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The second session of the Permanent Migration Committee (Geneva, February-March, 1947) dealt with many important aspects of the problem of migration, including the revision of the 1939 convention and recommendations and the text of a model bilateral agreement on migration. It also dealt with the question of international responsibility in the field of migration and the co-ordination of the work of the ILO and the United Nations in this connection. During the year Mr. P. M. Butler attended several meetings of the governing body of the ILO as a deputy workers' member. Since the end of the war the constitution of the ILO has been completely revised. In part this was due to the dissolution of the League of Nations, whose original members were also members of the ILO. More fundamentally, revisions sprang from a desire to enable the Organization to deal more effectively with problems in its field of activity. The new constitution and a convention making consequential amendments in conventions previously adopted were ratified by New Zealand on 8 July, 1947. The Department has continued to act as the channel of communication with the ILO and, as necessary, has conferred with the Department of Labour on questions arising out of New Zealand's membership of the Organization. 3. International Civil Aviation The international aspects of civil aviation continued to occupy, throughout the period under review, a position of importance in the activities of the Department. The incidence of a large number of political, economic, legal, technical, and administrative problems attendant upon the rapid development of civil aviation in recent years, and their methodical and successful resolution by organizations of an international character, have necessitated careful and continuous study in the Department, and a considerable measure of co-operation and consultation with other Departments concerned. Although with the expansion of the Civil Aviation Branch of Air Department and the gradual extension of the functions of that Branch, certain duties connected with international civil aviation formerly carried out by the Department of External Affairs have properly been transferred to the Civil Aviation Branch, it still remains essential, in view of the considerable impact of international civil aviation on the political and economic life of New Zealand, for the External Affairs Department to maintain an active interest in this field and to keep a close watch on present day trends and developments. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) formally came into existence in April, 1947, and the first Assembly of the Organization was held in Montreal during May of that year. The