C—3a

B. ORGANIZATION OF CONFERENCE Preparatory Work (1) Owing to the exploratory nature of the Conference, its short-term review of the future, and the urgency with which it was convened, any basic studies by delegates of economic and technical trends in the industry were dispensed with. Delegates were requested to bring as much information as possible about present and prospective pulp capacity and needs of .their own countries as well as of their principal customers and suppliers. The New Zealand delegation had as a guide to future requirements the records of almost twenty years of importations, together with Mr. S. J. Robinson's intimate knowledge of both the New Zealand and Australian trade. Administration (2) The organization and administrative arrangements at the Conference itself were of a high order. The Secretariat for the Conference was provided from the staff of the Forestry Division of FAQ. It worked with extraordinary efficiency and at extremely high pressure. The facility with which it produced the result of day-to-day deliberations in the form of numerous statements, statistical returns, and draft reports for consideration by the Conference reflects great credit on the entire staff from the Secretary-General downwards. Accommodation (3) By accommodating most delegates in the Windsor Hotel itself, the work of the Conference was much simplified. A list of members of each delegation, together with a,n official directory giving the address and telephone number of each delegate, proved invaluable in maintaining contact between delegates. Steering Committee (4) A Steering Committee composed ostensibly of the heads of delegations was too unwieldy to function normally. It met on the opening day of the Conference to adapt a standard set of rules of procedure used by FAO for such conferences to the requirements of the Montreal gathering, but its principal activity was to check and modify for adoption by the Conference in its closing plenary session the final draft report prepared by the Secretariat. Except for the small amount of work by two technical committees on the pulping of tropical hardwoods and of straw, the whole work of the Conference was carried out by a very full attendance of delegates, either in plenary sessions or in committee as a whole. All draft reports, however, were produced by the Secretariat as a basis for discussion and modification in accordance with the debated desires of delegates. Individual delegates with specialized experience and knowledge were placed in charge of various sections of the statistical work of the Conference, but final checking of basic data and the preparation of tables was also undertaken by the Secretariat. Composition (5) Many delegates were disappointed at the paucity of trade representation. Of the major pulp-producing countries, Canada was the only one with adequate representation, though for their size some of the minor countries, including New Zealand, had ample representation.

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