84. Editorial Note
On December 3, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted Resolution 913 (X) on the “effects of atomic radiation.” The First Committee (Political and Security, including regulation of armaments) had previously considered a formal proposal on the subject submitted jointly by Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States and sponsored also by Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. This draft resolution called for the establishment of a scientific committee consisting of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, India, Japan, Sweden, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States and requested those governments each to designate one scientist on that committee. This committee would receive and assemble information on radiation furnished to it by the member states or specialized agencies.
[Page 235]India and the Soviet Union presented several amendments to the draft resolution in the First Committee. All of the Soviet amendments were rejected. The sponsors of the draft resolution amended their proposal to incorporate some of the Indian amendments, and India then withdrew most of its amendments. The First Committee also rejected a joint Indonesian-Syrian amendment and accepted one by 20 Latin American states, which added Argentina, Belgium, Egypt, and Mexico to the list proposed for the scientific committee.
The General Assembly adopted unanimously the resolution as recommended by the First Committee.
For background on this radiation resolution, see the position paper on atomic radiation, September 8, in Department of State, IO Files: Lot 71 D 440, Position Papers; and Yearbook of the United Nations, 1955, pages 18–20. For Resolution 913 (X) adopted by the General Assembly on December 3, see ibid., pages 21–22; and Documents on Disarmament, 1945–1959, volume I, pages 561–562. For information on the actual creation of the scientific committee on radiation, see Document 86.