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A Polish proposal calling on the permanent members of the Security Council to seek agreement among themselves on the unsuccessful applications was also adopted. i SECOND AND THIRD COMMITTEES Discussions in the Second (Economic and Financial) and Third (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural) Committees provided an opportunity for a survey of the year's work of the Economic and Social Council. Some delegations criticized the pre-occupation of the Council with questions of organization. Others, including New Zealand, maintained that good progress had been made under difficult conditions and stressed the basic importance of the work of the United Nations in the economic and social fields. Several important questions arose in the discussions of economic matters in the Second Committee. It was recommended that the Council should regularly survey world economic conditions and trends as an essential feature of its responsibility to promote higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress. A Polish resolution, which was defeated, would have called on members to use the machinery of the United Nations to settle fundamental international economic problems and not to set up independent machinery—an obvious attack on the Marshall plan. Similar criticism developed on the discussion of post-UNRRA relief activities. The problem of regional economic organization arose from the debate on a proposal that the Economic and Social Council should consider the establishment of an Economic Commission for the Middle East, similar to the Economic Commissions for Europe and for Asia and the Far East, already established, and the Commission for Latin America, then under consideration. Some countries, including New Zealand, have felt that the question of regional economic organizations requires further study lest they conflict with the specialized agencies, which have functional economic tasks. The resolution, was, however, carried. The Third Committee considered a wide variety of social problems. The discussion on the protection of trade-union rights developed into a controversy upon the respective responsibilities of the International Labour Organization and the World Federation of Trade Unions. The New Zealand delegate, in supporting the competence of the ILO, took the opportunity of expressing appreciation of the services rendered in the past by that Organization. A Soviet resolution criticizing the conduct of displaced persons' camps led to criticism of the treatment accorded to those persons in Western countries which had accepted them for resettlement. These charges were refuted, and the Soviet resolution defeated.