The selection by the Secretary-General of the first members of
his new staff is in a sense a test case. It must be said at once that Mr. Lie comes out of the test well. The choice of a Russian member is of particular importance, and in M. Sobolev U.N.O. gets as good a representative of that great country as could be found. M. Sobolev has for some years been Counsellor at the Soviet Embassy in London, and there was a general hope here that he would succeed M. Maisky as Ambassador when the latter returned to Moscow in 1943. That did not happen, but perhaps what has happened now is better still. The appointment of Mr. Pelt, a Dutchman with years of experience of the League of Nations, is equally welcome. Mr. David Owen has worked closely with Sir Stafford Cripps for years and has a high reputation for judgement and ability. The new American member of the staff, Mr. Abraham Feller, who is to be the chief legal adviser to the Secretariat, is a former head of the Harvard Law School and won the warmest appreciation as legal adviser to
U.N.R.R.A. in 1944 and 1945. Altogether an admirable nucleus for the future international civil service.
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