International Civil Aviation Organization

The ninth session of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Assembly was held in Montreal from May 31 through June 13, 1955.1 Representatives from 53 contracting states, and observers from the Federal Republic of Germany, the UN, and the International Labor Organization were present at the session at which Brigadier C. Stephen Booth (Canada) was elected President. Following statements by various delegations, the delegates considered the provisional agenda consisting of eighteen items; the first seventeen were adopted without discussion, but a debate developed on the last item, sponsored by the United Kingdom, which proposed that various amendments involving changes in the higher direction of ICAO be made in the ICAO Convention. It was pointed out that if this item were included in the agenda, Rule 10 (d) requiring that proposals for an amendment to the Convention be submitted to member states at least 90 days before the opening of the session would have to be suspended. The United Kingdom representative declared that his delegation was more interested in having a review of the future organization and methods of ICAO take place than in proposing specific amendments to the Convention; therefore, if it were the general wish of the delegates, he would withdraw his request for the discussion of specific amendments on the understanding that the Assembly would take up such a review under the agenda item dealing with the working methods of the Council. This proposal was unanimously adopted by the Assembly, after which the Assembly unanimously approved a proposal of France, the United Kingdom and United States to add the following item to the agenda: “The application of the Federal Republic of Germany for membership in the Organization”.