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In the ad hoc Political Committee the delegation of Australia submitted nine draft resolutions concerning the applications for membership of the following States : Austria, Ceylon, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, the Republic of Korea, Portugal, and Nepal. These resolutions proposed that the Security Council should be requested to reconsider these applications in the light of the Assembly's view that the States concerned fulfilled the necessary requirements for membership in the United Nations. In each case it was noted that nine members of the Security Council had supported the admission of the State concerned, but that no recommendation had been made to the Assembly because of the opposition of one permanent member (the Soviet Union). The resolutions also recalled the recommendation of the General Assembly* that each member of the Security Council and of the Assembly, in exercising its vote on the admissions, should act in accordance with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of 28 May, 1948, which declared that a State was not juridically entitled to make its consent dependent upon conditions not expressly provided by Article 4 (1) of the Charter. The Soviet representative, however, submitted a counter-resolution recommending the Security Council to reconsider all applications with the exception of that from the Republic of Korea. He claimed that the United States and the United Kingdom were attempting to give preferential treatment to their own supporters, and to employ the United Nations as their agent in a policy of interference in the internal affairs of the " peoples democracies." The representative of the United Kingdom declared that the Soviet proposal for bloc approval of applications would mean that the arbitrary ban of the veto would be removed from certain countries only if, in exchange, admission were granted to other countries which the majority considered unsuitable for membership. Such a proposal could only be characterized as blackmail. The majority of members of the ad hoc Committee agreed with the British view that each case should be judged on its own merits. The Swedish delegation, however, maintained the view which it had expressed at the last Assembly that the United Nations should become a universal body and that a liberal attitude towards applications for membership would enable it to fulfil that objective. The New Zealand representative (Mr Shanahan) stated briefly his support for the Australian draft resolutions. He pointed out that the admission to membership in the United Nations of States which met the requirements of the Charter was essential alike for the efficiency of the Organization, the maintenance of international peace and security, and

* Resolution 197 (III) A of 8 December, 1948.