusteeship ; at that time it seemed to be generally accepted that Somaliland was so backward that it would be pointless to set a definite date for independence. Thissame solution of indefinitely prolonged Italian trusteeship was advocated by the United Kingdom, the United States, France, most of the Latin American, and several other countries at the opening of the discussion at the present session of the Assembly. It was, however, a solution which did not easily commend itself to Moslem delegations, nor to a number of other States which —however much they appreciated the arguments that Italy's return to Africa involved Italy's prestige and honour and political stability and Italian relations with the West—could not forget the fundamental fact that the best evidence indicated the inhabitants of the territory to be passionately opposed to the return of Italy. The final decision on Somaliland —part of the compromise solution for all the ex-Italian colonies —secured its majority because it gave Italy the trusteeship, but at the same time limited Italian administration to a fixed and brief term and subjected it to more controls and a greater measure of supervision than has been customary under trusteeships. The sub-committee did not consider it necessary to examine the question whether Somaliland could be viable as a State, but quickly decided, unanimously, that Somaliland should ultimately become independent. A proposal that Somaliland should be granted independence at the end of ten years unless the Assembly at that time were to decide otherwise was accepted by 15 to 3 with 3 abstentions.