United Nations Guard.

The ad hoc (Political) Committee took up consideration of this item on October 24th. The item on the agenda was the report of the Special Committee which contained two draft resolutions (see PS/10 Appendix A of the commentary). The general debate on the report of the Special Committee revealed that the proposal for a field service received considerable support, while the proposal for a panel of field observers met with some opposition. You will recall that the method of establishing the panel as described in the report of the Special Committee is as follows:

     (a) The various Governments will furnish a list of names of men recruited both within and outside the Government services which they will recommend as observers to the Secretary-General;

     (b) The Secretariat of the United Nations will then select field observers from these names having regard both to their professional competence and geographical distribution;

     (c) The Secretariat would finally be responsible to keep this list up to date.

The delegations of the United Kingdom and New Zealand were of the opinion that it was impractical from an administrative point of view for the United Nations Secretariat to keep this list current in such a way that it will be useful when an emergency occurs as the names appearing on the list may not be available when called up to serve.

The Canadian delegation, in a statement made on October 26th, suggested, as a compromise, that instead of the Secretariat being given the responsibility of keeping the panel up to date, the national Governments themselves undertake that responsibility. The Secretariat role will consist only of transmitting to the various Governments a statement of the qualifications required by the observers and the number of observers that will be required from each country. In this manner the Secretariat would have on its list only names of persons available for immediate service.

It was not necessary to introduce this suggestion as an amendment, as the representative of the United Nations Secretariat undertook to follow this suggestion in establishing the proposed panel of observers.

An amendment introduced by Israel seeking to place the United Nations field service at the disposal of United Nations missions, only at the request of the Security Council or the General Assembly, was withdrawn owing to lack of support. A Lebanese amendment which would have

     (a) Curtailed the functions of the field service personnel in favour of the local services;

     (b) Authorized, in certain instances, the carrying of side-arms by field observers, and

     (c) Made the names of the field observers subject to the approval of the state where they will be called upon to serve, was defeated.

The Canadian delegation voted against this Lebanese amendment on the ground that the United Nations missions should not have to rely primarily on the local services for protection; that field observers do not normally need side-arms and that impartiality of field observers could only be ensured if their selection could not be influenced by the country where they are called upon to serve.

The first resolution relating to the field service was adopted October 27th by thirty-eight in favour (including Canada) five against and eight abstentions. The resolution relating to the panel of field observers was adopted by twenty-eight in favour (including Canada) nine against and eighteen abstentions.⁶⁰

⁶⁰ Le 22 novembre 1949, I'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies approuva (46 con" 5, et 3 abstentions) une résolution à 1'effet que le secrétaire général avait l'intention d'établir un service de campagne, et adopta (38 contre 6, et 11 abstentions) une résolution demandant au secrétaire général de préparer une lisle de candidats qualifiés pour ce service (Le Canada er les Nations Unies 1999, p. 87).