23

The scale of contributions of member States had to be reconsidered in view of the increased membership of UNESCO. New Zealand's contribution, which, under the 1947 scale amounted to 0-61 per cent., is, for 1948, 058 per cent. The biggest single contribution, 41-88 per cent., is made by the United States of America. New Zealand, together with the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, India, and Egypt, will make her contributions in sterling. The Paris Conference established a " Revolving Fund" of $3 million, which was, in effect, an interest-free loan by member States to enable the Organization to meet its commitments early in the financial year before any States had been able to make their regular contributions. Only $1 million of this was called for in 1947. The Mexico Conference decided to ask for another $1 million during 1948, payments being in the same ratio as contributions to the 1948 Budget. B. External Relations Regional Offices A full discussion took place on the advisability of establishing regional offices of UNESCO. The possibility of some measure of decentralization had been considered since the days of the Preparatory Commission; and the first meeting of the Co-ordination Committee of the United Nations and the specialized agencies had ■ discussed, in February, 1947, the setting-up of combined United Nations Regional Centres. It had been decided that such a development would be premature. The discussion in Mexico City centred round the offer of Cuba to provide a building and $lO,OOO annually towards the cost of a regional office in Havana to serve as a UNESCO focal point for Latin America. The New Zealand delegate combined with others to oppose recommendations to the General Conference for the setting-up of regional centres at this stage, on the grounds that it was necessary to be assured that the headquarters in Paris was adequately staffed and efficiently administered before dissipating money and staff in local regions. It was also argued that it would be a mistake to set up regional offices before being completely assured that there was sufficient real work for them to do in addition to the work which might be better done by National Commissions. She voted for the resolutions finally adopted by the Commission, which made provision for further consideration of the whole question by the Executive Board, and omitted any reference to Cuba. The Cuban delegate reopened at the plenary session the question of establishing a regional office in