Editorial Note
The General Assembly considered the question of international control of atomic energy at its 321st, 322nd, and 323rd Plenary Meetings, December 12 and 13. At the 321st Meeting, Sir Keith Officer of Australia introduced a joint draft resolution sponsored by Australia, Canada, Ecuador, France, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States (for text, see Resolution GA 496(V), [Page 123] page 124). The measure provided for the establishment of a committee of 12 to consider the advisability of merging the functions of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Commission for Conventional Armaments under a consolidated disarmament commission. For the text of his presentation, see GA(V), Plenary, volume I, pages 608-609. At the same meeting, Soviet Representative Andrei Y. Vyshinsky presented a draft resolution (see telegram Delga 428, infra), according to which the Atomic Energy Commission would be instructed to prepare conventions prohibiting atomic weapons and providing for international control of atomic energy. For Vyshinsky’s address, see GA(V), Plenary, volume I, pages 609-621.
Further debate on the two draft resolutions occurred at the 321st, 322nd, and 323rd Meetings. For the statement by United States Representative John Sherman Cooper on behalf of the eight-power draft, delivered at the 321st Meeting, see ibid., pages 623-626, or Department of State Bulletin, December 25, 1950, pages 1023-1026.
At its 323rd Meeting, December 13, the General Assembly approved the eight-power joint resolution by a vote of 47 to 5 (Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Ukraine, and the Soviet Union), with 3 abstentions (Yugoslavia, Indonesia, and Pakistan). The Assembly then rejected the Soviet draft by a vote of 32 to 5 with 16 abstentions. For the record of the 323rd Meeting, see GA(V), Plenary, volume I, pages 639-652.