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financial grounds, and New Zealand was one of the minority which voted against it. The Assembly decided to include in the 1948 estimates the sum of $1,047,875 to meet the additional cost of a European session. 4. Permanent Headquarters of the United Nations The cost of constructing permanent headquarters was reported to be $65,000,000. The Assembly decided to accept a United States offer to lend this sum to the United Nations free of interest. The loan would be for a term of not less than thirty years, and would be repayable in annual instalments from the ordinary budget, beginning in 1951. It was hoped that construction would be sufficiently advanced to enable the buildings to be used for the fourth regular session in 1949. 5. Taxation Equalisation The Secretary-General advised that only fourteen States had complied with the request made by the Assembly at its previous session that States should exempt salaries and allowances paid by the Organization from taxation. The sum of $500,000 was therefore included in the 1948 estimates for the reimbursement to staff of national taxation. Most of this sum would be paid to United States nationals, and there was criticism of the United States' failure to grant immunity to American employees of the Organization. However, a proposal providing that member States' contributions should be increased by the sums required to reimburse their nationals was dropped in favour of an alternative proposal calling for the submission to the next session of a staff contributions plan. 6. International Meetings Concern was expressed at the large number of United Nations meetings set down for the near future, many members feeling that the proposed programme would place an undue strain on their resources both of hard currency and of trained personnel. It was at first proposed to limit the programme of meetings by refusing to recommend the necessary appropriations for particular conferences, but it was eventually decided to set total figures for meetings within which the various Councils could themselves fix priorities. The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions was asked to consult with the Interim Committee on Programmes of Meetings of the Economic and Social Council and report to the next session of the Assembly on the problem of programme planning and priorities.