A.—5A.

The Council then met in public. The President, after declaring the session open, paid tribute to the memory of Emile Vandervelde, the eminent Belgian statesman, who had recently died. On behalf of the Council the President asked the representative of Belgium to accept the condolences of the Council of the League. M. Spaak, the Belgian Prime Minister, made a short reply of appreciation. Consideration was then given to the following items :—- Health Committee : Report on the work of its Twenty-Ninth Session. My report to the Council is Document C. 511, 1938, 111, and it refers briefly to the more important aspects of health to which the Health Committee gave consideration during the course of its twentyninth session. When introducing my report I felt that a few words stressing the work done in China would not be out of place, and 1 drew special attention to the quick response of an appeal by the Chinese authorities for six million doses of cholera vaccine, a response which provided in four weeks more than eight million doses, free of charge, from thirteen different countries I expressed a ° P * !Lo h Tr T ntereStS ° fa 1 Valuable help 0f this kin(l would continue (see also Document vi Oo(i) IVI.. 1 JoGj lilj. Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs. The representative of Greece submitted to the Council his report (Document C 31 1939 XL regarding the Conference for the adoption of a Protocol to extend to dihydrocodeine and'its salts certain provisions of the Convention for limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs of 13th July, 1931. The report treats of the history of the question. A draft Protocol has already been drawn up and submitted to Governments, and the time is ripe for it to assume final form m the light of the criticisms to which it has been subjected. To accomplish this a modified procedure and under resolution of the Council, based on the recommendation of the representative of Greece, a conference is to be convened for 2nd October, 1939, to which the parties to the 1931 convention will be invited to send representatives. New Zealand, being a party to the 1931 convention will be invited to send a delegate. ' Nutrition. This question concerns the next annual meeting of representatives of National Nutrition Committees, the first of which took place in October, 1938. The Rapporteur, the representative of >elgium suggested that the autumn was the most suitable time, and he promised to submit at the May session of the Council a list of the National Nutrition Committees who should be invited to send representatives (see Document C. 7, 1939, IT, A). Financial Committee. thp £ omm ? ee ',X 0f t i le P e ™ lanent organs of the League, held a session between the 3th and 14th December, 1938, and produced a report (Document C. 502 M 343 1938 IT A 1 In accordance with procedure, this report is addressed to the Council, and it was presented' to'that body under cover of a communication from the Council's Rapporteur on Financial Questions the representative of Sweden (Document C. 25, 1939, 11, A). Fo, 2 „oount of the tSS Ee Financial Committee I refer you to these documents. The Council passed the following resolution •_ " The Council— (1) Takes note of the report of the Financial Committee on the work of its sixt-v seventh session ; (2) Authorizes the Chairman of the Financial Committee, within the limits of the budgetary provision available, to invite qualified persons to discuss the question of monetary of'that'OoStei? Whl ° h WaS raiS6d b ' V the Nineteenth Assemb ly, with members Fiscal Committee. ,v, , rhlS Co " lmit tee, which for some years past has been studying certain problems in connection with taxation, met m October last and produced a re23ort (Document C. 384 M. 229 1938 II i f submitted to tie Council under cover of a report by the representative of Sweden (Document C T 1939 11, A). For details of the work done by the Fiscal Committee I refer you to its report Of this the Council took note and at the same time requested the Secretary-General to communicate to Governments the replies received to a questionnaire concerning methods of assessments and measures to prevent fiscal evasion. Situation m Spain.-Withdrawal of Non-Spanish Combatants : Report by the Committee of Three. The genesis of this question is dealt with in my report on the 1938 Assembly. Here I will merely remind you that at one of the meetings of the Assembly the representative of Spain informed that bodv that his Government had decided to withdraw from its forces all non-Spanish combatants and he asked the assistance of the League in verifying on the spot the measures taken by his Government to that end. The Assembly accepted the responsibility, and the Council, to which the matter was then referred, appointed a Committee of Three of its members—the representatives of the United Kingdom

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