Editorial Note

A Conference on World Land Tenure Problems, sponsored jointly by the University of Wisconsin, the Technical Cooperation Administration, and the Economic Cooperation Administration, was held in Madison, Wisconsin, from October 8 to November 17. The Conference was attended by representatives from more than 40 countries. On October 9 Secretary of State Acheson issued a statement to the press expressing interest in and support of the Conference. Acheson commented that the Conference was a “genuinely constructive fulfillment” of the spirit of the land reform resolutions adopted in the United Nations. In a lengthy formal address to the Conference, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Willard L. Thorp reviewed United States support for the United Nations actions on behalf of land reform. For the texts of the Acheson statement and the Thorp speech, see Department of State Bulletin, October 22, 1951, pages 660–664. For an account of the opening of the Conference, see the Department of State Wireless Bulletin Number 245, October 8, 1951, pages 1–2, and 10.

Representatives to the Conference on World Land Tenure Problems made a brief tour in mid-November which ended in Washington. President Truman spoke to the representatives briefly on the afternoon of November 20. For the text of the President’s remarks, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1951, page 632.