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in the corridors that if we left final decisions to the 1975 commission, the present impetus of reform would be dissipated and there a danger of finding ourselves with both ad hoc committees and some continuing sub
As I say, it looked at one stage as if
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As a
committees. we could get away with this ideal recommendation. Unfortunately we ran up against the rock of Pakimistani intransigence. The Pakistani representative had all the time been acting on clear instructions to preserve
He the sub committee structure as long as he could. undertook a big lobbying exercise at the drafting stage and by dint of persuading otherwise silent members to indicate their support of his stand, he increased his group from 3 (himself, Sri Lanka and the Indians) to 6 or 7 (including Nepal, Iran and possibly USSR). result the committee had to accept a compromise recommendation XII which has the effect of leaving it to the present standing committees to decide on the usefulness of their own sub committees. This is not too bad a situation. The principle of the replacement of sub committees by ad hoc committees is preserved and there are fairly strict criteria to ensure that sub committees can only survive by unanimous agreement within the committee. Even so, howevor, it does keep a loophole open and it does mean that final decisions cannot be taken until the 1975 session.
At least
4. But as I say, the result is not too bad. we have achieved specific recommendations for the Colombo meeting which would cut down the total number of ECAFE meetings from 51 to 22 and their duration from 380 to 150 days.
impusing
5. I mentioned above Sri Lanka's proposal for a shipping and invisibles committee. I feel that we have not heard the last of this. It will come up with all the mopo weight at Colombo because Sri Lanka is the host, but at least there is a good chance that the "ad hoc" conference device will help us to deflect the request if not dispose of it entirely:
6. The wording of the 2 paragraphs dealing with this proposal reflects a final attack by Sri Lanka and India which successfully (for them) stren thened the arguments for the committee and achieved a final impression of . greater support than had been shown in the debate itself.
7. This leads me on to a general comment on the performance of delegations. To me the most noticeable thing was a polarisation between the ASEAN group and the
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