Editorial Note
On November 15, 1948, the General Assembly had assigned the question of the proposed United Nations Guard to a newly-created Ad Hoc Political Committee. This committee had other items before it also and on December 9, pressed for time and as its last order of business in 1948, it voted to hold over consideration of this matter until the reconvening of the General Assembly in New York in April 1949.
After the General Assembly commenced the second part of the third session on April 5, 1949, the Ad Hoc Committee took up security guard proposal in three meetings; and on April 11, 1949 submitted a report with an accompanying draft resolution to the General Assembly (United Nations document A/835); for text of the report, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Third Session, Part II, Plenary Meetings, Annexes, pages 46–48. The draft resolution provided for the establishment of a special committee of fourteen members, including the five permanent members of the Security Council. The special committee was to study the proposal for a United Nations guard “… in all its relevant aspects, including the technical, budgetary and legal problems involved, and such other proposals as [might] be made by Member States and by the Secretary-General with regard to other similar means of increasing the effectiveness of the services provided to the United Nations missions by the Secretary-General and prepare a report embodying its observations and recommendations for consideration during the fourth regular session of the General Assembly.” (ibid., page 48)
The General Assembly took up the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on April 29, 1949, additionally considering a technical amendment submitted by the Argentine representative, and took favorable action on the same day; for the proceedings, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Third Session, Part II, Plenary Meetings, pages 211 ff. For the statement to the General Assembly by the United States representative, Benjamin V. Cohen, in support of the report and draft resolution, see ibid., pages 220–221. For text of Resolution 270 (III), see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Third Session, Part 2, Resolutions, pages 16–17.