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and displaced persons receiving care and maintenance to engage in useful activities. The Preparatory Commission has also given legal and administrative help to some hundreds of thousands of other refugees and displaced persons who have found it possible to exist without material help from the Organization. Semi-judicial procedure has been established for determining the eligibility of refugees and displaced persons to receive care and maintenance and other assistance. Financial considerations have made it inevitable for the Preparatory Commission to impose strict limits on fresh admissions to care and maintenance. There has also been some discussion on the question of setting a date-line so that no persons leaving their countries of residence after that date would be eligible for assistance from the Organization. The great bulk of the refugees and displaced persons are in the zones of occupation in Germany and Austria and in Italy. The Preparatory Commission operates in these territories under agreements with the respective Occupation Authorities and Governments. It utilizes to the maximum extent possible the facilities of the voluntary agencies. The Preparatory Commission has pressed ahead with repatriation and resettlement. It has been estimated that, by the end of June, 1948, some two hundred thousand persons will have been repatriated or resettled. Accepting the policy that no refugee or displaced person who has good reason for not returning to his country of origin should be forced to return, it is clear that the refugee problem can be settled in the main only by resettlement in other lands. There have been discussions in the Preparatory Commission of proposals for fixing a quota or fair share for all countries in which refugees might resettle, but no final decision has been taken. The Preparatory Commission has taken all necessary steps to assist Governments who have agreed to accept refugees or displaced persons in the selection of persons for resettlement. New Zealand has regularly been represented at the meetings of the Preparatory Commission and has contributed, according to the budget approved by the General Assembly of United Nations, to the administrative and operational budgets of the Preparatory Commission. In accordance with a request of the Preparatory Commission, New Zealand has already paid in advance its contribution for the financial year 1 July, 1948, to 30 June, 1949, to assist in building up funds for the provision of shipping for the resettlement of refugees and displaced persons.