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connected with questions of economic development. The Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East met for the first time in Shanghai in June, 1947. New Zealand's application for membership of ECAFE was considered at the second session of the Commission, held at Baguio (Philippine Republic) in November-December, 1947, and recommended unanimously. This recommendation came before the sixth session of the Council and was approved by seventeen votes to none, with New Zealand, as an interested party, abstaining. The Commission at its second session, at which New Zealand was represented in an observer role on the invitation of the Commission, established a Working Party on Industrial Development and a Working Group within the Secretariat to study trade promotion in the region. It discussed the problem of technical training, the provision of expert assistance, and a proposal for a Bureau of Flood Control. It recommended that FAO should convene a technical regional conference on timber production and also make a detailed study of food resources in the region. Plans were laid for the Secretariat to undertake statistical and economic documentation. Questions of organization and procedure loomed large in the Commission's discussions. Decisions were taken to establish and develop relations with the specialized agencies, with other organs of the United Nations, with the Allied Control Authorities in Japan and Korea, and with the Office of the Special Commission (now Commissioner-General) for South-east Asia. The admission of associate members gave rise to lengthy arguments. The terms of reference of the Commission, settled by the Economic and Social Council, provide that applications for associate membership, which carries full rights of participation other than the right to vote in plenary session, must be forwarded by the metropolitan power concerned, unless the territory in question has become responsible for its own international relations. The applications of Burma, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Malayan Union, Cambodia, and Laos were approved. (As a member of the United Nations, Burma is now a full member of the Commission.) No final decision was, however, reached on the two applications in respect of Indonesia presented separately by the Netherlands (for the whole of the Netherlands Indies) and by the Republic of Indonesia independently, nor with respect to Vietnam. (e) Freedom of Information Conference In December, 1946, the General Assembly of United Nations instructed the Economic and Social Council to convene a conference "to formulate its views concerning the rights, obligations, and practices which should be included in the concept of freedom of