Assembly No. 21.

The session opened today. Election for President-Aranha received
26 votes, Dr. Evatt 23, invalid 6. Voting on second ballot was
Aranha 29, Evatt 22, invalid 4.

2. This was a great tribute to Australia as almost every member
outside Latin America voted for the Minister and he was defeated
only by the casting vote of the Russian bloc. The Minister was
offered the presidency of the Political Committee and would
certainly have been elected if he had stood. However, he declined
as he felt he could work more effectively as a national
representative.

3. The following Committee Chairman were elected:

Political Bech of Luxembourg
Economic Santa Cruz of Chile
Social Lange of Poland
Trusteeship Berendsen of New Zealand
Administrative Fazle Ali of India and
Legal El Khouri of Syria.

4. The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Mexico
and Cuba were elected Vice-Presidents. Although we had made it
known that we were not seeking a Vice-Presidency seven spontaneous
votes were cast for us in the secret ballot.

5. Although we are not represented on the General (Steering)
Committee we will be able to keep in close touch with developments
there through New Zealand's representative Berendsen.