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Regional Representation in Latin America Provision was made in the 1950 budget for a Latin-American Regional Office, and the Director-General proposed the use of existing arrangements for providing services required for that region. The Commission noted, however, that the selection of Rome as a permanent site of FAO headquarters will produce a change in the relative position of the headquarters and the region, and authorized the Director, in agreement with representatives of the Latin-American member Governments, to decide on the site and select the regional representative. Adoption of Spanish as a Working Language In view of the number of Spanish-speaking countries represented in FAO (19) there was a general agreement that in principle the introduction of Spanish should be approved ; however, the adding of another official language involves extra expense, and it was made clear in discussion that, whilst the Commission recommended the adoption of Spanish, it should be introduced in easy stages and as the finances of FAO would permit. Scale of Contributions The report of the special Committee appointed at the fourth session of the Conference was considered, and although all delegates were unanimous in commending the work of the Committee, there was not complete agreement with the proposed new scale ; however it was evident that a majority were in favour of accepting the scale proposed with a further instruction to the special Committee to study other changes which might advantageously be made. In this connection it is proposed to take advantage of the facilities of the Scale of Contributions Committee of the United Nations. Finally, the Commission voted to accept the scale of contributions as set out in the report of the special Committee, with the proviso that after the financial year of 1950 the adjustment known as Step 7 in the report shall be omitted in computing the scale. The result of this is that countries who were revised downward in the new scale will, under this proposal, have a further reduction after 1950. In the case of New Zealand, our contribution under the old scale was $43,000 per annum —for 1950 this will be $39,000, and thereafter, assuming that no additional alterations are made as a result of the next Conference, our contribution will be $35,000. Staff Assessment Plan The Commission considered the question of a Staff Assessment Plan as a means of assessing staff of the Food and Agriculture Organization in an amount comparable to national income-taxes. This is designed to ensure that there is not constituted a tax privileged group of