A.—sa,

Permanent Central Opium Board. As the United States of America takes part in the work of the Central Board, a representative of that country, Mr Leland Harrison, was invited to take a seat at the Council table. The question to be decided was the composition of the Permanent Central Opium Board. Under Article 25 the Board is appointed for five years. The first appointment was made by the Council in December 1928, and the Board was reconstituted by the Council in October, 1933. It was therefore the Council s duty again to reconstitute the Board ; and to enable the Council to come to En the Secretary-General had invited all States parties to the Opium Convention to furnish him with their proposals regarding the composition of the Board. The names of the persons —Tted rT n ™ akm B the suggestions are shown m the printed minutes of the Council meeting pi ges 4 and 5. Of the persons suggested, however, some were in a position of direct dependence on their Governments and were therefore ineligible under the Convention. For this reason the list of fourteen names was reduced to ten A selection of eight names had to be made. It should be noted that a onth^Boa m ni 1S that consideration should be given to the importance of including Sir Atul Chatterjee. M. Kusama. Mr. Herbert L. May. M. D. Milicevic. Dr. Abelardo Saenz. Professor M. T. Tiffeneau. Sir Malcolm Delevingne. win b T , h giw"fSlf.XS ST 1 The eighft membe ' bas ret to be appoi " ted ' ~,d Budgetary Economies Committee. rr,m In +f 17 reP fl rt °j l he sse , mbl y 1 have devoted a few sentences to the decision of the Fourth Committee confirmed by the Assembly, to entrust to a Committee of Five the examination of the finances of the League with a view to the making of economies in the Budget. rnninifl !q , UnCll was asked to appoint the members of the special committee, the Fourth Committee made certain recommendations regarding its composition. It was only ok the 30th September that the Assembly had resolved that the Committee be appointed, and the representative of f t na ' I! ,? f i! f S i Ra PP° rteur t0 the Council, was unable to offer definite suggestions as a number of factors had to be taken into consideration. He asked the Council to empower its President to make the appointments himself, after consulting the Rapporteur on Budgetary and AdminilativrOuestions This was agreed to by the Council (Documents A. 72, 1938, X and C. 351, 1938, X) Inter-governmental Conference op American Countries on Rural Hygiene. At its May session the Council decided that this Conference should be convened and subseouentlv ofMeiro 6 ? 8 W6re TiAwl* 0 meGt Mexlc ° 011 the 10th November, 1938.' The Government of Mexico, however, felt that the time allowed for the preparatory work was insufficient and 3 Spretarv C p T+ e if P ° st P ( T d - . The Council agreed to this, and at the same time'authorized the . ecretary-General to fix a new date m agreement with the Mexican Government the Health Committee and other interested parties (Documents C. 324, 1938, 111 and C. 345, 1938). ' nittee, Request op the Spanish Government for the Technical Assistance of the League in the Study op Measures for providing Food for Refugees Spam not under the control of the Government. The Spanish Government was stolywithin\u nghts m asking for consideration of the question by the Council by virtue of a resolution of tW h a and indeed, the Council on a former occasion had taken action oilSXnature S' ™®i lCa m Spam. The Secretary-General, who introduced the matter suggested as the •md X ° a i T+ eP f Se I lldlng of persons to Spain to take stock of the extent of the problem possibilities of solution, and he introduced a draft resolution providing for this This resolution was accepted by the Council. It reads" ' 1 fus resolution " The Council— Of rt'l ? response t0 t} l e re< 3 ues 1 t made the Spanish Government for the technical assistance of the League m providing food-supplies for refugees in Spain • assistance Authorizes the Secretary-General to institute a preliminary inquiry on the snot and to She 6 Bud^rforiSr 0 ' I C° DOt ex £ eedin § 000 Swiss francs, to item 2 („) (i) Vntmm Sx^tm <" b " ct <° 'P"" 1 of tie

23