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of the Security Council be regarded as procedural; secondly, that a further twenty-one possible decisions be adopted by majority vote, whether they are considered to be procedural or non-procedural; thirdly, that the permanent members should consult among themselves before a vote is taken, in order to minimize the use of the veto ; and fourthly, that in agreements conferring functions on the Council provision should be made for the exclusion of the unanimity rule. In addition, the Assembly was asked to consider whether or not the time had come to call a general conference to revise the Charter. During the discussion in the Interim Committee, Sir Carl Berendsen took the opportunity of restating New Zealand's position on the veto question. While the proposals were good in themselves, he said, they did not touch the fundamental problem. If peace was to be obtained through a system of collective security, the Great Powers must be prepared to accept third-party judgment and surrender the complete freedom of action they now enjoyed. In the ad hoc Political Committee of the Assembly the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, said he would support any proposal which offered hope of progress in solving the veto problem, including the proposal for a conference to revise the Charter. An Argentinian resolution, calling for such a conference, was, however, defeated, and a resolution incorporating the substance of the Interim Committee's recommendations was adopted by the Committee with only the Soviet bloc dissenting. Consideration of this resolution in plenary assembly was deferred until the second part of the third session, to be held in April, 1949. (g) International Co-operation in the Political Field One of the tasks given to the Interim Committee in 1948 was to study and report on possible methods of giving e,ffect to the articles in the Charter which deal with the general principles of co-operation in the maintenance of international peace and security. The Committee put before the Assembly in September a series of proposals, including the revival of the General Act of 26 September, 1928, for the pacific settlement of international disputes, the appointment of rapporteur-conciliators by the Security Council and the Assembly to attempt to settle disputes " out of court," and the establishment of a panel of highly qualified persons from which members of commissions of inquiry and conciliation might be selected. The New Zealand representative in the ad hoc Political Committee of the Assembly, while paying tribute to the work of the Interim Committee, doubted the wisdom of adopting its proposals forth,with. They were" not of an urgent nature and more time should be given for Governments to consider them. Although his suggestion
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