A. —3a

1944 NE W Z E A. L A N D

UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND REHABILITATION ADMINISTRATION BEPOBT BY THE NEW ZEALAND DELEGATION ON THE SECOND SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE UNITED NATIONS BELIEF AND REHABILITATION ADMINISTBATION, MONTREAL, 16TH TO 26tii BEPTEMBEB, 1944

Laid onl the Table of both Houses' of the Gemeral Assembly by Leave

The Right. Hon. the Minister of External Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand Sir, — I submit the following report of the New Zealand Delegation on the Second, Session of the Council of UNRRA, which met at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, from 16th, to 26th September, 1944. The session was originally- to have taken place in June, but at that time circumstances associated with the impending European invasion rendered a postponement necessary. The meeting was notable as the first official international conference to be held in Canada, the selection of this locality being, no doubt in part, in recognition of the very important and active part played by Canada in the work of UNRRA as, a. principal supplying country. Mi'. L. B. Pearson, the Canadian Minister in Washington, who has also been Chairman of the Committee on Supplies, was an efficient and popular Chairman. Mr. C. A. Berendsen, the New Zealand member of the Council of UNRRA, headed the New Zealand delegation. The other members originally nominated were Hon. D. Wilson, (he Now Zealand High Commissioner in Ottawa, Dr. A. G. B. Fisher and Mr. B. R. Turner, but. as Mr. Wilson had not at the time of the meeting returned to Canada, his place was taken by Mr. R. M. Firth. All of the forty-four signatories of the original UNRRA Agreement of 9th November, 1943, were again represented at the Montreal session of the Council, which was, in addition, again attended by observers from the Danish Legation in Washington, the Economic and Health Sections of the League of Nations, the International Labour Office, the United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture, and the Inter-governmental Committee on Refugees. Except to a limited extent, the Montreal session was not required to deal with many important questions of principle, most of which, had been settled at Atlantic City in 1943; its main purpose was, where necessary, to clarify these principles, and to ensure that the Administration was adequately equipped to perform its duties. Most of the delegations were smaller than those attending the 1943 meeting, though the three countries which have been most actively concerned with the detailed work of UNRRA—the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada—and also' the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, brought together o,n this, occasion a larger number of technical experts. The agenda circulated before the meeting of the Council included eleven items, to which seven others were subsequently added. Consideration of the Director-General's Administrative Budget was remitted to the Committee on Financial Control, and items relating to the care and repatriation of displaced persons to the Standing Technical Committee on Displaced Persons. Some of the other Standing Technical Committees also held meetings during this session of the Council, but most of the active consideration of the agenda, was undertaken, by two Ad Hoc committees—established by the Council—the Committee on Policy and the Committee on Procedure, on both of which, as well as on the General