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During the period under review the UNESCO fellowships scheme came into operation. This scheme is part of a project to meet study needs in education, science, and culture by the exchange of persons. The New Zealand Government have offered five fellowships for study in this country during 1949—tw0 to China, and one each to the Philippines, Malaya or Singapore, and Burma. Candidates from the Philippines, Malaya, and Burma have been selected and will study social services, infant welfare, vocational guidance, and State housing during a six months' stay in New Zealand. On 26 November, 1948, the Third General Conference of UNESCO appointed H. E. Mr Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, to succeed Dr Julian Huxley as Director-General, for a term of six years. Shortly after taking up his new duties, Mr Bodet suggested that a concentration of effort on a limited number of urgent projects would enable UNESCO to achieve tangible results more quickly. Acting on this suggestion, the Executive Board have fixed an order of priority in the carrying-out of the organization's programme during 1949. The object of adopting priorities is to bring out the relative importance or urgency of different projects so that UNESCO's energies may be directed to the fulfilment of tasks most suited to the needs of the moment. Priority has been given to projects in the fields of reconstruction, education, social sciences, natural sciences, exchange of persons, and to the whole programme of the Department of Mass Communication ; particular attention will be given to the promotion of international understanding and better social conditions through the media of press, radio, and film. An extraordinary session of the General Conference was convened in Paris on 15 September, 1948, to determine the date and place of the third session of the conference. New Zealand was represented by Dr W. B. Sutch, the Secretary-General of the New Zealand Permanent Delegation to the United Nations. The third session of the General Conference of UNESCO was held at Beirut, Lebanon, from 17 November to 11 December. During the opening session the leader of the New Zealand Delegation, Mr R. G. Ridling, stressed the need for an economical budget and for more realism in programme activities. The New Zealand delegation was represented on many of the committees, commissions, and sub-commissions of the conference, and its report has been published as External Affairs Publication No. 78. The delegation was convinced that, although many weaknesses still remained in the programme and in the administration of UNESCO, the organization had, nevertheless, already done much constructive work. New Zealand's share of the 1949 UNESCO budget has been assessed at o*6o per cent., on which basis this country's contribution amounts, to $45,836. In addition, the sum of $1,299 is due from