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1946 NEW ZEALAND

UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND REHABILITATION ADMINISTRATION REPORT BY THE NEW ZEALAND DELEGATION TO THE FIFTH SESSION OF THE COUNCIL, GENEVA, 5th TO 16th AUGUST, 1946

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Leave

The fifth session of the UNRRA Council was field in the former League of Nations building, Geneva, from sth to 16th August, 1946. Contrary to a general impression before and in the early part of the meeting, this is not the final session. An impressive case was made on behalf of liberated countries for a further review of the facts before the organization is liquidated ; regard is paid to the fact that the United Nations (to meet in New York on 23rd October) and other international bodies will deal in part with vital matters hitherto the responsibility of UNRRA ; and it has been decided that a further session of UNRRA will be held " not later than the end of November, 1946, unless the Central Committee for substantial reasons decides that a later date would be more appropriate." This, therefore, is not the final UNRRA report, though it is to be said at once that no further contributions beyond the two already made are asked for or expected. Forty-eight countries, named in the report on the fourth session, were listed as members. Thirty-nine of these took part in the Geneva session. Absentees were Bolivia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Iran, Irak, Liberia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru. Observers were present from five non-member ex-enemy countries: Albania, Austria, Finland, Hungary, and Italy. " Special visitors " attended from Argentine, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Vatican. Substantially the same organizations were represented on this occasion as previously. The undersigned attended for New Zealand. We were fortunate in having the help, as at the third session, of Mr. H. T. Silcock, representative of the New Zealand Council of Organizations for Relief Services Overseas (CORSO) ; and fortunate, too, in having Miss Bowden as Secretary to the delegation. It may perhaps be proper to make a general remark about the spirit of UNRRA's fifth session, for it is, we think, well, and certainly it is true, to say that the Conference, while marked by sharp enough differences of opinion, was wholly cordial and co-operative throughout; it augured well, as was often remarked, for international collaboration when emphasis is put on the substance of common problems, leaving issues of procedure and prestige in their due perspective. Many of the UNRRA delegates came to Geneva after one week at the Paris Peace Conference, then in its preliminary stages. Its problems were, of course, far more complex and difficult than those to be dealt with at UNRRA. Yet, with every allowance for this, the change from the one conference of twenty-one to this larger meeting, which included all of the twenty-one, was a most refreshing one. And probably few, if any, of the delegates had met or worked elsewhere under conditions as wholly admirable as were provided in Geneva with its former League and ILO buildings, now the property of the United Nations. Altogether the suitability of Geneva seemed to create or intensify the hope on the part of many that future meetings of United Nations, on, at any rate, some level, will use this place.