I spent some time with Owen [2], the Assistant Secretary-General,
responsible for economic affairs, and his senior assistants. [3]
Generally, I was disappointed. Their conception of the
Secretariat's functions appears to me to be unduly passive,
although this view is to some extent imposed upon them from the
top. This weakness was well illustrated by the recent meeting of
the Employment and Economic Commission which Wilson attended. We
have always been strong advocates for the establishment of this
Commission, and it was our conception of its work that it should
be concerned primarily with a review of the current employment and
economic situation throughout the world, so that it could act as
an international watchdog and report to the Council on any threat
of serious unemployment in order that preventive action could be
taken in time. Some such procedure as this is essential if the
dependent economies, for instance, are to be able to obtain
freedom to take protective action against outside deflationary
influences with full international approval. The Commission met,
however, without any data relating to the general employment and
economic situation in front of it. It is clearly impossible for a
group of busy men all from different countries to carry out a
review of the world situation in three weeks. It can only be done
on the basis of material prepared in considerable detail by the
Secretariat beforehand. This material should not only review the
facts, but should analyse the economic factors operating and lead
up to possible lines of action. it would then be possible for the
Commission itself to prepare an effective report to the Economic
and Social Council. I discussed this question with the Secretariat
and found them in some ways anxious to undertake this type of
work, but apparently feeling that it was impracticable for them to
move at all without specific direction from the Economic and
Social Council. Accordingly, as you know from my telegrams I
consulted with the United Kingdom and New Zealand representatives
on the Council and arranged for a Resolution to be submitted which
would give the Secretariat clear responsibility for this work and
also authorise the Secretary-General to advise the Chairman of the
Employment and Economic Commission if in his opinion there were
any factors in the world economic situation warranting a special
meeting of the Commission. This, I think, should go some way to
fill the gap.

Perhaps the most depressing thing, however, is the apparent
inadequacy of the staff. One cannot feel any very great confidence
in the capacity of the Economic Division to do this work
satisfactorily. Owen himself is good, but he is not an economist
and he is very heavily burdened with work of a non-economic
character. His chief assistant, Weintraub [4], seems reasonably
capable but not of sufficient stature to support the Secretariat
case to the Commission if it were, for instance, critical of
developments in a major country. I understand that Kalecki [5],
previously at the Nuffield Institute at Oxford and more recently
with the I.L.O., has joined the staff. He is very capable on the
theoretical side at least and may represent a substantial increase
in strength.

There seems to be a real weakness in the general planning and
budgetary control of the activities of the Secretariat as a whole.

I understand that, generally, the financial control operates
primarily by requiring evidence in the nature of a Resolution of
the Security or Economic and Social Council of a direction to the
Secretariat to carry out any particular piece of work. In some
cases Resolutions directing that certain work should be undertaken
arc adopted with little, if any, serious consideration of what is
involved in the way of cost, staffing, etc. As a result there
appears to be disproportionate development in certain parts of the
Secretariat with little relation to the relevant urgencies of the
tasks being undertaken. It seems to me that it will be necessary
for greater authority to be given to the Secretary-General to plan
the activities of the Secretariat year by year. It ought to be
possible, for instance, for him to submit at the same time as the
budget a proposed programme of work which would take into account
the directions he had received from the various Councils, but
provide also for regular activities which he considered essential
to the conduct of the work of the United Nations Organisation as a
whole taking into account also his assessment of the relevant
urgency of the tasks that it had been asked to undertake. This
could be examined perhaps at the Annual Assembly, and on approval,
together with the budget, could provide a basis for a more
balanced programme of activity for the remainder of the year.