A.—3a

So far, Greece is the only country which has made formal application to be recognized as a country unable to pay for UNRRA supplies. Its application has been admitted, with a request to submit further information at the end of six months, which will make it possible then to review the situation. . . . There has also been considerable discussion by tiie Committee on Financial Control, initiated mainly by the representative of South Africa, of the problem of audit. The United States member was anxious to entrust this function to a commercial firm, while the Soviet representative preferred a sub-committee of members of the Committee on Financial Control. A compromise was effected by a rather clumsy combination of the two ideas, involving the appointment both of a commercial firm, Messrs. Deloitte, Plender, Griffiths, and Co., and of an Audit Sub-committee of " persons of special technical competence." The South African representative objected to this as involving a duplication of work and as unnecessarily costly, but mainly as failing to make adequate provision for audit in the wide sense appropriate to a governmental agency, including an independent examination of the operations of UNRRA in the light of the resolutions which set out its policy in detail. The original proposal was carried without substantial amendment, but the matter is likely to be raised again later. (v) ORGANIZATION No significant changes were made at Montreal in the formal structure of UNRRA. A proposal authorizing the Central Committee to admit new members between sessions of the Council was not approved, but in view of the fact that action in Denmark might become urgent it was agreed, with strong support from Norway, to authorize her admission " if after the liberation of Denmark an appropriate Danish Government or Authority makes application 1 01 membership. Ihe constitutional requirement of a second Council meeting during 1944 has been waived, unless some unexpected emergency should arise, and there is an informal suggestion that the next session should be held in the spring of 1945 in Europe possibly in Paris. ' ' The Director-General announced to the Counted his intention shortly to establish branch offices in Chungking and Sydney. Otherwise, there was no formal examination at Montreal of the problems of UNRRA organization in relation to the Far East, though there was much informal discussion arising from a suggestion to transfer the Committee on the Far East to Sydney. Up to the time of the Montreal meeting it lias been difficult, in the absence of detailed statements of requirements, to carry very far the work of the Committee on the Far East. With the submission since the Montreal meeting of the Chinese statement of requirements, it should now be easier to get the work of preparation for the Far East into hotter shape. Several delegates (including the New Zealand member of the Council) emphasized at one stage or another the importance of the Far Eastern sector of UNRRA's work, and the Chinese representative submitted an amendment (subsequently withdrawn) to one resolution which indicated clearly that the question of the relation between European and Far Eastern requirements was very much in the mind of his Government. Some weaknesses are inevitable in the personnel recruited under the peculiar conditions oi UNRRA to perform tasks for which precedents are almost entirely lacking. There was a strong and widespread feeling, however, that for the tasks immediately ahead the staff of UNRRA should bo allowed the greatest possible degree of freedom to undertake 1 lie improvization and adaptation to new and unexpected circumstances which would inevitably be necessary. Mr. Dean Acheson, the United States member of the Council, urged the Administration with vigour and courage and whatever ruthlessness is necessary to review its scheme of organization to see whether it is adapted to action," and as there was evidence that this appeal was already being met there was little disposition to press strongly criticisms which had previously been privately expressed. It was, moreover, frequently emphasized that the provision of competent personnel was largely a responsibility of Governments themselves, who can easily fall into the error of making available for service with UNRRA only third-rate persons or, perhaps, no one at all. The principle enunciated by The Economist (15th July, 1944) that "it should be an essential qualification of every official transferred to UNRRA that lie cannot strictly be spared from his current work" was perhaps there expressed in a rather extreme form, but it indicated an important point of view from which Governments could properly be criticized. It was noted with satisfaction that the Governments oi' Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States had made available the aid of their Civil Service authorities in the selection and recruitment of competent personnel. Much the same principle suggests itself in relation to doubts sometimes expressed about the effectiveness of that part of the UNRRA organization concerned with Technical Standing Committees. This is a matter which in the last resort must depend on the quality of the individuals nominated to serve on these Committees and the vigour with which they are supported by their respective Governments. INTERNATIONAL SANITARY CONVENTIONS Resolution VIII adopted by the Council at its first session made provision for member Governments and recognized authorities to co-operate fully with UNRRA in establishing at the earliest possible date regional and other emergency agreements for the notification of diseases likely to be epidemic, for uniformity in quarantine regulations, and for other measures for the prevention of disease.

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