By the spring of 1948 the UNAEC became convinced that the Soviet Union’s refusal to accept any plan that met the technical requirements of controlling atomic energy was symptomatic of broader differences which made further negotiations on the Commission level fruitless. The _Third Report_ stated that “the majority of the Commission has been unable to secure the agreement of the Soviet Union to even those elements of effective control from the technical point of view, let alone their acceptance of the nature and extent of participation in the world community required of all nations in this field....” It appeared to the Commission that the atomic deadlock was but one manifestation of the more widespread dispute between the Soviet Union and the rest of the world. In view of this, the Commission majority recommended that negotiations in the Commission be suspended until the permanent members of the UNAEC found that “there exists a basis for agreement on the international control of atomic energy....” The following were regarded as the basic considerations which, even on a technical level, made the U.S.S.R. position untenable: I. The powers provided for the International Control Commission by the Soviet Union proposals, confined as they are to _periodic inspection_ and _special investigations_, are insufficient to guarantee against the diversion of dangerous materials from known atomic facilities, and do not provide the means to detect secret activities. II. Except by recommendations to the Security Council of the United Nations, the International Control Commission has no powers to enforce either its own decisions or the terms of the convention or conventions on control. III. The Soviet Union Government insists that the convention establishing a system of control, even so limited as that contained in the Soviet Union proposals, can be concluded only _after_ a convention providing for the prohibition of atomic weapons and the destruction of existing atomic weapons has been “signed, ratified, and put into effect.” [Italics in original.] The Commission’s work had come to a standstill. _Atomic energy negotiations since 1948_ Meeting in Paris in the fall of 1948 the General Assembly, by a vote of 40 to 6, approved the general findings and recommendations of the FIRST REPORT and the specific proposals of part II of the SECOND REPORT “as constituting the necessary basis for the establishing of an effective system of international control of atomic energy.” However, it called upon the UNAEC to continue its work and to study such subjects as it deemed “practicable and useful,” and asked that the permanent members of the Commission “consult in order to determine if there exists a basis for agreement....” The permanent members were requested to transmit the results of their consultations to the General Assembly.