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marked, indeed a remarkable, absence of any acknowledgment that both in former mandated territories and in other non-self-governing areas there is a considerable, and rapidly expanding, measure of local self-government already existing, or any recognition of the work, much of it admirable, that has been and is being done by those countries which have accepted, and often at considerable cost to themselves, the heavy task of assisting a backward people towards independence. While the administration of trust territories will have to justify itself, and properly so, before the Trusteeship Council, the Council, which carries such a heavy responsibility, will also have to justify itself, and particularly so in the trust territories themselves. Much will depend not only upon the devotion of the Council to its task, but upon the sense of responsibility with which it approaches the fundamental and intricate problems of human relations with which it will be concerned. X. FIFTH COMMITTEE : ADMINISTRATIVE AND BUDGETARY QUESTIONS Chairman M. Faris Al-Khoury {Syria) Vice-Chairman Dr Ales Bebler ( Yugoslavia) Rapporteur Mr Thanassis Aghnides {Greece) New Zealand Representatives Mr J. V. Wilson Mr C. G. R. McKay Mr C. K. Webster Date of the Regular Annual Session of the General Assembly A compromise proposal to amend Rule 1 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure was adopted to the effect that the General Assembly shall meet every year in regular session commencing on the third Tuesday in September. Simultaneous Interpretation System In general, agreement was reached that, during general debate, simultaneous interpretation permits a great economy of time, but when the deliberations enter the phase of drafting and precise decisions the successive interpretation method is preferable. It was therefore decided that the present system of telephonic simultaneous interpretation should be continued in certain committee and sub-committee rooms, and that the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions should also consider the advisability from a budgetary point of view of installing a wireless system of simultaneous interpretation in preference to the present equipment.